Death is an Evangelist

We're doing a Series 3 Ecclesiastes.

If you have been here, you think how do we go from that Easter

weekend back into Ecclesiastes? I'm not quite sure we're going

to give it a go, but let me just put up a photograph to start the

sermon. Two very famous South African

rugby players. Some of you won't remember the

one, he's very old, but but just keep it up there.

That's that's the famous Frictu prayer.

And that's a room that we've got underneath there.

It's called the war Room. And I just got this message to

say Frictu prayer has come to three CR And I thought, dear

God, what have we done wrong? He's 90.

He'll still smack you over. He's got hands like this.

I walked up to him. I don't know what they call him

boss or manure or Sir or what I end up like.

And he sort of hand and wrapped my hand and his English is worse

than my Afrikaans, which is quite a thing.

And so so we got talking. And the only reason he's here is

because of death. You can keep the foot up.

Only reason is here because this time tomorrow this exact

building will be ready for a funeral and over here will be a

picture of a man called Heist Pitzer who played spring bug

rugby with him. The picture will be here and on

the screen is a picture of a very healthy Heist Pitzer

playing rugby for the Blue Bulls.

And over here will be his jersey that he played against the

British and Irish Lions. And I said to him, Frick when

Frick said to me you don't talk much with Wim Frick.

He told me I took pars tourist van kais Pitzer Fertel the ESA

EN is that he Franck Wright captain, Ferkais Pitzer Hislon

head and Tuileri Franck Wright Captain Fanny felt Afrofert

Vande had boot Polish against his face, her heart and and I

had him off with up Bechdrav and the Skunfan Pitzer hit the Frank

Wright captain's kill Kaslan. So that's the first story I

heard. The second one I heard was the

Brits and eels like captain and a darker scrum in a letter say

Vietnam of yourself Slon. You see, you're thinking bad

words, but but frickin ram up Khan up Khan like a slon.

So the inglosser and Britsa Uraciliusa captain in Afrikaan.

So I'm thinking Oh my hat. So I said when frag what dengue

so hates spits of dunk, I say Vietnam, I say Engelsa Duminy

what say but craftsman's khandun I say so you're blacksm.

I said you reflect by by a donkey Excel my best Afrikaans

per beer. But tomorrow there's a funeral

here. You can take it off.

Thank you. And we're doing this series on

Ecclesiastes. And today the title is Death is

an evangelist. Death is an evangelist.

And the reality is that when Frick would probably never come

to three CR, there's no reason for him to come here other than

death. That's what brought him here.

And actually there will be a whole lot of people that will

come here tomorrow, ex Bulls players and ex springback

players and ex business people that will come here because of

Christ. Pitzer's funeral.

And it might be the only time that they will hear the gospel.

Might be the only time, 90 years old or I don't know what he's

standing is with God, but it might be the only time.

And so actually death is not a thing to fear.

Death is actually a thing to embrace.

The book of Ecclesiastes says death is actually an

evangelist's Death should teach us how to live.

I will never forget. Clearly, clearly, clearly.

I've worked with Clint for 25 years, being one of my very best

friends, 25 years that we've travelled the world together,

we've preached all over the place, we've ministered pastors,

we've cried together, we've raised funds to build the church

together. But I'll never, ever forget when

he was living in Durban, I was living in Pretoria, I was

driving down to Durban to go and preach.

I'll never forget as you come down through the toll gate at

the bottom of Fernandez Pass, you drive a little and then you

come towards the Together River. And just before there there's a

big, like a big sheer rock face. And as I came around the corner,

I saw O8329-O and I won't tell you the rest number come up.

And it was Clinton. I said, hey buddy, how's it?

His voice was quiet. So you're right, my mate.

He said, hey, roar, my dad's just died.

I said, where is he? He said we got into the truck

together to go out for something to eat and he grabbed his chest

and I pulled him out the truck and he said he's lying on the

floor or where are you? I thought the amazing thing in

the time of his greatest need, the person that he phoned was

his dearest friend. I said I'm nearly there, buddy.

I'm just coming down from Rena's fast, but I'll be there now.

I'll never forget Clint. By the time I got there, they'd

put his dad on the couch and allowance.

