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I want to read a text out of Acts 20:22.
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Paul, the apostle.
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He was making one last visit with the Ephesian elders,
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as he was on his way to Jerusalem.
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In Acts 20:22 it says this,
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"And now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem.
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Constrained by the Spirit,
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not knowing what will happen to me there,
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except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city
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that imprisonment and afflictions await me."
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Now listen to this:
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"But I do not account my life of any value,
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nor as precious to myself,
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if only I may finish my course
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and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
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to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
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And now behold,
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I know that none of you
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among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom
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will see my face again."
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I thought these words were fitting at Richard's funeral.
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For one, the apostle Paul,
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he's met with some Ephesian elders.
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He had them come down to Miletus.
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He's on a ship. He comes up.
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He doesn't have time to travel
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the 20 or 30 miles or so to Ephesus.
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He probably needs to be on time with the ship.
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He's headed for Jerusalem.
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He calls these elders from Ephesus,
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which is not too far away,
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and when they come,
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he tells them,
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"You're not going to see me again alive in this world."
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And you know what?
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I think about those men.
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They remembered Paul.
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He prayed with them before he left.
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I can imagine them walking back to Ephesus,
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the 30 miles or so.
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And they talked about Paul and what he had taught.
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They weren't going to see him. They wept.
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And you know, I have a feeling those of you here,
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you've tried to think,
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when you heard that Richard
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had gone to be with the Lord,
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you tried to think,
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"where was the last time I saw him?"
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"Where was the last time I talked with him?"
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Did you all do that? I did that.
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I talked with him at the men's retreat.
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It was a theological thing
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that I had been toying with in my mind,
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and I said, "Richard, we need to talk about that."
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And he came up and we engaged there.
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And I can remember, too, like some of the men,
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I looked over
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and I saw Richard leading the music.
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That last night, my truck was parked right next to his,
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and my son and I were sleeping in the back,
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and Richard, I think he stayed up till 4 or 5 in the morning
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playing a game with some of the guys.
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Craig said he heard him laughing at some
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unbelievable hour.
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And there my son and I are sleeping happily in the back
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of the truck, and sometime around 5 in the morning
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Richard turns his truck on.
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And the exhaust is right there by the back end of my truck.
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So not only is the thing [running],
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the fumes are coming in
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and I'm gagging on carbon monoxide.
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Just trying to remember Richard...
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The last time that I saw him, the last time I spoke.
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I'm sure it was the same with these guys.
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Here's the apostle Paul, he passes through.
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This is how life is.
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Life here does not last forever.
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And the time we have with people,
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we just don't know when the last time has come.
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Paul had an idea he was not going to see their faces again.
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The Spirit had indicated that.
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They had a last time.
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We had a last time with Richard.
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But life is moving on.
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We can't put the brakes on.
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We can't bring Richard back here.
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They couldn't bring Paul back to Ephesus.
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When he left, he was gone - in this world.
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And that's how this is.
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Think about how many of us in this room in 50 years,
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a day just like this is going to be somewhere
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in that next 50 years for each one of us.
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At least, those of us that are older.
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And you can start to think,
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I was thinking about it.
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Oh, if only I had known this was going to be
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the last weekend I got to be with Richard.
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If I could do it over again...
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I think with all of us men that were at the men's retreat,
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knowing what you know now, if you could go back to that third day,
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how would it be different?
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I know how it would be different.
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There would be a crowd around Richard the whole time.
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And maybe some of us have regrets.
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Maybe some of the men have regrets.
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"I didn't get to talk to him."
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Brethren, we need to live for today.
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We don't want to live with regrets.
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There's a lot of opportunities - you and I
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are not going to have any more opportunities in this lifetime.
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It's like David said, his wife asked him,
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"Did you ever tell Richard that?"
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No.
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And maybe there's a number of things we never told Richard,
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that we wish that we would have told him.
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Missed opportunities.
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But you know what?
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With death, with the passing of a brother like Richard?
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And maybe with the thought of some failed opportunities,
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we need to think about today,
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and not missing the opportunities now with others,
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because there's a lot of people around us that are still alive.
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And there's a lot of opportunities
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that we don't want to squander with them.
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The family of Richard's,
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you don't want to squander
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the words that he said to you.
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You know, I don't know how many of you have ever
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prayed with Richard.
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I know this, I did pray with Richard.
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Typically, when we all stayed together
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Richard would not pray.
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But if you got in a group with him, he did pray.
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And he wept.
