Tragedies

I appreciate the quartet singing yesterday and the congregation joining in on the last hand. A very meaningful hymn that reminds me of Billy Graham Crusades. George Beverly Shea would sing that signature hymn, Crusade after Crusade after Crusade. We never tire of that hymn or its meaning. On behalf of the family, I want to thank you for this congregation for your ongoing support. For Evy and others through the years, as we reach out to and include one another, as we go through our various crises and we have or are or will just a matter of time when we all take our turn. So our thanks to you from the Esslinger family and the Hogue family for your many, many kindnesses. Yesterday, last week, last month, last year, and so on. We were a week ago visiting our congregations in Saskatoon and North Battleford. You may not know where Saskatchewan is. That's my home province. Some of you have been to the feast in Regina, Saskatchewan. It's been rumored some years ago. These are the two congregations where a couple served who were killed in the head-on collision on the way to the feast this year. You may have heard that news on the day of the feast. They were killed tragically, suddenly, unexpectedly in a head-on car crash, and they were on their way to the feast. He was one of the song leaders, one of the speakers. He was the pianist, and so it caused consternation at the feast site. These things have happened before, and I may comment on them later. We are grateful for support of this congregation. Yesterday's funeral at the Jackson Cemetery outside of romance was overwhelming. There were an estimate of 200 people there. There was hardly room for cars to park, and many of you were there, and we thank you for that. We appreciate the potluck. We were a little late for that. We weren't sure if Grandpa was coming today or not, and he chose to stay home as other family members did due to the emotional wear and tear of this week. We have a representative number here with you today. We wanted to express our thanks to you in that regard. We enjoyed breaking bread with you. One of the ongoing points of humor I have, any social I've attended. Even a week ago, we went to a potluck in Saskatoon in the morning and in North Battleford in the afternoon. Even in our own congregation in Toronto, and we have potlucks, I complain facetiously that the plates are too small.

I've come to a congregation where the plates are not too small. When it was our turn to go through, I looked at the plates that were on your table, and I thought, surely these are platters. No, these are regular plates. My compliments to you on your regard for proportion.

But there was plenty for those of us who were late to participate to partake of many of the electable goodies that you served. And you do this in tandem with Thanksgiving each year, sometimes before, sometimes after, and this is one of those occasions. I enjoyed to share it with you today. As a child, I remember one of the tasks I used to have to help my mother, which I could not comprehend at that time, but I later could comprehend. Some of you can and will now as well. My mother sewed a lot. She had her Singer Treadle sewing machine that she used to good effect, not the electric kind, the treadle kind that you had to give the wheel a turn and get it going, and you sewed quite effectively. Those are the days when egg beaters were a spoon, and then you had the technology one with a fork, and then finally had the electric ones. But one of the things my mother could not do was to thread, thread her own needle. So she'd give me the needle, and here's the thread, here's the needle, son, please thread the needle for me. And I, oh, that was easy. The hole in the needle was massive to my little beady eyes, and I had the thread. Sometimes you'd have to lick a little bit, and you'd be able to put the thread through the needle. No problem. Mom was wearing glasses by then. Eventually, Dad was wearing glasses as well.

And then his had those little moon, half moons at the bottom of those glasses. And I would put on their glasses from time to time to see if I could see better, or if I could read once I put them on. The magic reading put on the glasses. And of course, the distortion was significant. You can get a headache if you'd wear them too long. Well, I began to wear glasses about age 18 or 19. I'd been wearing them ever since. I have one eye that's nearsighted and one eye that's farsighted. So without my glasses, I see closer than most people do and further than most people do, but not in between. And one of the tests they gave us in Driver's Ed, which was significant, was to look through a wooden tunnel. And on that in that tunnel were two lanes. And in each lane was a little dinky car. And each one was pulled by a string. And you would look in there without any eyewear to pull those cars back and forth with the string until they were even. They were side by each, looking down a long tunnel. It wasn't that long, but it seemed long, which allowed you to assess how good is your depth perception. And when you pull out to pass a vehicle and there's an oncoming car, you have to be able to judge how far away it is so that your perception and perspective is effective.

