Celebration of Austin's Life

​On June 24, 2017, we celebrated Austin's life. We also celebrated his faith.  Some of the young men pictured were able to share some of their memories of Austin.  Samantha and Charlie spoke, too.  Then, Todd Wagner spoke on the "13 Reasons You Ought to Imitate Austin".   Here's an except of the conclusion of his talk.

From Todd
Because Austin understood all of this life and his life was better because he understood who Jesus was. Yours will be too if you imitate him. The thirteenth reason you ought to imitate Austin is because Austin isn’t here to live anymore. 
Austin can’t love Lake Highlands High School this year. You boys can. 
Austin can’t be a godly husband. Some of you guys in this room can. 
Austin can’t be a good big brother. Somebody in this room can.
Austin can’t share Christ with anybody. Some of you people in this room can. 
Austin can’t be generous with his life. Some of you can. 

Austin is the last person in this room we need to be concerned about. Austin is fine. The Lord has taken care of him. I talked to David and Suzanne the other night, and I just said, “Let me just tell you something. I know you prayed, ‘O God, put me in Austin’s place. Let me go.’”

God granted David and Suzanne their request of letting them live the more difficult life. Austin is with the Lord. He is free. There is no more struggling with his flesh. There is no anxiety. There is no concern for fleeting things. The deceitfulness of riches can’t touch him. Do you know what’s really hard? To honor the Lord in the land of the living.

God has given you more years. You said, “Lord, let me live the hard road.” He’s going to say, “Go live it. Don’t you worry about your boy. I’ve got your boy. I didn’t need him. He was just done.” Those were the days appointed to him. The reason you should imitate Austin is because Austin isn’t here anymore to imitate Jesus Christ, and we are. This is our moment.

There’s going to be a day when we’re going to get to stand before the Lord and hopefully get to have people we led to Christ and we discipled and that we didn’t give ourselves away to stupid things the world tries to sell us are going to give us life, when we all know they won’t give us life. You should imitate Austin because Austin isn’t in here.

Are you missing him? Don’t miss him. The closer you get to Jesus, the closer you’re going to get to Austin. You just serve faithfully so that when you see Austin again you guys have stories to share, where you lived similarly in obedience to Jesus Christ. This was not a perfect kid. He had a perfect Savior. He did a lot of really good things because he denied himself and lived for Jesus. This is a high school kid you ought to imitate. You ought to send his tape to everybody and say, “Learn from him.”

Here's a link to the message and transcript.

www.watermark.org/message/4825

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