It covered him with a blanket. But I remember sitting with

Clinton with his sister and his brother.

We just sat in the lounge, remember?

And we had this deep fellowship around his dad who had died.

You think it's that's, but that's quite weird.

But it's like you sit there and you realize this man who was so

strong and so mighty and so fit and so healthy was gone.

And Case Pitzer, who was this unbelievable guy, you messed

with him. He knocked you out the field.

And he was fit and strong and healthy and he's gone.

And I can think of many times with Clint, but I will never

forget the time because when the when the funeral director came

to take Clint's dad's body away, it was a man that used to be in

church with us. And when he walked into the

house, he said, hey, Clint, hey Rory, I know you from church.

And all of a sudden we realized that our lives are interlinked,

not just on the feel good music that we sing because there's no

good just singing like a music and having a nice vibe and

having the air conditioners pumping and having the colors.

All right. If we don't actually face

mortality, if we don't actually say, what is this all about?

You've heard this story, friends, but they have a their

dad and husband was called Hubert.

My grandfather married him, them married them.

My granddad married them 55 years ago. 55 now.

No, not 75 years ago. 197550 something years.

Listen, are you the preacher? I'm the preacher 57 years ago

and I did the funeral with the same Bible that my grandfather

did their wedding with. And then you realize the Bible

lasts, but life doesn't. I walked through from the

bathrooms, coming through here. I just saw a lady talking.

She lost her husband and her two children in one accident.

People sitting on that side of the car and the people sitting

on this side of the car lived. We kind of sit and think, what

is this all about a precinct? Cape Town this week.

Yesterday a little 15 year old boy came to me and he said I've

given up on God. I'm crossed with God.

I don't like God. My dad has made a big mistake in

my life and I don't trust God. I thought I said, young man,

you're 15, you don't even know God.

Don't give up on a God you don't even know.

And I want to say to some of you, you've given up on God

because death has hit your family and death is an

evangelist that's meant to teach you something.

So when things don't go according to plan, instead of

chucking your toys out the cart because you are not God, and the

saying goes, life is short, you must enjoy it.

I want to add in eternity as long you must prepare for it.

Life is short, you must enjoy it.

And so we go from one pleasure to the next.

And we've spoken about the swallows that have their summer

in Europe, and then they come for their summer in France and

they go back to their summer in Europe and another summer in

France. And we have this perpetual

summer. But God does not design our

lives as a perpetual summer. He designed our lives in

seasons. And one of the great teachers in

that season is death. Amen.

And Solomon says this. He says the coffin actually

preaches better than the cot. The coffin preaches better than

the cot. And so tomorrow, friends, I'm

just introducing you to the funeral tomorrow.

Tomorrow there will be an evangelism taking place in this

building with a man called Case Pizza.

He's got 4 kids. Adele, beautiful lady, she's

going to talk about him as the dad.

The second son is Case, the motor guy.

He's going to talk about him as the rugby player.

The third son, Peter, is going to talk about him as the

businessman and then he's got a beautiful son.

They're actually all beautiful kids called Yaku.

Yaku is going to talk about him as a Christian.

What are they going to say at your funeral?

What are they going to talk about at your you said bro,

that's unbelievably morose. No, but but sometimes church is

meant to be like that. It's not meant to just be a

happy feeling. Hey, cool.

The vibe was good, the coffee was awesome, the cappuccinos

were flowing. Easter was awesome.

The place was overflowing. And then we get to this thing,

Bam, I'm going to give up on God.

I grabbed that 15 year old guy. I said, what sport do you do

boy? So if he says says rugby, I'm

going to come up with an illustration.

He said I'd do archery, Sir. I said this, I said this.

I certainly remembered that every time you've pulled that

bow back, remember this. Jesus Christ picked up your

arrow and he's stuck it in the bull's eye, boy.

So I said every time you miss, Jesus never missed.

And I want to tell you, every time you stand in front of that

target, just see yourself in the middle of the target, boy,

because God will never give up on you.

Don't give up on God. Are you with me, friends?

Good morning, nice to see you. Ecclesiastes Chapter 7.

Ecclesiastes 7 · chapter mention

Let's turn there. Ecclesiastes Chapter 7.

