Sermon Notes: No, Not Yet

“NO, NOT YET!”

Luke 7:11-17

 INTRODUCTION

One day, we will all die!  It is an inescapable and unavoidable reality of life.  Indeed, while death is inescapable, its impact can still leave us feeling surprised, shocked, and even unprepared.  While death may sometimes catch us off guard, it has not caught God by surprise!  The Psalmist reminds us, “. . . in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me . . . .”  Death can also be more than physical.  Many of us are experiencing what Dr. King called, “spiritual and psychological deaths.”  While Dr. King was speaking of the plight of African-Americans and the vestiges of slavery in this country, his statement still rings true today.  However, death is not the end!

The devil came to steal, kill, and destroy.  African-Americans know all too well this satanic strategy against our faith, families, finances, fellowship, fruitfulness, future, and God’s favor.  Nevertheless, Jesus came to give us life more abundantly!  Today’s sermon is uniquely Lukan and does not appear in the other Gospels.  It is a prequel to the Resurrection and demonstrates how Jesus intercepts premature deaths!  While many of us may be walking through the grieving and bereavement processes, rest assured that there is no death in Christ!  By the end of today’s sermon, you will declare “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Watch Jesus overturn your obituary!

THE W.O.W. FACTOR (WOman OF WOes)                  

1. Society viewed women as property or chattel.
2. Women were under the socioeconomic hierarchy.
3. A woman’s sole purpose was for reproduction.
4. Women had no rights apart from men.                                Numbers 27:1-5

GREAT PAIN IN GREEN PASTURES   11

1. “Nain” means “green pastures” or “lovely.”                        Psalm 23:2
2. Jesus’ first resurrection miracle involves a man!              15 cf. Exodus 1:15-16
3. God wants to resurrect all people, especially men!           John 11:43-44

PREMATURE DEATH INTERCEPTED

1. Jesus remixed Elijah’s miracle!                                            1 Kings 17:17-24
2. Speak life to your dead situations!                                         Proverbs 18:21
3. Don’t try to revive what God wants in a casket!

The RESURRECTIONs RESTORE FAMILIES

1. Jesus turns funeral recessionals into family reunions!     14-15
2. God sees you and your situations!                                         Genesis 16:7-8, 13
3. It is time to rise up!                                                                14; Isaiah 60:1-3

CONCLUSION

While Luke does not provide us details concerning the circumstances of this man’s death, it is easy to connect with the difficulties of the mother’s pain of losing her only child.  The legal justice, poverty, education, mortality, and divorce statistics among African-Americans are depressing!  Nevertheless, thanks be to Jesus for intercepting premature deaths.  Jesus is the only answer for the plight of our communities and world today.  It is time for the African-American community to declare “No, Not Yet” and rise up to be the hands, feet, eyes, ears, and mouth of God to stop premature deaths, save the next generation, overturn obituaries, and erase eulogies in Jesus’s Name!

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