Australian Marcus Einfeld was a lawyer, former federal judge, prominent Jewish community leader, and was once decorated as a national living treasure for his work. But in 2006, he was given a $77 ticket for speeding. Rather than pay the fine, he began a series of 4 different detailed schemes to “prove” he was not driving the car that day. His original defense (that he had loaned the car to a friend who had since conveniently passed away) was accepted by the judge, but dogged reporting by Sydney's Daily Telegraph revealed that lie, plus subsequent elaborate lies to cover each successive explanation. Curious why he would be so quick to lie, reporters began deviling into his past and found even greater lies. (His college degree was bogus and he had been cheating the government by double billing charges.) By 2009, he was sentenced to prison and his life sat in ruin, all because of one speeding ticket. In reality, it was the all the lies that he assumed he had “gotten away” with that destroyed him. We never “get away” with sin. Someone will always pay the price. As The LORD warned Israel in Numbers 32:23, “be sure, your sin will find you out.” Don’t make the mistake this man did of adding sin onto sin, because it will always fall down and crush you in the process.
In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...
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