The Last Hug

Enjoy this message from Pastor Tyler Schoenberger called "The Last Hug" on Sunday, November 8, 2026 at Reach Church in Bear, Delaware!

Death is a topic most people avoid, but Ecclesiastes chapter 9 confronts it directly and honestly. The writer observes that no matter who you are, righteous or wicked, honored or forgotten, death comes for everyone. It is the great equalizer. And yet, rather than leaving us in despair, the writer makes a dramatic turn. He calls us to eat with joy, drink with a glad heart, love our spouses, and throw ourselves fully into the work God has given us. The awareness of death is not meant to crush us. It is meant to wake us up to the life we already have.

There is real wisdom in confronting our mortality. When we truly reckon with the fact that our time here is limited, the minor irritations that steal our joy begin to lose their power. The arguments that consume our energy start to feel less important. The people in front of us become more precious. Ecclesiastes is not teaching morbidity. It is teaching perspective. Remembering the end helps us live better in the middle.

But Ecclesiastes alone can only take us so far. No matter how well we live, death still comes. That is where the message of Jesus Christ changes everything. The Apostle Paul wrote that for him, to live was Christ and to die was gain. That is only possible because Jesus went to the cross, bore the death every one of us deserved, and rose from the grave on the third day. He defeated death itself. Because He lives, those who place their faith in Him are given a life that death cannot take away. The last hug shared under the sun will not be the last one. Because of Jesus, there is a reunion coming where goodbyes do not exist and time never runs out.