They said you need glasses. You must wear glasses when you drive. So some of you have on your driver's license, operator must wear glasses when driving vehicle. Correct? And so we put them on and keep them on so we can drive more carefully, more effectively. Some of you are wearing glasses for nearsightedness, farsightedness. Some of you wear glasses for reading. Some of you wear glasses for driving. Some of you have bifocals. Mine are called graduated. These are trifocals so that I have medium range, far, and close. And I have another pair for computer work because otherwise they still don't work for a computer. That had you have to have another pair of glasses. We see through glasses more effectively. We ask ourselves how well could we see if we saw through God's eyes? And I'm looking at tragedies. This Feast of Tabernacles, oddly enough, had more deaths in it than any other feasts that have observed for a long time. At the beginning of the festival, of course, was the couple who died on the way to the feast from Saskatchewan.

During the feast, one of our members died on Canadian Thanksgiving, which was Monday of the feast. She and he and she have been long time members. She had to put them in a home for chronic care. They were keeping their feasts separately for the first time in probably 50 years. She rendered the feast with her sister, also a member. On Monday, he died. And so they had to leave the feast, go back to attend to the details related to that particular death. We got back from the feast on Friday. On Monday, we had a funeral in our congregation. Then, as you know, toward the end of the feast, John Sephoric had his difficulty because of a previous heart condition. We were asked to pray for the success of his surgery. And on the last great day, we had to announce that he didn't make it, that he succumbed to complications from his surgery. And more recently, we've had a death in this congregation. And so how do we view these things through God's eyes?

I can view these different events through my own human eyes, which have limitations. And I have to have corrective eyewear for human vision. But how much better could we see and process what happens, particularly in the realm of tragedy, if we could see through God's eyes? 1 Corinthians 13.

Let's look at that as our first passage here this afternoon.

And our next passage will be Isaiah, so we'll pick up, as it were, on today's sermonette.

1 Corinthians 13. And beginning to read in verse 11 and into verse 12.

1 Corinthians 13.

1 Corinthians 13.

And beginning in verse 11.

1 Corinthians 13.

Verse 11.

I asked someone from this congregation yesterday whose name shall remain anonymous about today's format. And he said there's potluck at 12 and church at 1.30. And I said, well, people will get sleepy if they have their meal first and then services fall. And he said, that's not my problem. That's yours. So I'm eliciting your help to address that.

A challenge we have to rise to the occasion for. 1 Corinthians 13. Verse 11. When I was a child, when I was a child, the best parents are those parents who remember what it was like to be a child. There are adults who, it seems when you ask them, were never children. That they were never infants. They never were little kids. And they look at kids sometimes with disdain as rugrats. Whereas, well, they're nicely raised kids and they're not so nicely raised kids, I understand. But it's important for us to remember what it was like to be a child.

And I have, of course, see a little child here, which is wonderful. Even yesterday at the cemetery at the funeral, there are many little children who were playing quite responsibly and quite quiet during the service. When I was a child, I spoke as a child.

Children are childish. They should be. I understood as a child, meaning there were limitations. And I thought as a child on a limited scale as children think. But when I became an adult, when I became a man, an adult, I put away childish things. Most people do, but not all people do. Some people emotionally are arrested at age 13 or 14 or so, depending on certain traumatic events that have happened to them. And then it goes on to say in verse 12, for now, presently, we see in a mirror dimly. I prefer the King James, where it says we see through a glass darkly. But that's not accurate, because it's describing a mirror as opposed to a window. We see in a mirror dimly, such as when maybe you shower and the exhaust isn't working too well in your bathroom. And you get out of the shower and it's time to do your hair. You can't see! You wipe it down with a with a cloth and it gets cloudy again. And so you contend with that. And these days, I find I can't see no matter what. I have to have a 12-power mirror. Then I can see and put my glasses on in addition to that. Then I can see to attend to what needs to be attended to. Now we see in the mirror dimly, but then face to face. Face to face contact is so much more effective than even Skype or WebEx. We can have real-time connections these days, but meeting in person is far more effective. Fellowshiping is far more effective in person than over the phone. Then face to face. Now I know how. Now I know in part.

