{"id":50692,"date":"2000-04-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2000-04-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/reading-your-obituary\/"},"modified":"2000-04-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2000-04-18T00:00:00","slug":"reading-your-obituary","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/reading-your-obituary\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading Your Obituary"},"content":{"rendered":"

In literature the story is told of a man who opens a newspaper and discovers the date on the newspaper is six months in advance of the time he lives. He begins to read through the newspaper, and he discovers stories about events that have not yet taken place. He turns to the sports page, and there are scores of games not yet played. He turns to the financial page and discovers a report of the rise or fall of different stocks and bonds.<\/p>\n\n

He realizes this can make him a wealthy man. A few large bets on an underdog team he knows will win will make him wealthy. Investments in stocks that are now low but will get high can fatten his portfolio. He is delighted.<\/p>\n\n

He turns the page and comes to the obituary column and sees his picture and story. Everything changes. The knowledge of his death changes his view about his wealth.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3408,3521,3737,4100,4370,4488,4633,4970,5159],"tax_ctp_topics":[378,389,392,396,401,403],"class_list":["post-50692","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-ambition","tax_ctp_tags-brevity-of-life","tax_ctp_tags-death","tax_ctp_tags-greed","tax_ctp_tags-life-death","tax_ctp_tags-money","tax_ctp_tags-perspective","tax_ctp_tags-short-life","tax_ctp_tags-time"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nReading Your Obituary - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/reading-your-obituary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reading Your Obituary - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In literature the story is told of a man who opens a newspaper and discovers the date on the newspaper is six months in advance of the time he lives. 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