Last week we really looked at this statement: Our legacy should reveal Jesus in our lives. The action steps for last week: Write your will and Make a mission statement for your life.

This week is the hardest day for people to hear at times because it is a fact of life that we don’t like to face.

In order to have life you have to have death.

It's the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl and a man, and a man makes his way to his seat right to the seats front row 50 yard line. He sits down, noticing that the seat next to him is empty. He leans over and asks his neighbor if someone will be sitting there. "No" says the neighbor. "The seat is empty."

"This is incredible," said the man. "Who in their right mind would have a seat like this for the Super Bowl and not use it?" The neighbor says, "Well, actually, the seat belongs to me. I was supposed to come with my wife, but she passed away. This is the first Super Bowl we haven't been to together since we got married." "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. That's terrible...

But couldn't you find someone else, a friend or relative, or even a neighbor to take the seat?" The man shakes his head. "No,” he says. “They're all at the funeral.

Right now I want to recognize the two audiences here before we dive into these:

---Christians in the room- it is normal to fear death, and this is a reminder and an encouragement of why we don’t have to fear death

---Non-Christians in the room-This is to show you why we don’t fear “I’m not trying to scare you into heaven but show you the comfort that we receive from our Savior Jesus”

What about death do you fear most?

1.Pain

----2 Corinthians 4:16-18 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2. Unknown

3. Leaving others behind

----1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

----1 Thessalonians 4:18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

4. Unaccomplished

----Philippians 1:6-7 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

There may be other reasons for you to fear death but let me give you some solace.

A sick man turned to his doctor as he was preparing to

Leave the examination room and said,

‘Doctor, I am afraid to die.

Tell me what lies on the other side.’

Very quietly, the doctor said, ‘I don’t know…’

‘You don’t know? You’re, a Christian man,

and don’t know what’s on the other side?’

The doctor was holding the handle of the door;

On the other side came a sound of scratching and whining,

And as he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room

And leaped on him with an eager show of gladness.

Turning to the patient, the doctor said,

‘Did you notice my dog?

He’s never been in this room before.

He didn’t know what was inside.

He knew nothing except that his master was here,

And when the door opened, he sprang in without fear.

I know little of what is on the other side of death,

But I do know one thing…

I know my Master is there and that is enough.’

Would you feel like you have really lived if today was your funeral?

In the movie Brave Heart there is a quote "Every man dies not every man really lives."

What does it look like to really live?

How to live?

1. We start with a battle cry

----1 Corinthians 15:54-58 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

2. Abolish Sin

----But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Claim Victory

----Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable,

4. Stay together

----always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

5.We Battle

----Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.