I have made an executive decision. Actually, I made this one the same way I make all of my executive decisions: I check with my boss. Some of you are probably wondering if I am referring to Dr. Todd Fisher or Gayla. The answer is a resounding yes! Now for those of you who are wondering what I have done this time…

Many of you probably know that I have written about a lot of different episodes in my life over the many months that I have done this. But as of right now, I am going to change my focus and instead of talking about me, I am going to talk about what I consider some very funny stories in the Bible. In fact, some of them are just hilarious. We will get back to my personal experiences later (Lord willing) but for now, I am looking forward to sharing some funny Biblical stories with you.

Understand that I do this with a bit of trepidation. I suspect I am going to offend somebody with this. Or somebody will accuse me of being sacrilegious. So, let me say if that is you, if you will apologize to me in advance, I will gladly accept your apology.

The story I want to talk about today is found in Acts 20:7-12. Here we find Paul preaching to a good size group of people in a rather good size building (at least three floors). We also find a young man named Eutychus who was sitting at a window, falling asleep and fell out of the window. He hit the ground and died. At that point, Paul interrupted his sermon. He goes downstairs, raises Eutychus from the dead, goes back upstairs and continues preaching until daybreak.

Get this. The Apostle Paul, writer of much of the New Testament, is speaking. I suspect Paul was quite the orator and could hold a crowd. But in this instance, someone actually dies while he is talking. I have often wondered if Paul tried to convince Luke not to put this story in this book. After all, it doesn’t look really good on Paul…

Of course, the question is whether or not I have ever had anyone die on my watch while I was preaching. The answer is I don’t think so. I understand that my preaching may not be all that hot, but I don’t think I have killed anybody with it. I have had a couple of people have seizures while I was preaching, but I don’t think that was my fault. And I have put more than my fair share of people to sleep during my preaching. I want to say that isn’t my fault either, but I might share a little of the blame.

One of my favorite stories of people going to sleep in church happened when Brother Gene Jorgensen was pastor at First Baptist Marlow (where I would later pastor). One grand Sunday morning, Brother Gene was preaching his heart out until he heard a commotion behind him. He stopped preaching turned and looked only to find one of the men in the choir (You remember choirs, right? They were groups of people who wore robes that made them all look like seminary graduates. They would sing along with the church until right before the preaching. Then they would sing a special because, let’s face it, some songs are more special than others.)

As I was saying Brother Gene heard a ruckus behind him, turned to look only to find that one of the men in the choir had fallen asleep and fell out of his chair onto the choir loft. Brother Gene asked him if he was OK. The man, getting up and dusting off his choir robe, said that he was and sat back down in the chair he had just fallen out of.

I have thought about that story a few times. And I am quite convinced that had it been me who fell out of the choir chair, I would have laid in the floor until the ambulance came, put me on a stretcher, and wheeled me out of the church at which point I would have jumped off the stretcher and ran to Rush Springs or somewhere else that I might never be found. A man’s pride will cause him to do some strange stuff.

Here are a couple of lessons for you to consider. First, as one of my deacons at FBC Marlow reminded me every Sunday: “There is no such thing as a bad, short sermon.” The longer you preach, the greater the opportunity for a wreck. Two, if something funny happens in your life, you might as well own it. Three, everybody needs a little Sabbath rest, just not on Sunday morning during the sermon.