But then I shall know just as I am known. Someday we will have perfect knowledge, perfect understanding. And we ask ourselves, I do, you do too, I'm sure. Why does God allow certain things to happen the way He allows them to happen? And I'll think back to Alan and Joey Levitt on the way to the Feast of Tabernacles have kept the Feast. I met them in 1965 in the congregation in Saskatoon before I went to Ambassador College at age 18. Knew them then. They've been faithful all those years. Why were they allowed to die in head-on collision on the way to the Feast? And the answer is, I don't know. But God is sovereign Lord, and He knows the answer.

They're not telling us yet. Someday He will. And we trust Him that He knows what's best for us, when it's best, and how it is best. And we try to learn the lessons as they have to be learned under those circumstances. Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. We were just in the book of Isaiah a few minutes ago. Let's go right back there again, and we'll go to chapter 55 this time and start reading together in verse 8.

Where the Word of God says, My thoughts are not your thoughts. That is, God's thought processes supersede human thought processes. Nor are your ways my way, says the Lord. So we would think, well, if I were God, I would have done things this way or that way. For instance, if I were God, there wouldn't be ticks, there wouldn't be fleas, there wouldn't be mosquitoes. And in my city in the world tomorrow, there won't be alarm clocks. Or however else you may think things should be. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Nor are your ways my way, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. And as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts. How high is that? Well, the answer is, it's infinity.

God's ways are so much higher than ours. His thoughts are so much higher than ours that it's like infinity. To draw a parallel, when you read the Gospel accounts and how Christ's life fulfilled multiple prophecies. Where he was born, how he was raised, what happened to him as he approached his ministry, how he entered Jerusalem, how he sent his disciples to get a cult, the fall of a donkey. It had never been written. All of those details. And when you read about those, what happened at the time of his arrest, his affliction, his death, his resurrection, the disciples, those who were so close to him, didn't understand those prophecies until after the fact. And you find as you read the account, they say, now we understand what this passage meant. Now we understand how this passage was fulfilled, how that prophecy was fulfilled. It wasn't that they said, aha, here are the prophecies. Let's watch to see how they're fulfilled. It was after the fact. And they said, ah, now we understand. When thus and such occurred, it fulfilled a certain prophecy. They understood prophecy in retrospect as Christ fulfilled them. So it is for us certain things we will not understand until we look at them backwards, looking back on them. When I was a child, I understood as a child, Scripture says. We are limited. Although we know a lot, there's so much we don't know. Giving an example, since we had such a lovely banquet today, when I was a child, I understood as a child, an example is this, that no matter how much I ate for my main course, like we had a beautiful main course today, it didn't matter how much I ate for the main course because I thought there would always be room in a separate compartment in my stomach for dessert. Now that's reasonable because remember how Mr. Armstrong used to talk about carnation milk? The carnation milk came from what kind of cows? Contented cows. And this cow is around here. You see them grazing, and then after they've had a really good munch of grass, they lie down somewhere comfortable. They tuck their their hoofs underneath them, and they spent hours doing what? Chewing their cut. Because they're ruminants. They have four compartments.

That's a great idea. So we could have our lunch today and then enjoy the proceeds of that for hours. Ruminants can do that. Humans cannot. But as a child, I thought, no matter mom, dad, I know I could have more helpings, but there will always be you'll be too full for dessert. No, because I have a compartment for dessert in my stomach that's strictly for dessert.

That's not true. It's not. Is that not true? It is true. It's not true. Well, we know, of course, that it is not true. So we have certain limitations humanly as well. And as we grow up, we mature, we realize what's true, what's not true. There are a surprising number of people today who believe the earth is flat. And this is called the Flat Earth Society. And you can join one of those groups, and you cannot dissuade them otherwise. Psalm 116. Let's make a little closer connection now. Psalm 116 verse 15. It was touched on today. Psalm 116 and reading verse 15. A passage often cited at funerals. Precious, precious in the sight of the Lord.

Precious meaning costly. Precious meaning invaluable. Precious meaning priceless. Precious meaning precious as in a precious stone. A priceless gem. Precious. God's saints are precious in his sight. Precious in the sight of the Lord. And the reference here to sight of the Lord means that God always sees what's happening on planet earth. That he is, you've heard this term, that he is, the God we serve is sovereign Lord. What does that mean?

Sovereign Lord means nothing on this earth happens or can happen without God the Father knowing about it and having either caused it or allowed it. Nothing can happen on planet earth without God the Father knowing about it and having either allowed it or caused it. He didn't cause the accident that happened to that couple on the way to the feast, but he allowed it. How come? I'll touch on that a little bit later.

