Every now and then,
it's very seldom that it's ever happened,
but every great once in a while,
just bam! It hits you:
I'm going to die.
It's going to happen very, very quickly.
We're rapidly approaching.
If you're not a Christian here tonight,
the time is going to be there before you know it.
You know how sometimes like as a student
I remember I'd study for a test.
You've got that big test coming up
you know in two months - it's far away,
but you're studying maybe.
And it gets a little closer.
All of a sudden there you are.
The hour has come.
And you know, like I said,
I can only believe it every once in a while.
You know what I'm talking about right here.
Every now and then a little glimpse:
I'm going to die. I'm going to be there.
You're going to be there.
And if you're not right with God
you're in a desperate situation.
And if you are right with God,
what in the world are you so worried about
this thing you're going through right now?
It's temporary. It's just nothing.
It's light compared to this glory that's coming.
Difficulties are temporary.
Trials are temporary.
Setbacks are temporary.
Sufferings are temporary.
Soon,
very soon,
whatever I'm facing right now -
you may be weary.
You may be weary in the battle.
It's going to be over so fast.
Soon shall the cup of glory
wash down earth's bitterest woes.
I don't think we had that verse
in "The Sands of Time."
Soon shall the cup of glory wash down
our bitterest woes.
Soon shall the desert brier
break into Eden's rose.
Soon.
Wash down earth's bitterest woes.
People that are being tortured -
some people are being tortured to death.
The instant they wake up,
it's all washed down.
Everything's forgotten.
Washed away in a moment.
There's a card that we've shared a lot
with people who have lost a loved one.
It's entitled, "Absent From the Body, Present with the Lord."
It goes like this:
"Oh think...
Oh think, to step on shore
and that shore Heaven,
to take hold of a hand,
and that God's hand.
To breathe a new air."
You know, you just breathe it in.
You find it celestial air.
"To feel invigorated
and know it immortality.
Oh think, to pass from a storm and a tempest
into one unbroken calm.
To wake up and find it glory.
Oh think..."
To step on a shore.
All that will happen in a moment.
The tempest of life will be gone
and they'll seem like nothing.
To step on a shore and that shore Heaven.
Well, what's the shore of Heaven going to be like?
Well, it's one unbroken calm.
Celestial air. Feeling invigorated.
I can almost imagine that, you know.
Instantly, you're alive
and you're invigorated.