Things that you'll see in your study and
some things you see up here.
He's ready to depart on the morrow.
That's a good word for preachers.
You don't have to take off on Sunday.
You go tomorrow.
That's what it says.
And continued his speech until midnight and there
were many lights in the upper chamber where
they were gathered together.
And there sat in the 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 bracing 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 a break of day
so he departed.
They brought the young man alive and were
not a little comforted.
Taken up and fell down from the third
loft.
This is one of the thirds that the
Apostle speaks of in his ministry often the
experiences in his life.
I have to say that I am likely
speaking on on the behalf of a good
number of fellow servants and overseers and those
obviously right here in stout that we are
not only encouraged but very impressed.
Very impressed with a number of young people
at this conference.
Good to see you.
It's good to have you.
Now I know a number of assemblies that
are represented here with younger people today but
I do not know every assembly to which
some of these younger people I'm speaking to
this afternoon to which you belong.
Or to put it language of this chapter
that we have read together including this young
man where these saints were gathered together.
Gathered together.
I would hardly think that young believers that
young brethren and young sisters that appreciate a
local gathering would be found in a larger
gathering such as we have here at the
conference in stout.
But how delightful and how encouraging to see
you and to have you with us.
I appreciate the announcements that have been made
relative to that.
The last thing that I think we should
do and I'm afraid not to be too
critical of the church here in Trinidad what
was happening.
They were taking a young man in their
midst for granted until something happened.
Can we do that brethren?
Unfortunately it happens.
Sometimes there's a young brother you know he
just may not be up to your status
quo.
It may not just be you.
But he is a young brother.
A young sister that God has entrusted to
your care.
To your company.
And the last thing that we ever want
to do is take him or her for
granted until something happens.
Now you know if you to talk to
maybe some of them they say oh you're
doing us yeah that's him in the window
there.
Oh did you ever tell him that was
a dangerous place to sit?
Oh no we don't tell him that.
You know mom would be on her neck.
That happens.
We're gonna wait till he breaks his?
Taking him for granted.
Since there are many lights in the it
says there are many lights in the upper
chamber.
Here was a church that didn't function in
the dark.
But if one of those lights were was
the light that was coming into the window
here was a man a young man he
didn't realize what he was doing.
He was obstructing the light.
He was affecting the brilliance of testimony.
If you'll just allow me to apply it
that way.
You see brothers and sisters how delightful it
is to have those in our testimonies young
and old.
You understand?
You're either contributing to the brightness of that
testimony or you're affecting its light.
You know I've been thinking of late if
sometimes we spent as much time contributing contributing
to the testimony as we can do criticizing
it.
We'd be in a lot better shape.
We would be moving forward by bounds and
leaps.
How about it today?
When I speak to someone what was the
last thing that you did for that local
testimony of yours?
Seriously, what was the last thing you did?
Contributed to it or criticized it?
Anybody can criticize it.
And usually it's my experience and my observation
that those that are contributing to it aren't
criticizing it.
And those that are criticizing it are not
contributing to it.
Now how is a young man sitting in
a window going to contribute to that assembly?
It's interesting that when it comes to the
fall, he did not fall inside.
It's almost like taking a child, a kid
with you.
I remember my dad, I don't know, we
just grabbed what was our closest, but he
risked taking us sometimes to London and we
go to a super or a what's a
cedar store then or whatever and he'd look
down at him and I said, oh come
on, you had your boots on the wrong
feet.
Well there is a chance you put them
on the right one, but most kids get
them on the wrong feet.
Just happens.
He didn't like it and that wasn't bad
till one day we showed up the same
sheer store and I don't tell you which
one it was because I might get back
to him, but he had two left boots
on.
I'm gonna take my candles to do that,
wouldn't it?
My poor father, I'm gonna go to the
store and kind of own us with two
left rubber boots on.
Now the point is this, there's only one
of two directions in which he could fall
and he falls out.
You know why that is?
That was the direction to which he was
leaning.
Now dear young brother, dear Christian today, maybe
older ones, what direction are you leaning?
The wise man Solomon tells us that the
direction to which the tree is leaning, it'll
fall.
Where are the tendencies of your Christian experience?
Were they causing you to lean today?
One or the other?
I was thinking the Christian experience is a
lot like riding a bicycle.
You're either going forward or you're falling off.
This man was not making progress.
He was falling off.
Remember, isn't the words of the Prophet, Zechariah
says, run and speak to this young man.
Speak to this young man.
Just speak to him.
Dear young brother, and I'm sure you understand
that, when the overseers come and speak to
you, please, please, they're only trying to help
you.
Okay?
They only want to see in you development
and progress.
They're not being hard on you.
If you come with a suspicious attitude when
they're trying to help you, there's something wrong
with you.
You say, well that's my business, that's their
business.
It's sad that nobody here would speak to
him.
I have nothing here in the passage that
tells me there was ten other young brethren,
nothing there.
I sometimes have those come to me and
they say, you know, well our boy just
didn't make it.
He just didn't make it.
There is nobody else in the assembly.
He's the only young one there.
Oh?
Think nobody else survived that way?
Brother McLeod knows him maybe not as well
as I do.
We have a young man in our assembly
in Sussex.
He didn't start in Sussex.
He started in an assembly with eight in
fellowship.
Four of them would be his family.
The only young man there there ever was.
