Remember Pastor Don George Hebrews 13:7 Introduction In light of what’s happened, I can’t just go on to the next passage from the Sermon on the Mount. We need to take time to reflect a bit on the life and legacy of our beloved pastor, Don George. Turn to Heb 13:7. <Read the text> Don was more than my pastor and colleague and mentor, he was my friend (we shared a lot in common), and he became another father to me when I lost my own dad suddenly three months after I came to MN. So I want to take this passage of Scripture and apply it to Pastor Don. I’ve entitled this morning’s message: Remember Pastor Don George. But as you can see, this is not a text about remembering our leaders in general – remembering them in the sense of cherishing our relationship with them. Instead, it’s a kind of remembering that is meant to stir up in us a certain kind of life: a fruitful life of faith. That by remembering the way they lived out the implications of the Christian faith, we might do the same – to achieve similar results and grow in our faith in the gospel. <Read the text> And looking at Pastor Don’s life, I’ve come up with nineteen valuable things we ought to remember about him. I don’t know how many I’ll get through – some will be quicker than others. Nineteen lessons from Pastor Don’s life. Lessons from Pastor Don’s Life That it is only God’s word and Spirit that can change people. “I can’t fix anybody”; or “I can’t fix you, and you should be thankful for that.” See John 3:5-8; Heb 4:12. So he prayed incessantly for people and as he would say, “Got their faces in the word-a-God.” The Christian life is a tension between urgency and patience. Don lived his life knowing that the time is short (1 Cor 7:29-31; John 9:4; Rom 13:11) AND AT THE SAME TIME that it’s never too short to keep us from waiting on the Lord. We need to be patient with people and give the Lord room to work in their lives before we pull the trigger cf. Eph 4:29; Prov 25:11; Matt 7:6 (pet owners and farmers – if we mistreat them, they’ll turn on us.  Evangelism IS discipleship cf. Matt 28:18-20; 1 Thess 2:7-9. He used to say, “I don’t have the gift of evangelism; I just do the work of an evangelist” (quoting from 2 Timothy 4), which was true and false. The sheer number of people he shared Jesus with is certainly in the thousands – and not all at one time, like in an auditorium or arena – thousands of people face-to-face, one-on-one. His capacity for this work and his ability to engage with people at a deep level so quickly and with such fruitfulness was a gift. On the other hand, his method was not magical. It was patiently giving his life for a person and getting their face in the word-a-God, which is something that any of us can do. Not all of us will have the same amount of fruitfulness (because of the gift), but we will taste fruit if we persist in it. The importance of persistence in loving and serving people cf. 1 Thess 2:7-9 (Ephesus, Corinth). Don was very, very, very reluctant to give up on people. He would hang in there with them way beyond what often seemed reasonable. But this is exactly as the Lord works in our lives. Think about how late it was when some of you became Christians after first hearing the message. Imagine if God had given up on you after a first or second or third or fortieth hearing of the gospel. Where would you be? Giving your life away for the sake of other people cf. Phil 2:17; 2 Cor 5:14-15. This is where the joy is and the satisfaction is. He was marked by “holy carelessness.” Acts 20:24. He did not care about the effect of his ministry on himself – sleep, health – whatever. But it was holy because he worked hard to take care of his body and keep his priorities in place. Passion for life, longing for heaven cf. Phil 1:21-24. Don enjoyed life with unbridled enthusiasm – he was passionate about everything he did: big band, tennis, work – he loved life. He enjoyed God’s good gifts cf. 1 Tim 6:17. At the same time, he spoke often, especially over the last year about how ready and excited he was to see Jesus Christ. And even though it seems to many people that longing for heaven and having passion for life don’t go together. Most people think that only the people who don’t believe in heaven are the people that try to get the most out of life. After all, if this is all that there is, then we better enjoy it. Like the old proverb goes, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” And this myth gets perpetuated by Christians who see the reality of heaven as making this life meaningless, or at least a holding pattern or testing place and nothing more. But what the gospel teaches us is that these two things go together, and in fact, it is only the Christian who really enjoys life, because he won’t abuse it – he’ll understand it’s place in the story line (a place to be enjoyed, a place to serve other people, and a place where what we do makes a difference for eternity). We won’t live as if this life is all there is. Application, application, application. Pastor Don was never satisfied with theological or biblical knowledge for its own sake. He was (for lack of a better word) obsessed with doing the word cf. Jas 1:22-25. I learned what humility looks like in the flesh, not as a concept. This doesn’t mean that I’m saying that Don wasn’t proud. He’d be the first to tell you how quick he was to take matters into his own hands and trust in himself