Heartland Events
Sunday August 9
8:30am - 9:35am Worship Service
10:00am - 11:05am Worship Service
6:00pm - 7:30pm Congregational Meeting
Monday August 10
9:00am - 10:00am Grandmas in Prayer
Tuesday August 11
7:00pm - 9:00pm Celebrate Recovery
Wednesday August 12
6:30pm - 8:00pm Men’s Bible Study
7:00pm - 8:30pm Leadership Night
Fellowship Hall
Sunday August 16
Communion Sunday
8:30am - 9:35am Worship Service
10:00am - 11:05am Worship Service
Want to Print the Sermon Notes? Here is the PDF Printable Version:
https://storage.snappages.site/P7SC73/assets/files/20-8-2.pdf
Finish Well
For hundreds of years, courts of law have taken a dying person’s words at face value. Any need for lying and deception is over. What is said on a deathbed is usually believed. Of course, some like President Kennedy, Princess Diana, Malcolm X, and Elvis have no idea they are knocking on death’s door. Others like Bob Hope, Chico Marx, and Lady Astor have faced death with humor. When Joseph died, he wanted to send a clear message to his friends and family.
Three Priorities for Joseph As the End Nears:
He Is Focused on the
“By faith Joseph, when the end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.” —Hebrews 11:22
It is uniquely human to reflect on our own mortality. Joseph is filled with confidence, not in himself, but his God. Although he lived an amazing life with outstanding achievements, on his deathbed he looks to the future.
Numerous Christians with notable lives have expressed their faith in God as the end nears. Christopher Columbus and Presidents Washington, Jackson, McKinley, and Eisenhower all clung to Jesus. Vice President Alben Barkley had just quoted Psalm 84:10 when he collapsed and died. Likewise, Joseph was a celebrity in Egypt, yet he was consumed with passing on his faith.
He Embraced
“By faith Joseph, when the end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.” —Hebrews 11:22
286 years had passed since God’s covenant with Abraham, promising him the land of Canaan. At Joseph’s death, not a single Israelite lived there. 144 years would pass before the Exodus, but Joseph spoke with certainty.
Joseph showed no signs of despair as have many others at death, like Chris Farley, John Belushi, Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson, Jack Daniel, Edgar Allan Poe, and W.C. Fields.
A true Christian should grow sweeter as they age, shining forth the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). This was true of Joseph who entertained no thoughts of vengeance upon his brothers in spite of their evil deeds.
“Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me but God intended it for good…the saving of many lives.” —Genesis 50:19-20
He Identified As An
“By faith Joseph, when the end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.” —Hebrews 11:22
The last words of Joseph expressed faith (Genesis 50:25), as did the last words of Jesus (John 19:30; Luke 23:46). King Saul’s suicide is filled with despair (I Chronicles 10:4) while Samson’s suicide is filled with faith (Judges 16:30).
Joseph knew exactly where he was going. Like David, he would “dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock’s last words were “One has to die to know exactly what happens.” Not true for the Christian, as Philippians 1:21 says, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Do you identify fully with Christ and his people?
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” —Galatians 2:20
Is Norma McCorvey with us or against us? AKA Jane Roe portrays Norma, the original plaintiff in Roe V. Wade, as converting to Christ in 1994, then renouncing her pro-life convictions in a so-called “deathbed confession” before dying in 2017. But Father Frank Pavone, her priest claimed Norma was “emotionally cornered” and that her faith was real.
Pro-life activist Abby Johnson agrees, as she phoned Norma shortly before she died. “I don’t have any problem believing that in the last year of her life that she tried to convince herself that abortion was OK. But I know at the end of her life, she did not believe that.”
What’s the lesson for us? Embrace I Corinthians 15:58! “Therefore, my brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for you know what your labor is not in vain.” Are you committed to finishing well?