I remember Mr. Waterhouse and one of his Bible studies. This goes back to 40 years ago.

And him giving an example, we were in Sunnyside school. It was one of his typical Bible studies. And he was relating some of the difficulties occurring in Pasadena. And how he said, you know what? You have any difficulties in Pasadena. If you have any difficulties right here in the kitchen or church where you are, take it to God in earnest prayer. Take it to your heavenly Father in earnest prayer because when you do that and he and Jesus Christ consult with one another and you take certain things to them in prayer, there's no telling what they'll do when they find out about it.

They already know about it. However, when we pray and present it to them officially in prayer, it creates greater, more punctual action. He was very effective in his speaking so much of the time, all the time really for me. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Or another way of putting it is, and this is from the Living Bible, and I like the way it's put, and he does not likely let them die.

And he, God the Father, when it comes to his saints, people like you and congregations like this around the world, you are precious to him and he does not lightly let any of his saints die. Now, every one of us has, at best, before date, marked on us somewhere. I haven't been able to find mine. Every one of us has an expiry date. I haven't been able to find mine. But when you shop, I think you look at a product like milk or butter or other products and you check for the expiry date, best before date, to see, oh, they put the newer stuff at the back and the older stuff at the front.

I'll reach to the back and this will last longer in my fridge. And then in your fridge, you also check to see the product you purchased. Has it expired? When is your expiry date? I don't know. When is mine? I don't know. But you have one, and I have one. God the Father knows. And you are, how valuable are you to him? Remember the scripture where Christ talked about two sparrows are sold for a farthing, and not one of them will fall without the will of the Father.

Do not fear. You are worth more than many sparrows. So our Heavenly Father loves you dearly, and he does not allow any of his servants to exit this life lightly. What I want to do now is to go through several examples in the book of Acts together and compare them. We'll look at four instances out of the book of Acts.

The church is brand new, and it's learning how churches function and what to expect and anticipate when it comes to church life and church expiration. Do you remember who the first New Testament martyr was and the circumstances of his or her death? We'll look at this together and do it sequentially, chronologically. The first one is Acts chapter 8. You'll remember the details, and we'll learn a little lesson from each one and compare them, and look at how we should apply it now in this lifetime presently.

Acts chapter 8. Now, the first New Testament martyr, of course, was Stephen, one of the deacons, who was ordained because of the difficulty in the early New Testament church about the administration of the saints and the widows who were being neglected. That's chapter 6. He preaches his sermon in chapter 7. At the end of chapter 7, he's stoned. He prays in the process of his death, and then we just read what happens in chapter 8, where it says, now Saul was consenting to his death, so the one who became the apostle Paul was highly involved in the condemnation and execution of the first New Testament martyr.

Now, that time, a great persecution arose against the church, not a small or medium one, but a massive one, which was at Jerusalem. They were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles, and then notice the details here in verse 2. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

How old do you think Stephen was at this time? What's your best guess? 35 is a good guess. He would have been a relatively young man. 35 is a good guess, more or less. And it says, devout men, that is, fellow converts, fellow believers, carried Stephen to his burial. And how did they respond emotionally to his demise? They made mild lamentation, medium lamentation that says, great lamentation. It's important to express our grief and sorrow when someone dies, especially unexpectedly, which is the case here as we look at Stephen.

It has been said, and I think it's highly accurate, that we see more through a tear than we do through a telescope. Or you can say, we see more through a tear than we see through a microscope. When you shed tears, and you see life experiences, as you sorrow and grieve, what does it say about all of my tears being put in the bottle?

We're given the gift of emotion for a reason. But they lamented his death. This caused shockwaves to the early New Testament church, and they learned lessons from it. You can be sure. Next, let's go to chapter 9. Who could this next person be? Let's see what we find in chapter 9.

We've looked at Stephen, the first New Testament martyr, probably about 35 years old, totally unexpected, caused shockwaves in the early New Testament church, great lamentation. But remember, we see more through a tear than we do through a telescope, and it registers more for us.