Ecclesiastes 7 · chapter mention

I hope you hope you open your hearts.

A good name is better than fine perfume.

You can smell good but stink inside of your character.

You can smell like, oh, I'm going to church, I'm going to

like. And the day of death is better

than the day of birth. You think I don't agree with

that? It doesn't matter what you agree

with what the word of God says. So you've got to think about it.

The day of death is better than the day of birth.

It is better to go to a House of mourning than to go to a House

of feasting. If you've got nothing to do

tomorrow, come to the funerals better than going to Voivatella.

For death is the destiny of every man.

The living should take this to heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter because a sad face is good for

the heart. Geez, I don't understand that.

God, the heart of the wise is in the House of mourning, but the

heart of fools is in the House of pleasure.

It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke than to listen to

the song of fools. Hope, hope.

Spinner Corp go up. I mean, wasn't it Amy Winehouse?

He told us we mustn't go to rehab.

Didn't she tell us that in her song?

Didn't Amy Winehouse sing we don't go to rehab?

So you listen to that fool or you listen to a wise man's

rebuke. And Amy Winehouse died because

she never went to rehab. Didn't Madonna and all of them

just teach us that girls just want to have all your girls just

want to have fun and the Material Girl in the material

world. And so we hip hop to all these

things, but we're not actually dealing with the real issue.

The only thing that you and I have in common is we're all

going to die. And whether I'm coming to your

funeral, you coming to my funeral, we're going to be at

each other's funerals. And we try to drown it out with

Hop Hop Spinner Cup. We try to drown it out with

Branavain and the bikini of vein.

Amen. How you doing now?

Sobering off the Easter service. Like the crackling of thorns

under the pot, so is the laughter of fools.

Thorns burn very quickly. Extortion turns a Winder man

into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience

is better than pride. The end of a matter is better

than its beginning. Yes, like I wake up, one said I

think I'm going to fix my garage, so I go to boulders.

I said I want hooks. I want things I want, I want and

now it's just a big pile of hooks in my garage and in my

imagination I could see my bicycle hanging and my ladder up

against the wall and the firewood in the thing.

Now I just got flipping hooks. Can anybody fix my hooks?

The end of a matter is better in the beginning.

I've seen some of you. You want to take up golf.

You look unbelievable, but you're rubbish golfers.

Your clothes are awesome, your shoes are awesome.

You've got those special things you wrap so the sun doesn't

burn. You've got matching hats, you've

got these unbelievable titlists that are designed for

professionals. You've got the cover, you've got

the bag. You've got to practice to play

golf. I've seen you, Gustav.

God. No mind you joking.

I know you play well because he do not be quickly provoked in

your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

Do not say. Why were the old days better

than these? Hey, you know when we used to go

to Hatfield with Pastor Rabbit? Remember those days?

Remember when Dirky was at India?

Remember those days when when actually the bulls used to

remember those days? It's a long time ago and for all

you Manchester United people, you can't remember how far back

it actually goes. For it is not wise to ask such

questions. Wisdom, like an inheritance, is

a good thing and benefits those who see the sun.

Wisdom is a shelter, as many as a shelter.

But the advantage of knowledge is this, that wisdom preserves

the life of its possessor. Consider what God has done, who

can straighten what he has made crooked.

You can't make life work in your head.

You don't have control. When times are good, be happy.

But when times are bad, consider God has made the one as well as

the other. I'm giving up on God.

Rory, you 15 years old, young man, you've got no idea how God

works. When times are good, that's God.

When times are not good, that's also God, and you're going to

have to work it out. God has made the one as well as

the other. Therefore a man cannot discover

anything about his future. You can go to fortune tellers,

you can put all the money in the bank.

The only thing you'll do is make a greater lining for your

coffin. Let's start with this.

A good name is better than fine perfume.

You can just put that picture of the pens up please.

I don't want to tell you what bank I bank with,

but during COVID I felt God say that I must pay my staff their

full salaries. The business I paid staff full

salaries. Everybody told me I was mad.

Everybody says not going to work, you're going to bankrupt

your business. And I very nearly did bankrupt

my business. But when COVID was over, I had

to raise 14,000,000 Rand to get my business going again.