and his own abilities. But as you know, a person who is aware of his own pride, isn’t all that proud, while a person oblivious to his own pride is exceedingly proud. Don was characterized by self-deprecation, a willingness quickly to seek forgiveness for sins against people and admit weaknesses and failures to others, he was also willing to be thought little of by other people. The priority of leadership development cf. 2 Tim 2:2. Encouraging others and being encouraged. He knew he had the gift of encouragement. He had an infectious enthusiasm. On the flip-side of the gift for other people was that he was easily edified and quickly encouraged. When he got down, he never stayed there long. So he preached the importance to me often of finding out what it is that really encourages me in the faith and making sure that I had a steady diet of it. Related to this was an almost instinctive desire to share what he was learning with other people. He never learned anything alone. Whatever God was teaching him he made sure to get into the hands of other people. And this was not that feeling that we sometimes (often?) have when we’re hearing a sermon and say, “Oh, I wish such and such were here to hear this. They could use it.” For Pastor Don, it was something that he was challenged by and striving to apply in his own life, which he then shared with other people. He lived out Heb 3:13 more than anyone I’ve ever known. The importance of not being parochial as Christians, painting ourselves into the corner of a room. This, of course, is a species of humility. He was quick to point out how our church was not the be-all, end-all of Christianity. So he encouraged us both in what he said and did to read and listen widely. He was marked by self-sacrificing generosity. Most people know that Don was a man of means, what most people don’t know is that he gave to others so much of his means that he jeopardized his own livelihood. Think of the widow and her two copper coins.  He was the example of going hard after God till the very end of his life. He retired from business what 15, 20 years ago? But he didn’t retire from walking with Christ. He did not retire to Florida to spend the rest of his days before he met his maker collecting shells and playing shuffleboard. He spent it spending himself for the good of others and the glory of Jesus Christ cf. Heb 12:1-2. He demonstrated the importance of living live deliberately from a set of biblical priorities – the importance of organizing our lives around what really matters, what really lasts. “Choose the better part”; “Seek first…” He rested in the sovereignty of God over the details of his life. Following his descending aorta dissection, he began to sign all his cards, “In His hands.” He knew that his days were numbered, but more than that, because of this he also knew that he was invincible till God took him out. So he was not characterized by anxiety or scheming. He rested in the sovereignty of God. “Teach us to number our days”; “In your book were written all the days that were ordained for me” He was a man of discipline, by which I mean that he would do what he was called to do, trusting God irrespective of his feelings, even when all his senses told him “no.” He would often say, “The question, ‘How do you feel about such and such?’ is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter what I feel. If I lived my life by my feelings, I’d do nothing.” This is a Hebrews 11 kind of life. Not that the emotions are irrelevant in the Christian life, but that faith is obeying God in the light of what he has promised to do even when you’re scared or indifferent or whatever. Don lived his life this way. Never stop learning. Don took copious notes from sermons and lectures (any sermons and lectures, even the not-so-great ones) because he believed he could learn something (even if it was one thing) from anyone. And when I think about how he told me so often how much he was growing under my ministry – I am so humbled. Here is a guy who had been a Christian longer than I’ve been alive…learning from me. Again, another species of humility, and an evidence that he was one of those faithful men of 2 Tim 2:2. He was teachable. Conclusion So let us remember this leader, Pastor Don George. <Read Heb 13:7> Consider the outcome of his way of life. What was it? It was incalculable. Thousands of transformed lives. A legacy to this church through his tireless ministry.  And so let us imitate his faith. This is key: it shows us that all of this outcome, all of this productivity is the fruit of faith in the gospel of grace. Trust in Jesus as your blood and righteousness, like Pastor Don did, and maybe, just maybe, as we imitate him in his faith and practice, we will have a wonderful outcome like his. Our church has suffered a great loss. But as great a loss as it is, it will not destroy us – Matt 16:18. As we cling to the Lord that Don loved – the Lord will get us through. And as long as we follow the admonishment of Heb 13:7, we will continue to benefit from Pastor Don’s ministry for years and years to come. So remember Pastor Don George who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of his conduct, imitate his faith. Not because he was a great man (though he was), but because he was merely a man who trusted in a great savior to use an unlikely instrument for his glory and the good of countless others. Amen.