Had children's meetings.
I said to him, I said, so who
went out and helped get the children in?
He said, didn't have anybody else.
I got my sister to go with me.
Good for him.
Did he survive it?
Sure did.
Has he got gift?
He sure has.
Is he a help to the assembly?
Yes.
Married a lovely wife, lovely couple.
You just love to have them.
No, not everybody.
Not everybody in our local assembly has the
gift and the ability of a Joseph Potter.
We have others that you might say are
slightly challenged.
So what?
That brother will rise to his feet on
the Lord's day morning and worship God with
what he's got.
While sometimes others that could stay in their
seats.
Where do you sit in the assembly?
Where do you sit?
You sit in the window or do you
have a place?
Remember, you could go through the Bible and
find some very dangerous sitting scenes.
One is with Eli.
An old man falls backward off the seat.
You say, well, how could a man hurt
himself sitting?
Don't read your Bible.
It becomes very obvious.
So here's this certain young man.
Here's a man.
Here's a young man.
And do you understand today that you're not
one of many.
You are certain young man.
I agree.
There's too many that are copping out.
They used to want the responsibility of it.
Basically, they want some things out there in
the world that they know they cannot do
in the assembly.
So their choice, unfortunately, is to go to
a place where they could do that.
You are today, dear sister in the assembly,
a certain young sister.
You are, dear brother, a certain young man.
That's you.
You go through the Bible and whatever that
expression is used, it's not used just to
fill the pages of your Bible or my
Bible.
It is used to distinguish them.
You know what I think really distinguished this
man, Eutychus, was the potential that he had
that wasn't being realized by himself, by the
assembly.
How about you?
There's nobody here today that I'm sure say,
hey, I'm up to my potential because I'm
not.
But I want to tell you, I admire,
I admire a good number that I know
that are giving a lot more percentage into
it than maybe I am even as a
servant in full-time work.
God bless them.
Certain young man being fallen into a deep
sleep.
Now, wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
I only can speak from experience.
If I decided to sit in a window,
I don't think I would fall asleep the
first time I sat there.
You see, there would be kind of a
danger element, wouldn't there be?
And you'd say, I gotta be careful here.
This isn't bad.
You know, I'm not really down in there
and I'm not really out there.
I'll just sit here.
I don't think I'd fall asleep the first
time.
But maybe after a few months, you get
used to it.
You get used to it.
You'd almost forget you were there.
Decided to say this church was going on
without him.
Until.
And it says that Paul was long in
preaching and he fell down from the third
loft and he was taken up for dead.
I will not take time to go into
the words that are given to us in
verse number 10.
It says that the apostle went down and
fell on him, embracing him, said, trouble not
yourselves, for his life is in him.
That must have been wonderful news.
And we didn't lose him.
And he's got life.
Brethren, we cannot function in the testimony of
those that don't have life.
Wonderful to see evidences of life.
Must have been so comforting to that church
where they come back.
He says his life is in him.
And it took something like this to prove
that the young man really had life.
Don't allow that to happen in your experience.
Let there be evidences of life.
And one of them is that you will
be gathered together with the company.
I'm sorry to say, not just because this
is my line at this moment, but if
this stout conference does not have an effect
upon our love for the word of God
that commands us to be gathered together as
a local church, and if this doesn't make
me or you a better attender of the
assembly, that's really what I'm saying, okay?
Anybody here that couldn't do it just a
little better?
Now I realize there's shift work.
I realize there's seasonal work.
I spent some time farming, too.
Spent some time in business, like no longer
than I should have.
There's likely more business in me now than
there should be, too.
Let me ask you, you want to make
a difference with you?
Are you saying there are, you know, we
just can't, hey, come on, wait a minute.
Let me ask you, brother, you ever driven
a better vehicle than you're driving now?
Were the roads ever better than they are
now?
Minus spring potholes.
Really?
No.
Down our way the same way.
There's never a time we can go point
to point quicker, easier, and better than we
can now.
So we're better attenders at conferences?
At assembly meetings?
If we're not, you know where we're sitting?
And you could be my age today and
that's where you're sitting.
Remember, you will fall in the direction to
which you are leaning.
You know, listen, life has come on.
Come on, let me speak to my generation
today.
You and I could do nothing about the
length of our lives, okay?
We've already had too many birthdays.
That's right, John.
We're both on the same medicine for the
knees.
We've had too many birthdays.
I can do nothing about the length of
it.
But you know something?
I can do something about the depth of
my life and the breadth of it and
making it count for God.
I would just like to have captured the
faces of these believers as they brought them
up.
The words that are used for the Apostle,
let me go back to that, that he
embraced him.
He stressed, it's similar to what you have
with the prophet in the Old Testament as
he spread himself upon the child.
He brought himself down to the size of
the child.
In other words, he brought himself to the
circumstances of which that child was found.
You see, that's what we fail to do
sometimes.
We just look at him as a number,
a young man sitting there in the window.
We forget needs that he had.
He says, trouble not yourselves for your life.
Why?
They were troubled.
And they would be troubled.
It was the only young man.
In other words, the future of this testimony
depended on him.
The future of testimony, brothers and sisters, depends
in measure on all of us.
But to you, young brother, you are the
future.
You are the future.
May you leave this conference today, and may
I leave it, asking myself the question, not
only where do I stand relative to the
assembly, but where am I sitting?