And I sat with the accountants and I sat with my partners and I

sat with the bank manager to apply for 14,000,000 Rand loan

with a business that hasn't traded for five months.

And he said, Rory, we can look at it, but you're going to have

to sign surety. And I said, no, I don't sign

surety. And they said, why not?

I said, because the Bible says that I can't.

And like, even bank manager laughed, accountant laughed,

everybody laughed. I said, it's not funny.

I don't sign surety. The Bible says I don't sign

surety. I said, Mr. Dyer, in the history

of this particular institution, I don't want to mention it

because the head of credit is sitting in a meeting this

morning. I hope the man doesn't get

fired. Said in the history of our

institution we have never given a loan without personal surety.

So I took out those two pens that were given to my dad for 30

years of faithful service to this banking institution and 50

years of the bank account of our business with with this

institution. I took out these pens and I gave

them to the bank manager. This is the photograph he took.

I said take a photograph of these pens and phone me back

tomorrow and ask me if I need to sign surety for the loan.

And he phoned me back the next day and he said in the history

of our bank this has never happened.

But you don't have to sign surety.

The pens are good enough because a good name, a good name is

better than fine perfume. You doctors and your lawyers in

this church, and I know you and I know we tease each other a

little bit, but the reality why your practices, your law and

medical practices are successful is because you have a good have

a good name. My doctor walked in this

morning. It's a lady doctor, and because

she's so good, I've referred people to her and people have

referred people to her and people have referred people to

her. People have referred people to

her because she's got a good. And Ecclesiastes says, you know

what, you can smell good and you can look successful and all

those things, but God is looking for a good name.

And if you've messed your name up, then Jesus Christ can save

you and it can heal you. And instead of sitting here with

the label that people have given to you, slut, God can redeem

that and call you daughter or liar, and God can redeem that

and call you son. Amen.

And the second part that goes and says a good name is better

than fine perfume. The day of death is better than

the day of birth. Why, why?

Why? Nicole?

You're going to be with Jesus, I guess.

Awesome. But what do you say at the day

of birth? All you can say ha ha ha ha ha.

So cute. They're not the only body who

finds a baby cute is the parents.

They wrinkle. They like.

Yeah. Haha.

So beautiful. You look just like your mother.

Think. Oh, my head.

She's much more beautiful than that.

I mean, look at my wife. She's awesome.

She's 57. She looks like a queen.

Your kids never look anything like you at birth.

I mean seriously, you're one of the ugliest babies I've ever

shit honestly in my whole life. I looked at you, I thought, Oh

dear God no, Lord Jesus, I'm only joking.

How many You say the only person who thinks a child is beautiful

is its mother and the father has to act because you've been

through and you're so disappointed you'd hopefully

come out with a spring bug rugby jersey or something.

But the reason, friends, the reason is because in the day of

birth, it's just potential. You can only say a few things.

It's just potential. But the day of death, you can

talk about fulfillment. So tomorrow they're going to

speak about Case Pitzer, the father.

And when you look at Adele, his daughter, he's a beautiful lady.

You know how she got married? She came to one Home group AT3CI

and her husband was at that Home group and they met at that Home

group and that's how they got married.

They came to one. She only went to one Home group.

She met her husband. But if you look at Adele and you

say Adele, tell me about your dad, just tears fill her eyes

because the day of death, although it's sad, has got this

unbelievable legacy of a good dad.

And then you say to the son, Christ, Christ, tell me about

your dad. The rugby place is youth.

Rory Avastai strongman. But then you say to the other

son, tell me about Yaku. Tell me about your dad, the

Christian. He said, Rory Kanak, your say

Babel vase Kanak, your say babe, connect for your say very Loftus

on the on for the year and for us familiar.

And so you start to talk about fulfillment and about life and,

and, and it's basically saying, hey, guys, what do you want

people to say at your funeral? And now he's 17, now 17.

His day of birth was a great celebration, but I can tell you

much more about him now. He's humble and he's gracious

and he's determined and he played hockey and he got too

tall. And so last year he played

rubbish hockey. I thought, wonder why my son's

hockey's gone down so much? I realized he's too tall.

And he said, dad, I can't control the hockey ball anymore.