Chapter 9, Book of Acts, let's start reading in verse 36. At Joppa, there was a certain disciple named Tabithon, which is translated Dorcas. And this woman, what was she like? Well, she was full of good works and charitable deeds, which she did, like most of you, like all of you, doing good deeds, visible, behind the scenes deeds, all kinds of deeds in the community, in the church, in the family. The woman was full of good works and charitable deeds, which she did. But what happened in those days? What happened? That she became sick and died. Saints, precious in God's sight, sometimes get sick, and sometimes they get sick, and they don't recover. Most of the time we get sick, we do recover. How old was she?

Doesn't say. Let's say 45. Let's give her a 10-year jump over the previous person. Let's say she was 45, but she became sick and died. Have you been so sick in recent times where you thought, I don't think I'm going to make it? I think this is the end for me.

Have you been so sick where you've prayed, God, I'm so sick? Please either heal me or take me.

Maybe you've been there. Some of us have. But she became so sick that she died. This happens. Remember the reference to Elisha? You think of Elisha, Elijah, and Elisha, and it describes Elijah, the prophet of God, and it mentions that he then became ill with the illness from which he would die. We don't know what our expiry date is. We all have an expiry date. We all have limitations on our longevity. And we don't have a choice of how it will be. I would rather just die in my sleep one day of a heart attack. So I don't mind dying. All I ask for is that it's quick and painless.

I'm not asking for much. But we're not given that choice. That's God, a sovereign Lord, and he decides how and when and where. I think one of our deviled members in one of our congregations in Canada who came into the church in a remarkable way. He had a friendship with a young lady after he moved to Calgary, Alberta from England. They were sort of childhood sweethearts. They worked at a diner. He was 18 or maybe he was 19 and she was 18. He was the supervisor, and they were in love with each other, but the romance never blossomed to fruition, and they went their separate ways.

Didn't see each other for probably 50 years, and then he bumped into her all those years later after he had his career raised. His children, they were gone and gone. She had her children. They were grown and gone, and they were then both widow and widower, and he saw her again and said, you know, maybe we could pick up where we left off. And she said, well, things have changed, Jack. I have a different religion, and you probably couldn't live this religion than I live. And he said, how would you know? Give me a try. She said, here's church literature for you. Study this. So he did.

And the pastor who was looking after this had a situation. I replaced him and had an opportunity to baptize Jack on a Friday and then marry them on a Sunday and left for the feast on a Monday to go to the feast in England. She prayed that they would have five years together. They had more like ten. She predeceased him, and I thought, uh-oh, what's going to happen now? Now that she's dead and gone, will he leave the church? He did not. He stayed in the church, and when United started after worldwide collapsed, he stayed. He went to United and stayed with us, even though he was then a widower. On a Sabbath like today, he was a church. We fellowshiped. He was in good form.

Very affable, very engaging gentleman. He went home, got on his lazy boy rocker, and died that afternoon. Next morning, got a phone call. Jack died. Would you do the funeral?

And I thought, that's neat. He fellowshiped. He had a potluck. He worshiped with us, went home, and died quietly in his sleep in a lazy boy rocker. So that's on my wish list. You have a bucket list request? That's mine. I'd like to go to church, and it's my time when my expiry date is reached. Die, my lazy boy, in my sleep, preferably of a heart attack that's not too painful.

We don't have that option. Meanwhile, she became sick and died. We don't know how long she was sick. We don't know how painful the sickness was, but it just tells us what happened.

When they washed her, they laid her in an upper room. Those are the days when people attended to their own death. There were no funeral homes. Some of you will remember that there was a time there were no funeral homes. People had to attend to their own loved ones when the loved ones died.

I remember one such occasion in my childhood. Since Litta was near Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them. Then Peter Rose went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room, and all the widows stood by, weeping, showing the tunics and the garments which Dorkas had made while she was with them. They had samples of her good needs, the garments she'd made, the tunics she'd made. They had them there to show to him what a wonderful lady she had been. Peter put them all out, knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, what did she do? She sat up. Then what did he do? He gave her his hand and lifted her up. Always the gentleman, let me help you up, he said. And when he had called the saints and the widows, he presented her alive. And it became known through all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord, so it was that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon at Tanner. So what a remarkable development. The downside of it was she had to get sick and die again.

