Illus: Dr. Odell Belger was preaching a graduation sermon for a Christian School in York, South Carolina. Dr. Wayne Smith is the pastor of this great church. They held the graduation in the gymnasium to hold the large crowd that came out for this special event. When Dr. Belger got about three-fourths of the way through the sermon, Dr. Wayne Smith began to jump around on the platform which seem to be unusual for the circumstances of a graduation program. Then he sat back down like everyone else. After the graduation service was over, Dr. Belger said to Dr. Smith, “You really enjoyed that sermon didn’t you?” (Referring to the little shouting spell he had on the platform) Dr. Smith said, “Yes, I did but I need to explain why I was jumping around on the platform. While you were preaching, a rat ran up my leg and I caught him at my knee, I was not going to let him turn the curve, so I caught him with my hand and I squeezed him to death and I threw him over there.”
Dr. Belger looked over in the corner and sure enough there was a dead rat on the floor.
Illus: One preacher thought it might be good to do something different, so he thought it might be a good idea to think of a word and have the congregation sing a song to match the word.
• The first word he said was "rock." They immediately started singing "Rock of Ages."
• The second word he said was "Blood" and they sang "Power in the Blood."
• The third word was "Cross" and they began singing "The Old Rugged Cross."
• It was getting too easy for the congregation, so he decided to throw them a curve and give them a hard word. The next word he said was “Sex”, everyone gasped and it got very quiet. Then way in the back of the church an 87 year old man stood up and started singing "Precious Memories, how they linger."
All kinds of unusual things happen in church. Paul had a very unusual thing happen to him.
Let’s look at it in Acts 20:7-12, we read, “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.”
After Paul had preached a five hour sermon, this man fell out of a third story window and it killed him. We do not know if he landed on his head or if it broke his neck! We do know that God used Paul to revive him and bring him back to life.
Illus: I guess Paul felt like the young boy that was sitting beside his dad and his dad went to sleep and started snoring. The preacher said to the young boy, “Son, wake your dad up!” The young boy said, “Sir, you put him to sleep, you wake him up.”
I guess since Paul was the reason he fell out of the window and died, he felt compelled to ask the Lord to raise him up.
• I am sure that as long as this man lived, folks talked about him falling out of that window.
• I am sure that the legacy he left after he died was that he was the man that died falling out of a window as Paul preached a five hour sermon, and God raised him back to life again.
When a person dies, the family of the deceased calls for a minister to preach the funeral.
But listen, we preachers do not really preach anyone’s funeral, WE ALL PREACH OUR OWN FUNERAL!
We all leave a legacy behind, EVERY ONE OF US! People know us for the life we have lived.
Illus: A preacher can get up and say nice things that are not true about a person, but in doing so, he loses credibility with the people, because those who know the deceased know what kind of life that person lived.
WHAT KIND OF A FUNERAL ARE YOU PREACHING? Let me suggest four things we should do to leave behind a legacy that the Lord would be pleased with. I will mention TWO in this message and two in the next message.
If we are going to live a life that the Lord is pleased with so we leave a good legacy behind-
I. WE MUST LEARN
There are all kinds of ways to learn. Eutychus, in our text, fell out of a window. I believe he learned from that experience and didn’t make the same mistake again.
Learning is essential in life. Learning is important because no one is born with the ability to function competently as an adult in society.
A child is born with the instinct to learn. This is why at an early age they begin to ask question after question, THEY WANT TO LEARN.
Adults also are constantly learning in this life:
• This is why many come to Sunday School every week. They want to learn more about God’s Word.
• This is why many go to college. They want to learn how they can be their best in this life.
• This is why many read books each day.
• This is why many read newspapers each day.
• This is why many watch the news each day.
Learning is a part of life.
One of the things that teaches us the most in life is OUR MISTAKES! For example, if a man touches a hot stove he immediately learns that this is something he should not do.
We have some people in this life that do things just as ridiculous, and they keep doing the same things over and over again. THEY CAN NOT LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES!
There are so many in the O.T. and N.T. that left legacys showing they could not learn from their mistakes.
King Saul should have had written on his tombstone, “I played the part of a fool!” because that is exactly what he did.
There were three foolish things he did.
(1) HE DISREGARDED THE TEACHINGS OF GOD’S WORD (1 Samuel 13:13)
When the Philistines were about to attack, he took it upon himself to offer up sacrifices. This is something that only the priest could do, but he chose to ignore God’s teaching and paid a price for doing so.
(2) HE LOST HIS RESPECT FOR AHIMELECH AND HAD HIM KILLED (1 Samuel 22)
Ahimelech was a man of God and very loyal to Saul. He was so eaten up with jealousy that he did not even know who his real friends were. When Ahimelech was trying to help David as he was fled from Saul, he thought he was doing Saul a favor.
(3) HE TURNED TO THE “WITCH OF ENDOR” FOR ADVICE (1 Samuel 28)
This man seemed incapable of learning. He kept doing things to bring misery to his life. But Saul is not the only one that could never learn from his mistakes.
We can not be an effective Christian if we keep making the same mistakes over and over again. If we are going to leave a good legacy, we have to learn what is THE RIGHT THING and what is the WRONG THING to do.
Illus: In Cherokee, North Carolina, they have a duck and a chicken in a cage. That duck and chicken have learned how to play the drum and piano.
• If you put a quarter in the slot, the duck runs over and pecks on the drum knowing that food will come sliding into his cage
• If you drop a quarter in the slot, the chicken knows if he goes over there and pecks on the piano keys that food will come sliding into his trough
This type of learning is called “conditioned reflex”. That is, a certain condition will cause a certain kind of reflex. But listen, we all know people that do not have the sense that duck and that chicken have. They keep making the same mistakes, never realizing certain mistakes will cause certain conditions.
