His Life Is Still In Him

Acts 20:10

But Paul went down fell on him, and embracing him said, Do not trouble yourselves, for his life is in him.

We fall down but we get up, for a Saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up. This simple but profound song was one of Donnie Mcclurkin’s greatest hits because it resonated with so many people. Because in life we all make mistakes and find ourselves falling. Romans 3:23 (New International Version)
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The higher up you go the more careful you have to be because it’s hard to recover from a fall if you are too high up. Many people are buzzing about Chris Brown and Rhianna’s big tiff. Two wonderful young entertainers at the height of their careers had a public fight and did not have the privilege of resolving their differences privately because they were so high up in terms of visibility. The headlines on MTV News said, “Can Chris Brown and Rhiana’s careers survive after this crisis? What they really wanted to know was could they survive this fall?

It’s easy to give up on people after a fall. How many people have written you off because you messed up? We all can recall a time when we had a crash or a mess up and there people standing around pronouncing our death. What do you do when have fallen and folk have written you off?

The Apostle Paul was preaching one night and got to talking too long as preachers sometimes do. (Present company not excluded, smile.) There was a young man named Eutychus sitting in the window getting sleepy. There is a danger when you are sitting three stories up sitting in a window and falling asleep that you could fall. There are three dangers that many young aspiring talented people face, like Chris Brown and Rhianna that you need to be aware of.

1. Don’t fall asleep on God’s word.

2. The higher up you go the more careful you must be.

3. When you are highly visible, (sitting in a third story window) the chances of falling are greater)

Eutychus fell asleep and fell out of the window. The people that saw it said he was dead. But the Apostle Paul wasn’t ready for that verdict. He did four things that we all should do when we see people fall.

1. He ran down to where he was. When people fall they don’t need you to stay “up there” preaching, they need you to come down and see about them.

2. Paul fell on him or covered him. Similar to when the prophet Elisha lay on the dead boy, and brought him back to life. 2 Kings 4:33-34 (New International Version)
33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. 34 Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy's body grew warm. We have got to cover young people who have been given up for dead and speak life back into them.

3. He embraced him. When people fall they need somebody to embrace them and tell them, “I still believe in you.” I still love you. It’s okay I’m here.”

4. Paul said, “His life is still in him!” This is powerful. You are not your career. There is life still in you. No matter where you have fallen from if there is life still in you, you can get back up. You just need somebody to tell you this morning there is life still in you!

The people brought the boy back in alive and the people were greatly comforted by him being back. Somebody is waiting for you to get up and come back. There is life still in you! Don’t give up on people when they fall. Don’t give up on yourself if you’ve fallen. You can get back up again, get back up again!

Dear God, thank you for picking me up when I fell. Thank you for seeing life in me when everybody else said I was dead. I’m coming back up stronger than I was before because you covered me. Bless those young people who have fallen Chris, Rhianna, Kwame Kilpatrick, Michael Vick, and now unto him who is able to keep us from falling we pray all these things and ask you to pick us all up.

In Jesus Name,

Amen.