So sometimes some people had to die twice. But nevertheless, you see that even in the early Old Testament Church, people got sick. Sometimes the sickness was on to death, just like Elisha.

Let's go to Acts 12. Who was the first of the twelve of the apostles who died?

You know there were twelve? Which of them was the first to succumb?

Correct. You're very good. Chapter 12, verse 1. Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church, and then he killed who? Whom? James, the brother of John with the sword. This is decapitation. And you know how any number of our fellow Christians, in the broadest sense, have suffered at the hands of ISIS and been dispatched through this dreadful method, the brother of John with the sword. And because he, Herod, saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread, so when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, delivered him to four squads of soldiers. How many squads of soldiers? Four squads of soldiers. He must have thought he was Houdini, that he's going to make an escape, so I have to really incarcerate him to keep him and intending to bring him before the people after the Passover in order to do what? To execute him as well. Now Peter was therefore kept in prison, but what happened? Constant prayer was offered to God for him by the Church.

We have these days so many prayer requests. Every week we receive more names to put on our prayer requests from the United States and Canada and around the world, people with chronic ailments, people with terminal ailments. We pray for their healing. We pray for their deliverance in faith.

Well, constant prayer was offered to God for him by the Church, and when Harib was about to bring him out, that night Peter was doing what? Sleeping! Bound with two chains between two soldiers and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. How could he have been sleeping? Bound with two chains between two soldiers. It tells us he was sleeping. These days we need a maiden form mattress. I'm pretty sure he didn't have a posture-pedic mattress, that it probably was at best a straw mat or maybe just a stone floor, and he's chained to two soldiers. How many times did you toss and turn last night? On my back, my left side, right side, on my stomach. No, I don't sleep on my stomach. Back, left side, right. Did he say to the soldier, I need to turn over. Could you turn over, please? How much cooperation do you think he got from the soldiers in order to be able to sleep? Says he was sleeping, and there was a lot of security. Now behold, verse 7, an angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the prison. It would have been dark, and this angel produced a supernatural light, and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up. Peter would have said, ow! How hard does an angel strike? Struck him on the side, raised him up, and said, arise quickly. And his chains fell off his hands. And then the angel said to him, gird yourself up and tie on your sandals. Not the slip-on sandals, the tie-on sandals. So he did. And he said to him, put on your garments and follow me. So he went out, followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. I'm dreaming. Is this happening? Is it not happening? When they were past the first and second guard post, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord. You remember the first time you saw one of those doors at Walmart? It opens. You step back, it closes. Step forward, it opens.

Well, this is an iron gate. An automated iron gate happened only one time, though.

It opened of its own accord. They went out, went down one street. Immediately the angel departed from them. And when Peter had come to himself, just like the prodigal son, he said, now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people. And that goes on to say, what else happened? The question for you is, why was Peter's life spared while James' life was taken? How old was James when he died? 35. That's another good guess. And both apostles, both of the 12, weren't allowed to die early on in his career. Peter miraculously saved because God is sovereign Lord. He has a plan for each and every one of us. And he decides how long we will live, under what circumstances, and when and how we'll die when that time comes. And remember, one of them said to Jesus, well, how come he gets to be an old man when he dies? Because who, which one of the 12 got to be an old man when he died? John, who died on the Isle of Patmos. And how come he gets to be old and die of old age? And Christ said, that's not your concern. You don't worry about what happens to someone else. You live out your own life to the best of your ability. And so we do, not knowing when our time will be up.

Acts chapter 20.

Acts chapter 20. Some of us who are here presently are in our 20s, others in our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s.

That's quite a stretch right here in this congregation, mostly. I remember when, if you remember, Carl McNair, one of the McNair brothers, when he received a 25-year watch in Pasadena. 25 years at that time, to me, seemed like a long time. 25-year watch. Wow. Now a 50-year watch. That has more significance to it. And Mr. McNair said, as he received his 25-year watch, from then what was the worldwide Church of God said, if I'd known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself. That stayed with me. We don't know how long we'll live. We should still take care of ourselves for the sake of potential longevity and quality of life.

Here's another occasion, and it has slightly different significance. Acts chapter 20.

Because in some instances, saints die from illness. Other cases, it's because of persecution.