I said, what are you going to do?

He said, dad, I think I have to play rugby.

I said, jeepers, well, you're Grade 11, you haven't played

rugby for eight or nine years. He's going on tour tomorrow and

he got his reserve jersey for the first team.

I can tell you about determination.

I can tell you about digging deep.

I can tell you about a young man going to gym and doing gym in

the middle of them in the hot afternoons doing gym because he

has to change sport. But when he was born, I didn't

know that about him. I didn't know that about him.

I can tell you about this young man.

I saw him when he was born. I saw him when he was born.

I mean, he's got lovely, beautiful parents with that

beautiful mom. They're always going to be

pretty. But but but, but this guy was

wild. He was wild.

And then I saw him go to boarding school and I saw him

learn respect. And then I saw him write him a

trick and it was difficult for him to study in the early years.

And then I saw him get a complete full university pass.

And you start to speak about fulfillment and he's got manners

and he sends you SM s s and he says thank you.

And but when you're bored, you don't know that.

It's just potential, but when you die, people will speak about

how you've lived. Friends, God designed you, Johan

and Yvonne, God designed you with a special DNA.

Who are taking our kids ministry buildings down at the back here.

And Johan came and said, hey, do you mind if I take 1?

And I think for what, Johan, what are you going to take it

for? I said, I'm going to take it and

I'm going to put it on my property.

And anybody that's in trouble, anybody that's in trouble, they

can just come to my property and they can stay in that house and

they can just rest and be restored.

And Yvonne will take their food and they will get to recover.

And so people come from Mozambique to stay in the

property that used to be a kids ministry building here.

And and, and, and and they just get restored at their house and

they get served food and they get loved and they don't pay

accommodation And they just, and I think that's what I'm going to

tell people at your funeral. You know, Prattles Patty, all of

you know Prattles Patty. His dad invented it.

He's just visiting us some Cape Town because he loves the

church. Him and his wife have served the

church their whole lives. They're friends of them When

they planted a church. These are my friends, some

Qatar. I remember when he was a young

man, he used to come and sit in my office in Durban, say, hey,

Ro, what's God called me to? We planted a church in Cape

Place to phone him there. Most amazing job.

Beautiful man, beautiful wife. The third son's name is Clint.

Now I'm joking. He's Rory.

But we've walked together, we've journeyed together.

Start to turn 21 this weekend. Happy birthday, Abby.

We journey together and we we're starting to know each other.

He's coming to spend time in my house on Sunday.

He moves into my house for a few days.

We talk about life and about the Lord and about disappointments

and about heartache and about breakthroughs and about ministry

and about prophecy. I saw him at his very worst.

I saw him about to have a nervous breakdown.

I walked in and I was in a meeting about the size and he

wasn't there and I walked into the kitchen behind the building.

I saw him there. He was melting down.

I hugged him because it's better that we face mortality.

It's better better that we face our failure.

It's better than just Joeling. Hip hop spinner cop, hop, hop

spinner cop. Sobering, eh?

Sobering. Better to go to the House of

mourning, into the House of celebration because in the House

of celebration you don't ask the real questions.

How is your marriage? How is your marriage?

How are your children? And there are four things that

the scripture speaks about. I'll quickly look at it.

You can just put it up again quickly. 4 things that we

finish. The first one is greed,

extortion and bribery. Said, if you don't understand

death properly, you're going to get a completely

misunderstanding of money and you're going to try and make

money however you can through extortion and through bribery.

And we start, you get a job, you get a salary.

Live with it. Live with it.

Honor guard with it. Don't live above your means.

Live within your salary. The second one is patience.

The end of something is better than the beginning.

The end of something is better than the beginning.

Live with patience. Don't become impatient.

Don't become impatient with your wife or your children or your

boss, because death's coming, and if I knew that death was

coming, I'd be much more patient.

The third one is anger. You can read it in there.

Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides

in the lap of fools, just with a quick show of your hands.

How many of you battle with anger?

50% Can I say this to you? You.

You're going to die. You're going to die and you're

going to die sooner than you think.

And you don't know when you're going to die.

And Solomon says you don't. You cannot control the future.

You don't know what phone call you're going to get tomorrow.

