He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.
4 sermons cite this verse
… 34, excuse me, where he says, God is not the God of the dead but of the living. And that's something we all wonder about. What happens after I die? Do I simply cease to exist like Natalie Portman thinks? Or do I actually continue on? Well, the bottom line is everybody is immortal in one sense. I don't care what your beliefs are or what your lack of beliefs are. It doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat or a Socialist or a Communist or a Capitalist or a man or a woman. of that matters. You are going to live on in the next life for sure. Now you say, well, that's good, right? Well, that all depends. Let's say I came to you and said, hey, I've got you a one-way ticket to a place that you've never been to before. And you're excited because you've never traveled before. In fact, you've never even been on an airplane. You can't wait to go. I suggest you ask me where that one-way ticket is to before you get excited. If I reveal to you it's a one-way ticket to outer Siberia and the dead of winter, this is not a good thing. If I reveal to you it's a one-way ticket to the island of Maui, this is a good thing. So it all comes down to where am I going? So when I say you'll live forever, you might think, well, that's good. But if you're not a believer, that's …
… I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Woo! I love that. Next verse. for I am hard pressed, this is the apostle, between the two, having a desire to depart, that's die, and be with Christ, which is far better. And then he went on to say, or hang around with you guys. Next verse. 1 Peter 1, verse 4. Jesus Christ died for us so that we might inheritance an incorruptible, undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. How's that? Wow. You want to talk about retirement and pension plan? Jesus is it. One final one, Acts 4. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And that name is? Father God, we come to you today. God, we pray now in the name of Jesus. While every head's bowed and our eyes are closed and we are sitting still. We don't want to be a disruption. We pray now, Lord God, for the opportunity that's going to make some people very nervous in a moment. People are going to want to leave. …
… I serve the God that will supersede your need. He is not the God of enough. He is the God of more than enough. In fact, put this next one on the screen. This is who God is. He is not the God of bare minimum. He is not the God of just enough to get by. He is not the God of scraps of mercy. Scarcity is the language of earth. Overflow is the language of heaven. I don't serve the God that's like, we're gonna just barely get you enough to get by, and you're just gonna, you know, just have, we're just, here's some scraps of mercy, and we just want you to just hang on by a thread. No, no, no. God doesn't have scraps of mercy. God has fresh, fresh mercy for you here today. He is exceedingly, abundantly, far above anything you could ever imagine in your mind. This is just his nature. It's who he is. He's not trying to give you just a little bare minimum. I'll never forget years ago, I was preaching at this church in Munster, Indiana. Hallelujah. And the pastor's wife got up and she went to pray for all the people. And she said, then anybody in need, come up to the front. It felt like the whole church is in the front. I said, man, I feel like I'm at Zoe. Hallelujah. And the pastor's wife says something. I'll never forget it. She says, I pray that you'd be so blessed that when you walk through the grocery aisles, you can just …
… and how it gets lost. Luke chapter 20, verses 27 through 40. There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers, and the first took a wife and died without children, and the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward, the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife. And Jesus said to them, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God being sons of the resurrection. …