Illus: They tell us that Thomas Edison is supposed to have been a genius, but I am not really convinced he was. Did you know it took him six thousand tries before he could make a light bulb work. Now if he had done that a dozen times and made it work I would concur he was a genius, but six thousand times, I am not sure.
But he was a very determined fellow.
On one occasion, a young journalist challenged Edison saying to him, "Mr. Edison, why do you keep trying to make light by using electricity when you have failed so many times? Don't you know that gas lights are with us to stay?"
To this Edison replied, "Young man, don't you realize that I have not failed but have successfully discovered six thousand ways that won't work!"
On October 21, 1879, after thirteen months of repeated failures, Edison finally succeeded in finding a filament that would work. While experimenting, the thought came to him, "Why not try a carbonized cotton fiber?"
After going through two spools of cotton, he eventually perfected a strand only to break it while trying to place it in a glass tube. He refused to give up and persevered with this idea for two more days and nights without sleep. Finally he succeeded in placing a carbonized thread into a vacuum-sealed bulb! Eureka! It worked.
But there are those who have done the same wrong thing thousands of times and they have not come close to realizing they were DOING THE WRONG THING! THEY SEEM TO BE INCAPABLE OF LEARNING!
One of the best ways to learn is to learn from our mistakes. Eutychus made the dreadful mistake of falling out of that church window. We can only hope he was smart enough to learn from that experience and not repeat that mistake again, especially if Paul was going to preach a five hour sermon. If he did make that mistake again, he left behind a legacy that he could not learn from his mistakes.
When the preacher preaches your funeral, will it be said that you LEARNED from your mistakes?
If we are going to be able to achieve our full potential, WE MUST LEARN and -
II. WE MUST LEAN
We must all LEARN TO LEAN on the Lord Jesus. Every one of us is LEANING on something, but God wants to teach us to LEARN TO LEAN ON JESUS.
I know folks whose lives reveal that they are leaning ON THEMSELVES, not on the LORD JESUS!
We must learn to lean on the everlasting arms of the Lord Jesus. Those who trust in their own power and wealth are going to be disappointed one day.
Illus: The Roman emperor Charlemagne has an interesting story surrounding his burial. He requested THREE things:
• He asked to be entombed sitting upright on his throne
• He asked that his crown be placed on his head and his scepter in his hand
• He requested that the royal cape be draped around his shoulders and an open book be placed in his lap. That was A.D. 814.
Nearly two hundred years later, Emperor Othello determined to see if the burial request had been carried out. He allegedly sent a team of men to open the tomb and make a report. They found the body just as Charlemagne had requested. Only now, nearly two centuries later, the scene was gruesome.
• The crown was tilted, the mantle moth-eaten, the body disfigured.
• But open, on the skeletal thighs, was the book Charlemagne had requested – the Bible. One bony finger pointed to Matthew 16:26: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?…”
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations (Rockville, MD: Assurance Publishers, 1979)
There are those who will go to their grave depending on things that will only perish. There are those today going through life, satisfied with what the world has to offer.
When the preacher preaches their funeral, he can only say that here is a person who trusted in the wrong things in life. They might have been smart in many areas of their life, but when it comes down to what is really important, they lived their life like a fool!
Illus: There was a king who had all this world could afford. The thing he loved most, however, was to laugh.
Once, while being entertained, a jester came along wishing to join in the festival of activities and also wishing to perform for him. His opportunity came and he put the best comical show together he had ever done and the king never laughed so hard.
Once the activity was all over, the king wanted to hire this jester to be his personal jester. Once hired, the king in humor handed him a small stick and said, "You are the most foolish man alive. When you find someone more foolish than you, then you give them this stick," and the king laughed heartily.
After many years had passed by, the king lay sick on his deathbed, ready to go at any moment. He called for his jester, for he wanted to laugh one more time before he died.
When the jester was through he asked to speak to the king personally.
Once alone with the king, the jester asked, "King where are you going?"
• The king responded, "On a far journey."
• The jester asked, “And how do you plan to get there?"
• The king responded, "I don’t know."
Then the jester pulled the stick from his back pocket and handed it to the king.
The king was stunned and asked why he had given him the stick. The jester replied, "King, today I have found a more foolish man than I. For you see, I only trifled with the things of life, but you have trifled with things of eternity!"
Conclusion:
HOW WILL YOU BE REMEMBERED?
• In the New Testament Peter is remembered for walking on water
• Paul is remembered for his love of souls and the preaching of the gospel
• Moses is remembered for his leadership and dedication of leading God’s people out of bondage
• Stephen is remembered for the stoning he took as he preached the gospel
Throughout the ages of time, great men and women have made their mark on the society in which they lived.
But the question today is, “How will you be remembered?” Will you be remembered as one:
• Who put God first in your time.
• Who put God first in your money, you appreciated God blessing you with a good job, good health and you wanted to make sure He got His tithes and love offerings.
• Who put God first in your conversation. You did not just talk about God on Sundays but you talked about Him seven days a week.
• Who built their life around GOD, not the things of the world.
What legacy will you leave behind?
Build your life on Jesus Christ and you will never be disappointed, and those who know you will be sorry to see you go. Amen.
To live a godly life:
# 1
I. WE MUST LEARN
II. WE MUST LEAN
# 2
III. WE MUST LOOK
IV. WE MUST LIVE