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I don't remember Richard ever praying without weeping.
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Our church had all manner of things,
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missionaries and needs in the churches,
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and things happening in the propogation of the Gospel.
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Richard would pray for his family.
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I can see some right here that he wept for.
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We need to live for today. And we need to not squander.
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Notice how Paul lived for today.
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"I do not account my life of any value,
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nor as precious to myself,
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if only I may finish my course in the ministry
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that I received from the Lord Jesus
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to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."
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I want to tell you about the Apostle Paul.
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I'm not talking about Richard right now,
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I'm talking about the Apostle Paul.
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He lived for today.
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A surrendered life.
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It was surrendered to Christ.
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Here he is with his last meeting with these
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Ephesian elders in this world.
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What does he have to say to these guys?
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What would you want to say to others
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if you knew it was the last time in this world
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that you would see them?
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What would Richard have said to those
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at the men's retreat last weekend?
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Or to his family a week ago?
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What would he have said?
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Paul had that going for him.
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He knew that was the last time.
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We don't know the last time.
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What would Richard have said?
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Here's what Paul said. Paul could say,
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"Guys, you know my life.
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And you're not going to see me again.
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My supreme aim is to honor the Lord Jesus Christ."
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He said it this way: "I do not account my life of any value,
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nor precious to myself, if only I may finish my course
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and the ministry that I received."
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He said to these men, you know how I lived among you.
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I was faithful.
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He said, you yourselves know how I lived among you
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the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia.
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Serving the Lord with all humility, with tears, with trials
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that happened to me through the plots of the Jews,
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how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything
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that was profitable, teaching you in public and from
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house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks
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of repentance toward God and of faith in our
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Lord Jesus Christ.
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You know what this is?
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This is a man who can look on his past.
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He can say, you're never going to see me again.
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I'm getting towards the end of my life.
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The Lord has another course for me.
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I'm not going to see your faces again,
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but I can tell you this,
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I've lived faithful.
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I've lived as one that does not have concern for my own life.
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I've lived for the Lord.
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Brethren, friends, family of Richard's,
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you do not want to live with any regrets.
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Because when the day comes,
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folks, this is you and me soon.
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I don't know if Richard had any regrets.
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I don't know.
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But we don't want to live with regrets.
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Paul could look these men in the eyes,
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and he could say my life has not been precious to myself.
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I have lived it for Christ,
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and I was faithful among you and you know it.
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And as family and friends, we know a lot about
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how Richard lived among us.
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Don't live with regrets.
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If there's anything that death stares us in the face
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and says to each one of us,
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it speaks of our own mortality.
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We are not going to be around forever.
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Death sends a warning to all of us,
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that life is short.
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Richard was young.
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He did not expect this.
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Look, a year ago when he was in the hospital,
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we expected this - his heart stopped several times.
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But this came suddenly!
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At the men's retreat, he was healthy.
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He led the singing!
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He did not expect this.
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And you don't expect this.
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We don't expect it. We don't want to live with regrets.
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Paul was not ashamed to show his past to others.
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And what did that life look like?
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It was a surrendered life.
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It was a reality. He could show it to others.
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Paul was in no way ashamed to talk to others about his past
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in the presence of these men who knew him well.
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What a glorious thing it is to be able to
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examine our lives,
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and to be able to not have regrets.
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To get to that end.
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Whether you die suddenly like Richard,
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or whether you lay on a deathbed,
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where you can look over your life and say,
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no, it wasn't perfect,
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but I lived my life for Christ.
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I lived trusting Him.
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I lived for Him.
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Look, Paul's calling was as an apostle.
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It was as a missionary.
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That's not our calling.
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He desired to live his life for Christ,
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to finish his course,
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to live out the ministry that Christ called him to.
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His ministry is not ours.
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Richard had a different calling in life.
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It wasn't the calling of an apostle.
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It was the calling of Richard.
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He had a part to play.
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He had people to encourage.
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He had people to speak to,
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people to be an example to.
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We need to live faithful.
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We need to live for Christ.
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Oh, to be able to say as Paul does,
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I've served the Lord with all humility.
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To be able to say that I didn't shrink back
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from doing what the Lord called me to do.
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He didn't serve for money,
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he tells them in verses 33-34.
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Listen, we've got to move forward.
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We all have to move forward.
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And you know what?
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For the Christians here, there is a hole left.
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When soldiers of the cross
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are taken by our Lord,
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somebody's got to fill their place.