And in some instances, do accidents happen? Because the couple that died on the way to the feast, they died of an accident. Acts 20 verse 7. Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. This was not Sunday morning, it was Saturday night. And Mr. Warhouse was not the first man to speak until midnight. This was invented before his time. Many of us have heard Gerald Warhouse speak, and he could speak for four hours. How many of you heard him speak for four hours? And so he really did speak for four hours. And when he came through the church areas in which I was serving, my wife and I and children, we were expected to be there both nights.

So he'd be there on a Tuesday night and a Thursday night, for instance, and we were an hour apart, maybe a little bit further. We were there both nights, starting at seven, going till 11, and he would keep me interested for those four hours. A very dynamic speaker. And in the end, I remember as an aside, we had a brand new attendee in St. Catharines, Ontario, and he was a high school teacher, he and his wife, and they came, I think their second occasion, church, and they came. Maybe Gerald Warnerhouse was the first time they came to church, come to think of it.

And he spoke for four hours, the first time ever in a church of God's setting, and I thought, I'll never see them again. They will not come back. But they did. They came back, and then when worldwide had its collapse, and we all went our separate ways, I lost track of them, they are in the United, in the wintertime in Florida, and they are with one of our sister fellowships in the summertime back in Canada. It turned out in the end that he retired, and Gerald Waterhouse retired to Florida, they both wound up in the United, and used to play golf together before Mr. Waterhouse died in Florida. So, interesting how things can happen. So from four-hour Bible study, he used to play golf for four hours with Gerald Waterhouse.

Back to chapter 20. He spoke until midnight. Now, there were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. Now, those lamps didn't have LED lights. They weren't battery-powered. These were not even kerosene lamps, but they would have been powered by or fueled by olive oil, probably. I reminisced to the times when we didn't have electricity growing up, and we had kerosene lamps. Sophisticated kerosene lamp with a wick. And then you have to trim the wick and be sure there's... Or I remember going to visit my aunts and uncles on the farm, and they had more sophisticated lamps than that. That you poured water into the reservoir, and they had mantles inside the little glass, and then you would pump them up with air, and then hang them, and they would illuminate the room with this white light. It was mesmerizing, so bright, so white, but it made me very, very sleepy. You think, oh, because there's shadows around the corner of the room, if you remember how it was in those days. Well, think of that in terms of what we read here.

There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. The lamps were using up oxygen. They were emitting smoke, and in a window sat a certain young man whose name was Utica. He was sinking into a deep sleep. Have you ever had that happen to you, where you're feeling a little bit sleepy? You have potluck meal at church, and your digestion is kicking in. The blood is going to where it'll do the most good digestion. It's leaving our craniums where we require them for consciousness, and it's interesting. It's sinking into a deep sleep, and then goes on to say when he was overcome by sleep. This happens to me when I watch television now. Think, okay, I'll watch the news. Turn on the news, and then I'm sinking into a deep sleep. Next thing I know, I'm overcome by sleep. I would ask you this particular riddle. Why is it that when we have a big meal at noon time, we're sleepy all afternoon, but when we have a big meal at supper time, it keeps us awake all night?

Why is that? Shouldn't they both work the same way, but they have the opposite effect? Anyway, he fell asleep. He was overcome by sleep as Paul continued speaking, and he fell down from the third story. That's a long way, and he was taken up dead. So he fell asleep, fell out of his seat, and died because he fell three stories. Paul went down, fell on him, embracing him, said, do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him. When he'd come up and had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while, even until daybreak, he departed, and they brought the young man in alive, and they were not a little comforted. We need comfort from one another in times of tragedy, in times of difficulty, in times of death, and God has his ways of reaching out to comfort us. He is the God of comfort. We comfort one another. I would imagine that after this, Eudecus had a fear of heights, and that he would have occasional bouts of insomnia when he would think of being up there in that third floor window seat. What an amazing experience. Hebrews 9, verse 27.

