Honoring the Legacy of a Dear Servant of God

In light of the passing of Brother Ernie, it

only seems right for us, I think, to rejoice

a little bit today and remember him and to honor

him for his service. I don't know that I would

call this a sermon. It is what it is. But I think

that God has been good to us. at Enterprise Baptist

Church by sending us Brother Ernest Whittington

to pastor this church for so long. I'll tell

you, I guess I'll tell you a little bit about

him today for those of you who do not know who

Brother Ernest Whittington was. He surrendered

to the ministry, I believe he was in his 30s

when he finally surrendered to the ministry and

he began to preach. And he preached in California

for years, for many years, across many churches,

planted churches, and was very successful. and

his work for the lord he was from liberty from

this area born and raised here grew up here and

uh he retired he retired from the ministry when

he was about 65 and decided that since he was

retired that he was ready to come back home so

he and miss betty moved back to liberty uh planning

fully to retire well it just so happened that

about the same time that they moved back to liberty

And Enterprise Baptist Church was also without

a pastor at that time. And so he was recommended,

well, maybe Brother Ernie. You know, he's a retired

pastor. He could fill in for us until we get

somebody. Of course, I was young at this time.

This was in 1995 when he came. And he came to

fill in, and he filled in for 20 years. He never

left. And in that 20 years' time, I suspect he

visited most every house in Ament County, and

I'm not exaggerating there. It is no telling

how many hundreds of thousands of miles that

he put on his cars just going to see people,

people that were sick, widows, people that were

lonely, church members, just for no reason, just

going, just going to see people, going to check

on his flock. And he was... As good a shepherd

as God has ever sent to this earth to watch over

his flock. And he, man, he got started early,

too. I don't, for those of you, if I come see

you, I don't get started as early as he did.

He'd get up 3 o 'clock in the morning to start

his day. And so by 6 o 'clock, he was three hours

in. He was ready to go. The day had done started.

So he'd show up at 6 o 'clock. He'd come to my

grandma's house about 6 o 'clock on his day mornings.

And she didn't get up at 6 o 'clock. But she

did for Brother Ernie. And she'd say, oh, I got

to get up tomorrow. Preacher's coming tomorrow.

And I suspect she wasn't the only one that had

changed their schedule. But he never stopped.

He was bam, bam, bam, one house to the next.

He was in the Air Force. Miss Betty said that

he still drove like he was in the Air Force.

He said every once in a while, or she said every

once in a while, the tires on his car would actually

touch the ground. He was just kind of skimming

across. And he just had a heart for people. He

had the Lord's heart. He was not judgmental.

He was gentle. There were certainly plenty of

times in my life, late at night, you know, I'd

be having this like spiritual crisis or whatever

you choose to call it, you know, a battle, a

struggle. You know, even as a teenager, I'd,

you know, call him at midnight and he'd say,

you know, come on, come on over. wake him up

from a dead sleep, but he wasn't angry about

it. He would sit down and we would talk and he

and Miss Betty would advise me and guide me and

kind of help me to settle down from whatever

struggle it was. And I know that I'm not the

only one that could tell that story. I suspect

there are many of you that sit on that couch

and he, through the Holy Spirit, was able to

minister to you. You know, there are very few

people in my lifetime, very few. Well, actually,

it may only be a list of one, to be honest with

you, and it might just be him. He might be the

only one that I can look at and say, that's a

man of God. And so we are grateful today that

he got to be part of this church. He came to

this church and he brought a lot of love. And

I am 100 % convinced that Enterprise Baptist

Church is what it is still to this day because

of the love that he had and the impact that he

had. And I would probably not be here today.

He was very encouraging to me at a young age.

I shared this in Sunday school. I'll share it

again. He saw in me, for whatever reason, I still

don't know. that he really felt like God was

going to use me in the ministry. And he really

encouraged me in that way and gave me lots of

opportunities. As a teenager, even, who in the

world would give up their pulpit to a 14 -year

-old kid to preach the word? Who knows what a

14 -year -old kid's going to say? But yet, he

would tell me, you know, I think God's going

to use you. If you ever want to preach, if there's

ever something on your heart, You tell me. He

said, I don't care if it's the Sunday morning,

if it's that day, and I'll let you preach. That's

pretty incredible. And I'm sorry. So he was an

instrumental part of my life and in your life

too. But praise the Lord, his legacy has not

died with him. The impact that he has made, the

people's lives that he has touched, the souls

that he has led to Jesus Christ, people that

otherwise would have been overlooked. They would

have been judged by other people as, you know,

a lost cause or, no, you don't need to go see

those people, Brother Ernie. Didn't make a bit

of difference. Did not make a bit of difference.

Didn't matter if he was on your porch drinking

a 12 -pack. It didn't matter if you were on your

porch singing a gospel song. It didn't matter

if you were black, white, Cuban, Asian. It did

not matter. Did not matter. He saw a sheep in

need of a shepherd. And he was a good shepherd.

And we picked these couples. The scriptures,

if you've got a bulletin, you can look up there,

Adam, or if you don't, you can look at your Bible.

These are a couple that I think exemplify. the

man that he was and the pastor that he was. Hebrews

Hebrews 13:7

chapter 13, verse 7 says, Remember your leaders

who have spoken God's word to you as you carefully

observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their

faith. Boy, what a good scripture. You talk about

observing the outcome of their life. If you want

somebody's faith to imitate, you look at his

life. He didn't just tell you what to do. He

showed you what to do. He didn't just preach

the word of God. He lived the word of God. And

he is worthy of our honor today for his service.

1 Timothy 5, verse 17. It said, Let the elders

1 Timothy 5:17

that rule well be counted worthy of double honor,

especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.

