Mashel William Malabaro.
11th September 2003 to 8 June 2017, deeply mourned by Father, Mother, sisters, brother, family and friends.
Isaiah 57:1-2.
The righteous perish,
and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly
enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death.
The Lord knows us intimately.
Psalm 139:13-18.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when
I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
The Lord knows us intimately.
Luke 12:4-9.
I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. I tell you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God.
Who is Jesus?
Many people today refuse to accept that Jesus Christ is God.
They consider him only a good man, a human teacher on the same level as other historic religious leaders.
The Bible, however, is firm in proclaiming Jesus is God.
John 20:31.
"But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
In today's postmodernist society, millions of people reject the idea of absolute truth. They claim all religions are equally true and there are many paths to God. Postmodernists accuse Christians of being intolerant; however, that truth comes from the lips of Jesus himself.
John 14:6.
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Who is Jesus?
Who do Men say that I am?
Matthew 16:13-18.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
And I tell you that you are Peter (PETROS), and on this rock (PETRA) I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Who is Jesus?
“You are Peter” i.e. “You are Petros” – a little stone. “…and on this Petra” - this rock - the rock of your confession – “I will build my church”.
Peter is not the foundation of the church as some teach.
Peter’s confession is the foundation on which Jesus built His church.
Rom 10:9.
If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Upon that confession, Jesus Christ builds His church.
Death.
Death is not a popular topic of conversation and people in general avoid having to deal with it and either embrace the lie that everyone goes to heaven because God is so loving while others come up with another myth called re-incarnation.
God’s Word states clearly..
Hebrews 9:27
It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
It is not good for fallen man to live too long. Genesis 6:1-3. Then the Lord said, My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.
You may think it gives a person more time to repent, but
76% of Christians decided to follow Jesus Christ before the age 16.
85% of Christians decided to follow Jesus Christ before the age 21.
Death.
The older you get the harder your heart gets.
Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them.
None of us can say that we will be alive tomorrow.
James 4:13-16.
Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for ages 10-24.
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for ages 10-24.
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for college-age youth and ages 12-18
More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, COMBINED.
Each day in our nation there are an average of over 5,400 attempts by young people grades 7-12.
Four out of Five teens who attempt suicide have given clear warning signs (The Jason Foundation)
Over one million people die by suicide worldwide each year.
The global suicide rate is 16 per 100,000 population.
On average, one person dies by suicide every 40 seconds somewhere in the world.
1.8% of worldwide deaths are suicides.
Global suicide rates have increased 60% in the past 45 years Stats from suicide.org
Christians should not be afraid of death.
Christians should not be afraid of death.
Hebrews 4:14-15.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death that is, the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
In fact the Christian walk starts with a burial.
Colossians 2:12.
Having been buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
What is needed to get into heaven?
You have to be born again.
John 3:1-5.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do except God is with him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”
What is needed to get into heaven?
Born of water?
Contrary to what some teach, born of water is not a reference to “Water Baptism,” Jesus in this context was answering Nicodemus regarding natural birth from a mother’s womb, where the unborn child is surrounded by water, and when the water breaks the chid is born.
1 Peter 1:23.
Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever.
Why do we have to be “Born Again.
Because man is spiritually dead as a result of disobedience.
Genesis 2:17.
But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.
Ephesians 2:1-5.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world…..God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.
Colossians 2:13.
When you were dead in your sins and uncircumcision of you flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins……
The evidence of being “Born Again”
You will have victory over “Habitual sin”.
The Power of God and the exercise of our self control will enable us to do what Jesus told the woman brought before him, who was taken in the act of adultery ie: “Go and leave your life of sin”
1 John 3:1-10.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the “Children of God” …
when He appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. EVERYONE who has this hope within him purifies himself , just as he is pure…
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him….
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. THIS IS HOW WE KNOW WHO THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE…. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
There are only 2 roads.
We live in a world in which people are told that all roads lead to heaven and that most people are good and that God is the father of all, but the Word of God paints a very different picture.
Matthew 7:13-14.
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that to life, and only a few find it.
There are only 2 roads.
The dying thief on the cross chose the road of grace.
The 4 things he did to get onto the road of grace.
He acknowledged he was a sinner.
He accepted responsibility for his sin.
He acknowledged the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Galatians 2:21.
He confessed with his mouth. John 12:42. Romans 10:9-10.
What is needed to get into heaven?
The world says that good people go to heaven but this is what God says in His Word. Romans3:10-12.
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Luke 18:9-14. To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: God, I thank you that I am not like other people robbers, evildoers, adulterers or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
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