The Temporariness of Life

00:03 - Speaker 1
Welcome back to Ignite. You know, when people ask me what I do, I tell them I lead people to Jesus. It's a wonderful opener for conversation. People say say what, it's not offensive, it's almost funny, but people immediately know where I'm coming from and I like that In 2016,. This is interesting stories.

00:23
In 2016, um, david wilhelm and his wife, uh, invited us to dinner, carried me, and during dinner, uh, david was struggling a little bit about saying something to me. I said what's going on? He's well, I have something I want to tell you, but I'm sworn to secrecy, but I got to tell you now. He was not a believer. Okay, he was not a believer. Okay, dave Will was not a believer. And he says to me our friend Dave Robertson, you need to get to him right away. And I said well, what's the urgency? I hadn't seen him for a while. He says I got to tell you again. I'm not supposed to tell you, but he has stage four cancer and he's dying and it's soon. It was a total shock. So I called Dave later wasn't actually the next morning? Asked if you go to lunch and he said yes, he wanted to go to lunch now. Mind you, david, I have known each other about 30 years and abandoned back and forth for 30 years about God. He always had another question. He loved the debate, but he wasn't antagonistic, he wasn't arguing to be argumentative, he was just searching for god. And now he's dying, and so his focus on god was a lot clearer, you understand. So when I invited a lunch, he said yes immediately, and so we had lunch the very next day, and over a three-hour immediately, and so we had lunch the very next day and over a three hour lunch. He told me exactly. I did act like I didn't know anything about it and he told me that he was dying and he was concerned and and by the end of that three hour lunch he was ready and and he received the Lord. Wow, I mean, it was just, it was just great.

02:02
The next day he he called me and he had a different countenance. But he did have four questions, three, four, I don't know. He had some questions, all right. One he said I don't have a church. I said, yeah, well, I don't have a place to have my memorial service. He was thinking about that. I said well, I got that handled. What else do you need? He said, of course I will. He'd do that for you. He says then my friends that are coming they're mostly car guys that don't know the Lord Would you tell them I received the Lord and I'm in heaven now? I would have done that, no matter what, of course. And then he said and would you give them an opportunity to receive the Lord? Would you have an altar call at the end of my funeral? I said absolutely, I would do that.

02:47
So the funeral came and we had a wonderful time. A wonderful time. David wilhelm actually got up and spoke, um, but then I talked about god's faithfulness to dave robertson that he accepted the lord at the end of his life, and I said if there's anybody else here that would like to raise their hand and receive God's gift of eternal life right now, just raise your hand. Four people raised their hands. One of them was David Wilhelm. Understand that? Do you get the irony of this? Dave Robertson accepted the Lord only because David Wilhelm told me about him is that you need to get with him. And then Dave Robertson, before he died, says I need to, I need you to give a call at the end of my service for fear to receive the Lord.

03:37
And David Wilhelm received the Lord, do you see the dichotomy of it? It's it, it's, it's just. God is how God works. And so now, when we go to Calvary, chalmichino Hills, who's saving his seats? It's David Wilhelm, in Victoria, and they're holding Bible studies. They love the Lord and it's just such a great experience. I mean it's just. I say every time I'm with them, I think of thank. I say every time I'm with them, I think of thank you, god, for allowing me to be a small part of these two miracles, really.

04:16
So a few days ago, karen threw me a surprise birthday party, a surprise 82nd birthday party. Who throws a birthday party for an 82nd birthday? Unless they don't think they're going to have an 83rd birthday? I don't know. Maybe Karen knows something, I don't know. I'm feeling pretty good, but there we were, and not only that, she threw it on the night before my birthday, which didn't make sense at all. Okay, so we have a wonderful time. It was a great surprise, and David Wilhelm was in rare form. He had us all laughing. We had pictures. It was a sensational evening with David's closest friends. Okay, what a wonderful night.

04:58
At 745 the next morning, suddenly, david died. He died. We all know about the temporariness of life that we leave at any time, and I know that I live that. But then it happens like this. It's in your face and I've talked with God about it a bit. What is this message? It is you need to be ready and live for me every moment. I know that. But it's more poignant now you follow what I'm saying. Think back for a moment. If karen hadn't thrown me the birthday party the night before my birthday, we wouldn't have had a birthday party because david was going to die the next morning. We would never had a party after that. But she had it the night before he passed away so he could be with all of his friends and have a wonderful evening. And then he drove 40 minutes to his office the next morning. He's a dentist. He drove to his practice and he could have passed away along the way because he died suddenly. It could have been tragic, but he got to his office. He met with his staff, his assistants, had a wonderful time with them, told them about the time. What happened the night before, just a wonderful last time with them, sat down with his first patient and working on that patient sitting in a chair. He suddenly just leaned over and he was gone, gone in a chair. He suddenly just leaned over and he's gone, gone.

06:34
The message, the takeaway is always always always be ready, you know? Uh, we just have to live that, and it's the sadness of life, the temporariness of life. James 4 14 describes, describes our life on earth as like being a morning fog. You think about eternity. It never ends, I'm wondering, after we've been there a million or two years. Well, we remember much about this hundred years that we had on earth, and that's why he says that the temporariness of our life is like a morning fog. It just comes and and goes away. The moral of the story is we need to always be ready. David was ready. Are you ready? See you next time.