And he labored in the word. He labored in the

word. I do not know a soul who read the word

of God more than him. There are very few people

that wear out a Bible in a lifetime. And he would

wear out a Bible. In a couple of years time.

I mean I'm not exaggerating. If you knew him

you knew that. And it was a very specific Bible

that he wanted to use. Very specific. A very

specific Bible. A very specific edition. And

it had gotten hard to find. Because I would have

to try to find it for him. Over these last 10

years he'd wear it out. He'd want another one.

And that's exactly the one he wanted. He wanted

that particular year. That edition. That everything.

And, man, they were getting harder to find and

more expensive. But, man, I always was able to

find one, praise the Lord, somewhere, some way.

I was always able to find one on eBay, use one

or whatever it may be, old stock, turn up somewhere.

And he'd get that one, and he'd wear it out too.

And, you know, even toward the end of his life,

as his health had declined, he still would try

his best to read and understand God's Word. But,

man, his Bible was just completely worn. out.

Every page of it, every page of it was worn out.

You know, some of our Bibles, if we're honest,

some of the pages are still stuck together. You

get to some of them books like Habakkuk or something,

you don't read much. You flip them through the

other pages, still kind of when you pull them

apart. There was none of them pages in his Bible.

They weren't there because he read every one

of them again and again and again and again and

again. What a beautiful example. There's a lot

of examples that he left for us. But I can tell

you this, without a shadow of doubt, he would

not want to say any good word about him today.

No way. Not at all. But he don't get to say anything.

We do. So it's good that we get to rejoice. And

I think that we should honor those who have gone

before us. and been an example to us and we rejoice

we cry uh because we have these stories and these

memories and god was so good to us to give him

to give him to us and we rejoice today because

he has been so ready to go and see his lord for

a long time ever since his wife passed he he's

been ready to go and he'd tell you that you know

back before his mind began to decline he was

he was ready to go and the only thing that kept

him that kept him going as long as it did was

you guys, was this church. It gave him something

to do. It gave him something to look forward

to. And he prayed for you often. Even in these

last years, when his mind wasn't sharp, his prayer

life was still strong. And the words may not

have come out, but God knew the heart. regardless

of what he said. And he would pray weekly for

everybody in this church by name. I mean, this

is incredible. And what a beautiful example that

he's given us. And so today, I don't think we

could have done anything but just rejoice in

him and sing his favorite song, praise the Lord.

But I'll tell you this. What he would want me

to say today is what I'll say now. And that is

that Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you today.

He died on a cross so that you could be forgiven

of your sins. Doesn't matter who you are. It

doesn't matter where you're from. It doesn't

matter what your sins are. God cares about you

this morning. Jesus Christ died on a cross so

that your sins could be forgiven. If you would

just turn to him, if you would just repent of

your sins today, if you would just ask him to

forgive you, you would find peace. You would

find grace. You would find joy. Jesus has paid

the price for you this morning. Have you trusted

him? That's the message that he would want you

to know. That's the message that he preached

with his words and preached even greater with

his actions. We thank God for Brother Ernie.

We thank God for the impact that he had in our

life. But our greatest rejoicing today will only

be surpassed by the angels in heaven. They are

rejoicing in his presence. And let us rejoice

in God today. Let us rejoice in Brother Ernest

Whittington. We don't praise him today. He don't

want any praise. He was humble. He was last.

But the scripture says those who are last shall

be first. And today he is first in the kingdom

of God. Let's pray. God, we thank you for these

good words that just remind us of who Brother

Ernie is, that he was such a faithful servant

to preach and teach your word, to live your word

out, to be an example. Dear Lord, we thank you

for letting him be part of our lives. We thank

you for the impact that he's had. So many stories

in this room, in this community, God, that we

can all share today. And I thank you, dear Lord.

It's an honor that I get to be one who gets to

share some of these stories today. So we rejoice,

dear Lord. We thank you that he's at home with

you. And we thank you you gave him to us for

these few years that we had him in our little

community. I pray that you'd be with his family,

that you'd be with his kids and his grandkids

and his church family and friends, dear Lord,

that you would just wipe away these tears and

bring joy to our heart, dear Lord. But most importantly,

God, I pray for... Anyone that might be here

today, anyone that might be listening online

today, dear Lord, maybe their life is a struggle

and it's full of pain and heartache and just

they feel the weight of that, dear Lord. Pray

today that they would know more than anything

else that Jesus loves them. That they would know

today if they would just seek you, if they would

just come to you, dear Lord, and ask for forgiveness.

God, that you would... Put your grace upon them.

So I pray that if there are any that do not know

Jesus, that they would bring their burdens and

that they would cast them on him today, dear

Lord, that he would take those burdens from them,

that they would ask for forgiveness, that they

would repent of their sins, that they would trust

in Jesus Christ who gave his life on a cross

for them. I pray that they would experience that

peace and the mercy and the grace and the joy.

that comes along with the love of Jesus Christ.

I pray for each one of us in this room and all

the ones that have been able to sit under the

preaching and teaching and leadership of Brother

Ernest Whittington for all these years. God,

he has followed the example of Jesus Christ.

He has run the race. He has finished, dear Lord.

And we rejoice in that. But God, just as he followed

the example of Jesus, so he has left that example

for us. So let us not forget his kindness and

his gentleness and his compassion. Let us emulate

that, dear Lord, that we may seek to be a tenth

of the man that he was, dear Lord, in our life.

to make this world a better place. God, let us

remember the ways that he comforted us and let

us comfort others in those ways. And I ask these

things in Jesus' name. Amen.