(sermon notes)
SUNDAY NIGHT FEB 23
THE ENCOUNTER CHURCH - LAS VEGAS, NV
Rev. 1:18 “I was dead, and behold I am alive.” Let me say it again with an add on: “I was dead for 45 plus minutes but now I am alive.”
Let me paint the picture for you. My wife walked in on a husband of 45 years that was not breathing. For all those minutes I was worked on she held out in faith believing. Than two paramedics sat her down and knelled down in front of her and say “We are so sorry there is nothing more we can do.”
Imagine how she must have felt. Her response: “What are you saying, take him to the hospital.”
Their response to her: “No!”
They were saying that I was dead.
Death: the cessation of a heartbeat and breathing.
Physical death is a process. Your heart stops. You stop breathing. Your brain is informed of your death and it performs one last act. It sends out an order for the cell death pathways to inform the organs of your body. The organs respond by beginning to die.
I had a Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Sudden Cardiac Arrest is not a heart attack. In a heart attack the heart doesn’t stop beating it just does not beat normally. Sudden Cardiac Arrest is where the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. The blood flow to your brain ceases. You are clinically dead within minutes. Brain dead takes another few minutes! You can bring a person back from clinical death but you can not bring back the brain after it dies.
As they spoke to her from the other room came the words, “We got something.”
I was rushed to the hospital, on the way I die again.
At the hospital my wife stood before the attending doctor and was asked the question, “How long did they do CPR?”
Her answer: “45 plus minutes.”
The doctor gave her a look of “Why!”
I spent the next 11 days struggling for life. Each day the hospital staff had the expectation that I would not make it.
As for the doctor, he felt if I did make it there would be organ damage.
What was I doing during this time? I could say I went to heaven and saw how beautiful it was. I could say that I met my mom and dad, and my sister who were already there. But I can’t because I believe I didn’t enter heaven.
So where was I? I don’t really know.
What I do know is - I was me. I had my body. I was standing on solid ground in pitch blackness.
Off in the distance I could see a door open. John said in Rev. 4:1 “I looked and behold a door standing open.”
A bean of light shot out. I could see the silhouette of a person standing before me. It was the Lord.
To his right a large white board. On the board were rows of bright golden stars.
I ask the Lord “What they were.”
He said, “These are the souls I have used you to lead to me.”
God sees us as stars. Stars that shine brightly in this dark world. Phil. 2:15 says “Show yourself ….. in the midst of a crooked and wicked world… as a bright star …”
Daniel 12:3 says “Those who have insight … shine brightly like the … stars …”
The Lord was there to contradict Satan. He was letting me know that each star was my spiritual son or daughter. He was telling me that Satan could not destroy them.
As I continue to look at the board I than noticed an envelope in the lower right side of the board. In the envelope were more stars. Some were shinning bright, some were dull, and some were flicker between brightness and dullness.
I looked at the Lord and said, “What are these.”
He said to me “Those are the souls that I want to use you for to lead to me.”
Than I ask a very strange and dumb question “What if I don’t do it?”
He did not get upset but said ever so sweetly “If you don’t I will use someone else and they will receive the rewards that are to be yours.”
What happened after that I have no knowledge!
Rev. 1:18 “I was dead, now I am alive.” God revived me! He is here tonight to revive you! God wants to raise you up to a new life by transforming your attitude.
Ask yourself this question? “Is there a specific thing in my life I need reviving?” Than ask your self “Do I want it revived?”
SUNDAY NIGHT FEB 23
THE ENCOUNTER CHURCH - LAS VEGAS, NV
Rev. 1:18 “I was dead, and behold I am alive.” Let me say it again with an add on: “I was dead for 45 plus minutes but now I am alive.”
Let me paint the picture for you. My wife walked in on a husband of 45 years that was not breathing. For all those minutes I was worked on she held out in faith believing. Than two paramedics sat her down and knelled down in front of her and say “We are so sorry there is nothing more we can do.”
Imagine how she must have felt. Her response: “What are you saying, take him to the hospital.”
Their response to her: “No!”
They were saying that I was dead.
Death: the cessation of a heartbeat and breathing.
Physical death is a process. Your heart stops. You stop breathing. Your brain is informed of your death and it performs one last act. It sends out an order for the cell death pathways to inform the organs of your body. The organs respond by beginning to die.
I had a Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Sudden Cardiac Arrest is not a heart attack. In a heart attack the heart doesn’t stop beating it just does not beat normally. Sudden Cardiac Arrest is where the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. The blood flow to your brain ceases. You are clinically dead within minutes. Brain dead takes another few minutes! You can bring a person back from clinical death but you can not bring back the brain after it dies.
As they spoke to her from the other room came the words, “We got something.”
I was rushed to the hospital, on the way I die again.
At the hospital my wife stood before the attending doctor and was asked the question, “How long did they do CPR?”
Her answer: “45 plus minutes.”
The doctor gave her a look of “Why!”
I spent the next 11 days struggling for life. Each day the hospital staff had the expectation that I would not make it.
As for the doctor, he felt if I did make it there would be organ damage.
What was I doing during this time? I could say I went to heaven and saw how beautiful it was. I could say that I met my mom and dad, and my sister who were already there. But I can’t because I believe I didn’t enter heaven.
So where was I? I don’t really know.
What I do know is - I was me. I had my body. I was standing on solid ground in pitch blackness.
Off in the distance I could see a door open. John said in Rev. 4:1 “I looked and behold a door standing open.”
A bean of light shot out. I could see the silhouette of a person standing before me. It was the Lord.
To his right a large white board. On the board were rows of bright golden stars.
I ask the Lord “What they were.”
He said, “These are the souls I have used you to lead to me.”
God sees us as stars. Stars that shine brightly in this dark world. Phil. 2:15 says “Show yourself ….. in the midst of a crooked and wicked world… as a bright star …”
Daniel 12:3 says “Those who have insight … shine brightly like the … stars …”
The Lord was there to contradict Satan. He was letting me know that each star was my spiritual son or daughter. He was telling me that Satan could not destroy them.
As I continue to look at the board I than noticed an envelope in the lower right side of the board. In the envelope were more stars. Some were shinning bright, some were dull, and some were flicker between brightness and dullness.
I looked at the Lord and said, “What are these.”
He said to me “Those are the souls that I want to use you for to lead to me.”
Than I ask a very strange and dumb question “What if I don’t do it?”
He did not get upset but said ever so sweetly “If you don’t I will use someone else and they will receive the rewards that are to be yours.”
What happened after that I have no knowledge!
Rev. 1:18 “I was dead, now I am alive.” God revived me! He is here tonight to revive you! God wants to raise you up to a new life by transforming your attitude.
Ask yourself this question? “Is there a specific thing in my life I need reviving?” Than ask your self “Do I want it revived?”