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We go on. Onward.
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Death looks at us. We need to be faithful.
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We need to press on.
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We need to press forward.
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Nothing could turn Paul back.
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That needs to be us.
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We go forward.
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Listen, we are going to encounter a lot of death.
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Many of us before we get to the end.
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Funerals are a part of this world.
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But we press towards the prize of the high calling.
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We press towards eternity.
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We press towards eternal life,
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where every tear is wiped away and where there is no more death.
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We press forward.
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And there is this faithful group of witnesses
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that have gone before us,
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and they bid us on.
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Come, with our eyes upon Christ.
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Press forward in this race.
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Press on.
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Paul - he says I live for Christ.
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I did not count my life dear to myself.
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Can we say that?
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Are you living your life for yourself?
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Jesus calls us to follow Him.
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Jesus says, "Come unto Me."
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He says, "Come to Me."
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And He says, "Learn of Me."
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And He tells you to trust Him.
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And He tells you to follow Him.
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You need to look to His cross,
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and live in the power of what was done there.
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That is our only hope.
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Living for Christ.
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Oh, to be able to have the testimony of Paul.
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To be able to say what he said.
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This is reality.
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Death is reality.
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And it's appointed unto every one of us
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once to die, and then the judgement.
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And we are moving so quickly, speedily,
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towards that moment
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when we enter eternity.
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When we stand before the Lord.
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Paul is saying, look, here all for Christ,
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all for Christ.
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Forgetting those things that are behind
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and reaching, stretching towards that which was before
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and pressing towards the prize
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of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
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I'll tell you this, you can't scare a man with death,
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who's living a life like this.
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You know what Paul would say?
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Why do you weep like this?
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I am willing to not only go to prison but to die,
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if only I might finish my course well.
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I want to live for Christ.
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I want to proclaim Christ.
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He is my all.
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He declared that he did not count his life his own.
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To him, to live was Christ.
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Church of God, this happens...
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It happened with Ila; undoubtedly with Johnny,
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though my mind is not remembering that so well.
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But with the death of our brother Richard,
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it makes me think of eternity.
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It makes me think of life.
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It makes me think of the brevity of life.
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It's quickly moving by, and what are we living for?
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Listen, to live for this world, to live for the toys
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and the trivialities of this world, what are those things?
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They don't satisfy the soul.
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Vess is talking about looking over at Richard
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and seeing Richard welling up with tears and affection
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over what Christ did on the cross.
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Oh, to be moved by what Christ has done.
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To be moved by the Person of Christ.
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And to live for Him, and to be consumed with Him,
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all for Christ, and to live
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as though your life is not precious to you.
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What did Paul mean by that?
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My life is not precious to me.
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What does that mean?
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It means it's not mine.
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I'm living for Another.
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And if He would have me lay it down for Him,
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Christ is precious over my life.
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And that is what Christ called us to.
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He called us to die.
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And to carry our cross and to follow Him.
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But Paul, what about hardship?
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What about the possibility of death?
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What is that to a man whose life is not his own?
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If that's what Christ calls me to, then so be it.
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Church, we need to press on,
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clinging to Christ.
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Let us run without regret.
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The day's coming when it's all done.
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It's all written.
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The last chapter on Brother Richard's life in this world.
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The period is there.
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It's done.
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His story is done.
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And it can't be changed.
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And oh, to be able to say like Paul,
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you guys know that with all humility
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I ran well before you.
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What you do you want?
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Not what do you want said at your funeral?
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Not what do you want inscribed on your tombstone?
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What do you truly want the Lord to say in that day?
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I want, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
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Brothers and sisters, if that's what we long for,
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then let us live the life that will meet
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Christ's approval in that day.
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Think with me brethren.
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Live your lives well.
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Spend them well.
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Let Richard's death be a reminder to all of us
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of our own mortality.
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Live well while you have life.
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Live well.
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A converted Hindu was persecuted bitterly
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for accepting Christ.
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His relatives seemed filled with deadly hate
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against him for forsaking the religion of his ancestors.
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They did what they could to force him to deny Christ.
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Some sympathetic friends asked him
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how it was possible for him to bear so much trouble.
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He replied, "Ask me rather, how it's possible
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for me to bear all the joy that I have
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in the service and fellowship of Christ!"
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That was the very same thing that was true of Paul.
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He never thought of confronting danger and prison as
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causing him to have to finish his course with sorrow.
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It was all joy to him.
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Joy.
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Oh, to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
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Living in the joy.