You don't know what's going to happen.

I got a phone call from a member of this church.

I was preaching in Cape Town on Friday and I was about to get up

and preach. And he phoned me with a shaky

voice, and he said, Rory, I've been diagnosed with stage 4

prostate cancer that has spread to all my organs.

He's listening now. He's listening.

He's, yeah, listening. And if you knew that, then you

would not become angry with your wife and you would not become

angry with your children. Anger, friends.

There's some good anger, righteous anger.

But the anger that is being let loose on your families is not

right. Your life is short.

Eternity is long. Prepare for it, Prepare for it,

prepare for it. I've realized this boy is a

precious boy. Great gift to me.

He's a lot Lamicky. You've got two children, are

married. But this is a gift to me.

If I asked you Honestly, boy, have you ever lived under my

anger? I can't be angry with him.

I don't know how long I've got him for, I don't know how long

he's got me for. And when he stands up at my

funeral I don't want him to stand up and say my dad was an

angry man. I have got anger issues but I

don't want him to stand up and say my dad was an angry man.

I want him to say my dad dig me. My dad was kind to my mum.

And I want you to leave 3 CR when you move to Cape Town.

I think there was a pastor there, but he was angry.

He was crossed. He was always, there was a

pastor there is conga. He was really passionate about

God and about life and about honesty and about never got

crossed with us. He was quite direct and he was

quite honest and he was quite, but he wasn't angry.

I want to say to you and a woman, you must deal with your

anger now because mortality is true.

And on your funeral day, you don't want anybody to say, oh,

he was successful. Oh, he was this, he was that.

But my goodness, he was impatient and angry.

And finish with you. You've been an amazing son to

your dad. You've been an amazing son to

your dad. You've been an amazing servant

of the church. You've been an amazing father to

your children. You've been an amazing supporter

of the church. And I saw when your leaders

decided to go to Qatar in a conference you just came across

just because you wanted to make sure your dad invented Pratley's

Patty. But what you've done is you've

been the glue of your friendships way beyond what your

dad did in the natural. You have done in the spiritual.

You have glued together years of friendship.

You have stuck like glue to that beautiful woman God gave to you.

You are the spiritual artworking of your earthly father's natural

invention. Better a good name.

Better a good name than fine perfume and many days because

you've got your hands dirty and you've worked in the soil of the

factories. Many days you don't come home

smelling great. But the character, the name is a

great fragrance to God. Nostalgia says.

Why do we say the days of the past the better?

You know, friends, I've been to the Kruger many times and I know

you'll all shout at me, but the Kruger is never quite as good as

I remember it when I went with my mom and dad and we bride

outside the Pretoria's Corp. I always go back and I try and

rekindle those memories and it's nice and you see things, but

it's not as nice as it used to be.

But in my mind I romanticize it to this.

Now you go to the, I think like leopard, lion, leopard, lion,

leopard, lion, leopard, lion. And sometimes I go to the Kruger

and I drive for five days and I don't see anything but Impala.

Roy Booker. Roy Booker in mere donors.

Roy Booker flap just like Roy. That's like Roy.

How was the crew get awesome. What did you see?

Roy Booker? I don't want to see another Roy

book. I don't want to see another

giraffe. I've seen every job.

Not the elephant, but but somehow the nostalgia.

And then you go to a restaurant and you have this unbelievable

meal and you tell everybody and six or eight weeks later the

meal tastes better and you think I want to go back.

And you go back and the lettuce is not quite as crispy.

And that starter that salmon started, it's not quite the

same. It's a little bit more like

slippery. The snails are not quite as

fresh. And yet, Solomon says, you're

watching a lot of photographs, but you've got to start thinking

about the future. You've got to start thinking.

Forget what is behind and start thinking about what is ahead.

You spend a lot of time thinking about the past.

When I was a schoolboy rugby player, when I was, and some of

you bad when I grew up, it was really tough.

And some of you like when I was a rugby player, I was.

There's too much time in the past, Solomon says.

You know what, guys? Start thinking about the future.

Don't be greedy, don't be impatient, don't be angry.

Think about the future. And on your funeral day, which

will happen, maybe they'll speak well of your name.

Amen.