MTYC 2012

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Montana Youth Conference

Michelle Boothby

Forever Up

I'm going to share a story with you that some of you may be familiar with, but I just think it teaches something that it brings out something that we often forget.

And I think it ties with our theme Forever Up.

So there was a young man who was just walking down a street I believe and he sees a wallet sitting on the street.

It's kind of snowy and he just sees this old wallet with like this stitching on it.

He picks up the wallet and inside he's just kind of looking and there's only like 3 dollars in the wallet.

And there's an envelope, a blue really faded just ancient envelope and he decides to open it because he needs to try to figure out who the wallet belongs to.

So he opens up this letter and it was written in 1920.

This story I believe was probably the 90s, I'm not exactly sure of the exact date.

So he sees this letter and it was a Dear John letter and it was explaining how this young lady was saying that her mother forbade her to spend any more time with this young man and it was really a sad, just a heart-rending letter.

And at the end it was signed with a first and last name, Margaret something or other.

And so the young man says, maybe, it's cute, he was trying to figure out who this belongs to, maybe this person is still alive.

So He calls, and it might not have been 1920, it might have been like 1930, I can't remember exactly, but he calls some place and said, information, you know, this name, and they send him to some house, and the people, they answer the phone and say, oh, well, we bought this house from someone by that name, and that person is in the nursing home.

So he calls the nursing home, and they say, oh, well, she passed away, but there's, the daughter of that person is in this nursing home.

And that name was the name that was on the letter.

He's like, oh, good, that's who I'd like to see.

And it's like 10 o'clock at night, well, 9 o'clock at night by this time.

And the nursing home people are like, well, if you want to.

She spends time in the little sitting area where she watches some TV late in the evening.

So he shows up and he goes to her and he shows her this letter and he says, I found a wallet and this letter and it seems to have belonged to you and do you know who the wallet would belong to?

And she's just kind of, well, I have not seen this man since I wrote that letter.

And she's just kind of, well, his name was John so and so.

And he just has a nice little time visiting with her.

And she says, well, as he's leaving, by the way, if you should find him, tell him that I think of him often.

So He's getting on the elevator at the little nursing home, and he's going up.

And the person that's running the little room there says, I recognize that wallet.

He lives up on the eighth floor of this building place here.

And he says, well, maybe I could go find him.

He says, well, he's in the library at this time of night.

So he goes up to the 10th floor and he goes in the library.

The old man says, yes, I drop it all the time.

Thank you so much for bringing it back to me.

And he's kind of looking at his wallet, and the young man's like, no, it's fine.

And he says, you know, I found this letter, and the old man just looks at it and says, that letter broke my heart.

And the young man says, well, did you know that I think I found the person that wrote this letter?

And the young man says, well, come with me, come with me.

And they get on the elevator, and they go down to the little room.

He goes up to the other lady, and he says, hello, whatever.

And they just throw their arms around each other and just cry and cry and cry.

And this young man is like watching with these nursing home people.

And it's some of the nursing home people.

And they said, you've been requested to come to the wedding.

And so the story ends by saying, if you want to see the most in love people that act like just teenagers, go to this nursing home.

And what I often think of, I've heard this story a couple times, is the fact that what we do with many sermons and everything else is it's just like this.

We'll share that we finally get a glimpse of the Lord face to face, we've been waiting our whole life and we haven't got to see him, you know, or we see the little cloud, the size of a man's hand and then we stop.

It's the end of maybe some of our lives, or it's the end of a certain way of living, but it's the beginning of a wonderful, wonderful life.

And so I just think that we need to go past where we typically end with a message.

We see Jesus coming, and we're all standing by a cave, you know.

And that's just like ending the story about that couple.

And there they are standing and they get married.

They finally are gonna be really happy together.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this weekend.

Thank you that we have been having a filling experience, that we do feel your Holy Spirit's presence.

And even though we're small in number, Lord, you're here with us and our guardian angels are here and we're having a time of thanksgiving, we're having a time of praising you.

I just would like to lift up each 1 of us here and just put ourselves near to you as possible, Lord, and just prepare us for the day we actually meet you and help us to remember that this whole story is going to end, but that's going to be the very beginning of the very best part of our lives.

Thank you so much that the best is yet to come.

Please just bless us as my prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

So in this message, what I'd like to do is, number 1, help you to be excited about heaven.

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Forever Up

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