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Another voice in our brother Richard silenced for Christ.
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One more Christian removed off the scene of this world.
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Richard served.
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I could depend on Richard.
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I know he had some health issues.
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I could depend on him to be there early, all the time.
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I could depend on him
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to be in that seat behind that little table,
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whether it was here or it was over at the restaurant,
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I could depend upon him to be there.
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He was faithful.
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I guarantee, he was animated in the preaching.
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He never slept.
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I knew if there was going to be one attentive listener,
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he was going to be.
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He was going to be there and he was going to be faithful
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to handle that computer and handle that projector.
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I knew that if somebody came in off the streets
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that looked shady,
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that he thought would be a threat
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to our women or children, he watched them.
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There were a lot of things
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that I just could depend on Richard for.
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I could depend on him to sing in tune.
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I could depend on him to sing well.
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I could depend on him in a lot of ways.
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And he's gone.
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And we need God's people to rise up
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and fill the place and to be faithful.
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And I just end with this:
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"When I was in college," said Henry Hey,
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"a couple of men were sent out to West Africa
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to fill a vacancy.
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And before they had gone three months,
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there came a cable telling us that one was dead.
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In less than another month, a second cable came,
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telling us that the second was dead.
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At once, that matter was announced to the students
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of our college, and the question was asked,
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'who would take their places?' where two had gone and died;
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six men at once stood forth and offered to go in their places,
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and two men were sent.
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In less than six months, these two men were dead.
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And a cable came again, and the question was asked,
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'who will go?'
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On that occasion, I shall never forget it,
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it stands out as one of the thrilling moments of my life.
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When the announcement was made at the college table
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and the question was asked, 'who will go?'
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Every man in that college stood up
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and said, 'send me.'"
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Richard's gone.
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And we need to stand forth,
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and we need to press on,
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and we need to walk in footsteps of those
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faithful who have gone before.
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We need to fill the spot, fill the gaps,
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take up the responsibility.
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Christian soldiers, arise.
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We are not yet done.
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Our battle is still at hand.
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Our journey is still before us.
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Our rest is not yet.
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We have not fallen into the arms of Christ
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as our brother has.
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Our time is not yet.
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The time for us to gird our loins with that sword
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and go forth into battle is still at hand.
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Brethren, arise.
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Let the life of our brother be an inspiration to us
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to press on.
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To not waste your time, waste your days, waste your hours.
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Onward for Christ.
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Sold out to Christ.
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Hungry for Christ.
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Onward in the name of Christ.
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Be faithful to Christ.
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So that when you get there, there are no regrets.
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Brethren, no regrets!
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Death is real and death is coming.
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And as the song says, hell is coming.
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And hell is real.
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And those here who know not Christ,
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or play games at religion,
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hell is real and you will find out its reality soon
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if you do not cling to Christ in faith.
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He bids you, "Come."
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And Richard, I know, most of you are here for the funeral
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because you knew him.
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And those of you that he knew
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who did not know Christ,
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he pleaded with you and he spoke truth to you.
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Let his words not fall on deaf ears.
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What he told you about is the greatest news
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in all this world,
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that there is salvation.
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The worst, darkest stained sinner
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can be set free and washed clean -
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cleaner than the new fallen snow
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by the blood of Jesus Christ.
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By faith alone.
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Calling on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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He said, "None that come to Me will be cast out."
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You say but you don't know the things I've done.
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He does.
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And He came for the sick.
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He came for sinners.
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And He saves them to the uttermost.
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And if all of this sounds foreign to you,
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and you can't relate to all this,
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we call you, join the army of Christ.
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And the way in is not the way into the army in the United States.
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The way in is to come as a guilty sinner,
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and look to Christ to be saved,
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and to Him alone,
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trusting in none of your own abilities,
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and merits and anything else.
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But Christ, Christ only.
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Oh, Christ, there is nothing sweeter.
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Our brother would cry and weep tears
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because of the beauty of Christ.
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There's nothing more beautiful.
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There's nothing more worthy to live for,
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than to pour out your life for Christ.
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God help us to be as the Apostle Paul.
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No regrets.
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A life surrendered to Christ.
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I leave you with that.
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Live for Christ with no regrets.
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No regrets.
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All for Christ.
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Father, we thank You for the time together tonight.
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We thank You for the remembrance You've given to us.
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We thank You for the ways that You've enriched
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our lives with the life of Richard Gonzales.
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We thank You, in Christ's name.
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Amen.