What Will Be Your Legacy? (1 Of 2)

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.