Very short passage, but also read from time to time at church funerals. And it is appointed to men, men and women, all human beings, it is appointed to all human beings to die once. And after this, the judgment. I know what it says in 1 Thessalonians 4, where we who are alive and remain will be caught up together in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Otherwise, it's appointed for human beings to die once. After this, the judgment. You have an expiry date, the best before date, and so do I. I do not know when it is for me, and I do not know when it is for you. Christ knew when he would die and how he would die. I don't want to know. I couldn't handle it. You can't handle the truth. I can't handle that particular detail. God knows. You have probably any number of you. You have appointments for this next week. Doctor's appointment, lawyer's appointment, chiropractor's appointment, hairdresser's appointment. Sometimes you're late for your appointments. Sometimes you forget your appointments. Disappointment we will not forget and we will not late for. It's appointed unto all men once to die. Part of God's plan, part of God's purpose. Why do some people die at 62, and why do others die at 82? Why do some die at two? If you went through the monuments at the cemetery yesterday in Jackson, the Jackson Cemetery in Romance, Missouri, the breadth of lifespans was significant. Infants in those little graves and people who were almost 100 in those graves. But if you look at time span, it doesn't matter. If you look at this backdrop, if you count the segments, there's 11. And if you think of the millennium, it's a thousand years. The first 10 of these segments are 100 years each. That gives you a thousand, and the last segment is the last great day another hundred. So that's 1100 years. And if someone lived to be 50, which is half of the first segment, or 75, which is three quarters of the first segment, and you compare it to a thousand years, what difference does it make? In retrospect, I think of the Olympics.

When somebody wins an event, I get gold. You only get silver. Well, how fast were you? I was a tenth of a second faster than you. Sometimes the difference between first, second, and third for an Olympic event is almost negligible. In retrospect, this too will be negligible. Presently, it isn't. Matthew 22, concluding Scripture. Matthew 22. A very significant passage. You've read it before. Let's look at it through different lenses.

Aware of what happened at the Feast of Tabernacles. Aware of what happened recently in our own congregation right here in the Springfield area. Matthew 22. And I'm breaking into the thought. This is where the Sadducees, who don't believe in the resurrection, are presenting Christ with a dilemma about the seven brothers, married the same lady, the first brother dies, he marries his brother's wife, second brother dies, he marries his brother's wife, etc. And finally, all seven die, and the wife dies in the resurrection. Whose wife will she be?

Ha! We have him stumped, they thought. But notice the answer. Jesus answered and said to them, You are mistaken. Even those who have some knowledge of the Bible can't be mistaken. How so? On two accounts. Number one, you don't really know the Scripture as well as you think you do.

And number two, you don't comprehend the enormity of God's power.

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven. When you first learned that when you will become a spirit being, you won't be married anymore, were you disappointed? Were you dismayed? How did it affect you? Spirit beings don't marry.

Now concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read?

What was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. God is the God of the dead. Sorry, God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. Let me reread that and please read that with me. Verse 32. I am the God, have you not read? I am the God of Abraham, not of Isaac, the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at this teaching. Now God is the God, not of the dead, but of the living. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Aren't Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob deceased? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are dead. They are deceased. And yet the scripture says he's not the God of the dead. He's the God of the living. So then how can he be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when they are dead? God is not the God of the dead, he's the God of the living. Because of another passage that says that God calls those things that be not as if they were. That in his eyes, in God's eyes, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are as good as alive. You're familiar with that passage that God calls those things that be not as if they were. I have a little kit here acquired recently just for a sermon such as this.

It's an embroidery kit. It's supposed to be a tapestry, but we couldn't find a tapestry. So this is an embroidery. And some of you have done embroidery. Some of you have done tapestries, or you've been to museums, or there are massive tapestries that are 100 feet across. And here's the little working cloth from which to create this magnificent scene of this delightful little mushroom in all the colors. And what happens is you go through it, you see the underneath part, which is in one of our hymns. The underneath of the tapestry is a jumble of threads, and you don't see the pattern. You see the threads, you see the knots, and it looks like a hodgepodge that makes no sense. We usually see the bottom part in our own lives, the lives of other people, and even in the goings-on of the church, whereas God gets to see the top part. And once in a while at the Feast of Tabernacles, he does this, and you think, oh, that was really good. We only see through a glass darkly. But your life is a tapestry. The lives of all human beings are tapestry. God is the artisan. What happens in the church is this massive tapestry that's been going on for six thousand years, and someday we'll get to see the finished product. Now, of course, we walk by faith and on by sight, but we must develop and retain God's perspective. Good to be here with you. We'll be lingering for a little while today, and again, thank you for your kindnesses to one another and those in need.