Retrieving Luggage from a Burning Plane

I used this illustration in yesterday’s sermon.  It comes from the story of the Emirates Airline plane crash in Dubai on August 3 of this year.  The plane crashed while trying to land, catching fire and burning off its roof.  Tragically, one firefighter died, although, in His mercy, God spared all 300 passengers and crew.  Here’s the link to the story, including a video that was taken on board the plane while people were trying to escape:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36963112

The most shocking and scary thing in this video is people halting their escape, in order to retrieve luggage from overhead compartments.  Not only that, in their delay they are hindering the escape of other people!  My passage yesterday was Matthew 24:15-35, where Jesus speaks of the coming destruction of Jerusalem (in 70 AD), as well as the tribulation that is still in our future.  In that passage, He tells people to focus on what is most important.  At the moment of danger, instead of going back into your house to get material things, RUN.  Save your life.  The message and application for us is clear: value your life and your soul over the things of this world.  Don’t remain in the burning plane to get things that don’t matter!

The plane analogy can be taken a bit further, as well, to demonstrate our evangelistic mandate.  On a plane, if you sit on the exit row, you are taking responsibility for saving the lives of those around you.  You know the way out, and by sitting there you are committing to point people to that way.  As Christians, we are sitting on the exit row!  We know the only Way out of judgment (John 14:6) – through the mercy found in Christ’s cross.  Value your soul above anything in this world, as well as the souls of others around you.  Help them to find Jesus, Who is the only Way out of the fire of judgment.

This illustration could be used for any passage that deals with materialism, setting our minds on things above (Colossians 3), or evangelism.

 

Tags: Matthew 24, Matthew 28, John 14, 2 Corinthians 5, Colossians 3, Jude 22-23, Evangelism, Priorities, Materialism

Top 5 Deathbed Regrets

My wife sent me this article today, written by a palliative nurse, who lists the top 5 regrets people have revealed to her on their deathbeds.  She says these are the 5 most common, although it is unclear to me whether she actually tabulated the regrets given to her and came up with this statistical result.  That doesn’t really blunt the power of the article, though.

I think any of the five or perhaps all five could be used as part of any sermon dealing with life and death (Mark 8:36), the brevity of life (James 4:13-17), or having an eternal perspective (Psalm 39).  Below are her five, with other passages that could be used with each one.  I think it would be ok to use just one in a sermon.  You could say something like, “A palliative nurse compiled the 5 most common deathbed regrets, and one of the five dealt with exactly what we’re talking about.  It was ______.”

Here are the five:

1)  I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. [In this case, I’m thinking of it more like: “I wish I had lived a life true to God’s calling, instead of letting peer pressure or the world influence me as much as they did.”  The REAL life lived true to ourselves is the one lived in line with the purpose for which God made us.]

Daniel 3, Acts 5:29

2) I wish I didn’t work so hard.

Matthew 6:19-21, Matthew 6:24-34, Mark 8:36

3) I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

Ephesians 4:15, James 3

4) I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Proverbs 18:24, Acts 20 (Paul’s closeness with the Ephesian believers), 2 Timothy 4:9-18

5) I wish that I had let myself be happier.

John 10:10, Philippians 4

 

By the way, you could also use this whole article as a contrast between the author’s this-worldly understanding of “happiness” (which seems to end when someone achieves “peace” and then dies) and the Bible’s infinitely deeper, eternal joy in the presence of Christ.  That would work with Matthew 25, Revelation 5, Revelation 21, Revelation 22, and plenty of others.   [I write all these references out so that they will show up when people search on particular texts.  I’m still trying to figure out how to make tag searches work like I want them to.]

Chandler: Human History from Heaven’s Perspective

In his book To Live is Christ, to Die is Gain, Matt Chandler makes a great statement about how, once we are in heaven, history will be rewritten for us: “The day will come – perhaps today – when you will die and see all of history being effectively rewritten from the halls of heaven.  The annals of history will not be filled with wars and kings; there will be one story, the heroes will be missionaries, and the victor will be seen clearly as Christ.  Knowing this, who cares if friends or enemies mock you?  Do not be ‘frightened in anything by your opponents’ (Phil. 1:28).  Be willing to get on a plane and go to dangerous places.  Be willing to take the pay cut at work to do what’s right.  Be willing, no matter who your opponent is, to be fearless.”

Chandler is illustrating Philippians 1:27-28 here.  I pictured history being rewound and then replayed for me, and most of the moments that I thought were big didn’t even show up in the footage, and tons of moments that I didn’t even know about loomed large in God’s TRUE version of human history.

 

This thought is helpful for Philippians 1 as Chandler uses it, but also would work with passages about suffering like Matthew 5 (esp.  verses 10-12), Romans 8 (verse 18), 2 Corinthians 11, or 2 Corinthians 12.  Also, it fits with any of the passages about Christian martyrs, like Acts 7 or 12.  You could also use it with missions-oriented passages like Matthew 28 or Acts 1, or passages that speak to the perspective of earthly approval/fame vs. your soul/eternal rewards – like Matthew 16 (verse 26 in particular), Matthew 25 (esp. verse 31 and following), Revelation 20, or Revelation 22.