Remembering Alex Trebek

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Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.

Just when we thought 2020 had done all it could and it couldn't take away anymore, yesterday, Alex Trebek, the longtime host of one of my favorite television programs, and I know probably one of yours, Jeopardy, passed away.

Alex Trebek began to be the host of Jeopardy back in the 80s.

He started hosting in 1984 and he hosted every one of their programs, except for one day in 1997 when he and Pat Sajak, the host of Wheel of Fortune, switched places on April Fool's Day.

For many of you, and I know for me, I have spent many nights enjoying with my family sitting around the television show shouting the answers, or actually shouting the questions, to the television set while Mr.

Trebek gave the answers in his unique and very stylish way.

And I was saddened today to hear of his passing, or rather yesterday since this is going to air on Monday, I was saddened to hear of his passing and I thought today I might simply give a little tribute to Trebek, but also to talk about the subject of death, a subject that not a lot of people like to talk about, but when we are reminded about death it's an important time for all of us to really reflect on our own life and ultimately our own mortality.

I remember growing up, I remember this being a program that my grandmother and I would watch.

My grandmother loved Wheel of Fortune and of course as many of us know Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy were tied in a time slot.

Wheel of Fortune would come on at one time and thirty minutes later inevitably Jeopardy would follow.

And I remember going over to her house and sitting at her house and her table was where she could see her television set and when it would be dinner time it was just about the time for Pat Sajak to come on and give the Wheel of Fortune and she loved to shout the answers and my grandmother was so great.

She just happened to have a real keen mind for Wheel of Fortune and she had an ability to see the puzzles and see the words and I always wondered how can she figure this out with only a few letters she could come up with it and she was really good at it.

But then Jeopardy would come on and things changed.

Neither myself nor my grandmother hardly ever knew the answer but it was still fun.

Trebek made the show fun even though it was very intellectual there would often be one or two categories where you might know a couple of answers even if you were a young person or not necessarily a person who had studied history or something.

And I just remember sitting down with her and trying to figure out these answers and the one thing that was always very interesting was how the people on the show knew all these answers I mean there were so many various categories and so many things that were just it seemed out of this world that anyone could go on a program like that and have a knowledge of so many wide varieties of topics but these people did.

And of course at the heart of it all was Trebek with his iconic voice and the way that he would announce the categories the way that he would announce the answers and he had certainly a gift for speaking and a gift for sharing and again I remember it wasn't too long ago that he was diagnosed with cancer and I remember our family hearing about that and of course we were very sad and he was very candid about his situation and what I noticed today as I was reading an article about him and about his passing was he still lived to 80 years old which is certainly a respectable age as far as you know not some people who have relatively healthy never have cancer or anything still don't make it to 80 so he lived a relatively long life and so that of course is a is something to consider that even though he had this disease he lived to 80 years old but then again we are reminded that even though he did live 80 years old 80 years old really isn't that long of a time when we consider the comparative time of eternity you know oftentimes we we think about someone who lives a long life and we're like wow they lived a lot of years but when we compare those years on this planet to the years that we're going to have in eternity and in fact eternity won't even be measured in years I know that when we sing amazing grace we often sing when we've been there 10,000 years but but will we even really measure time in that way when there is no there is no more end it is a perpetual state of joy in the presence of the Lord and it will never end and that is what the believer has to look forward to as you know one person who was attempting to exaggerate the the length of eternity he said if a if a bird could pick up a grain of sand off of the beach and deliver that grain of sand to the moon and do that over and over until he completely took away all the beaches of the world that amount of time which you could imagine how long it would take for a bird to travel to the moon and back and of course we know this is impossible but the idea that if a bird could pick up a grain of sand take it to the moon come back and pick up another grain of sand and and when he completely divested all of the beaches of the world of sand that would only be one day in eternity and you know that's the way that we we can't even fathom what it's going to be like for there to be no end because we we have always ever since we've been born been living with an expiration date this life will end but the next life will not end the next life will go on forever and that is what anytime we face the reality of mortality anytime we face this situation we are reminded that the Bible tells us that it is appointed for every man once to die and after this is judgment no matter how rich a person is no matter how popular like mr.

Trebek no matter how winsome or classy or articulate no matter how gifted or intelligent no man will ever live past his expiration date and we all have a day coming the Bible says it is appointed for man to die and after this is judgment we all have an appointment that is coming and when we see someone like mr.

Trebek pass away we have to be reminded at least for a moment of our own mortality as I've often said as many funerals as I've preached I've often said this phrase death is indiscriminate it comes to the old and to the young it reaches up into the palace and down into the dungeon royal doors cannot block its entrance wealth cannot bribe it away death is certainly coming for us all and we're reminded of that in the death of someone who was literally invited into the homes of millions of people on a nightly basis and we will we will certainly miss mr.

Trebek and will miss his participation on our television and that game that he loved and loved to host but in his passing we are reminded that all of us have an eternity to look forward to and it is certainly well more important than this life so I would encourage you today listener if your eternity is not secure in Jesus Christ then I would encourage you to think about that today make that what you ponder today because there is only way to only one way to have a secure eternity Jesus said I am the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through me and the reason for that is because of sin we have been separated from God by our sin but the Bible says Jesus came and he died on the cross and he died for the sins of all who would ever believe on him so if you would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved if you will turn from your sin repent and trust in him you will be saved and in that moment you will go from death to life and in that moment your life will be changed and so I would encourage you turn from your sins and turn to Christ and know that your eternity if it is not bound up in him is bound for an eternity separated from the grace and mercy in God and exposed only to the wrath of God in a place called hell and I would hope by God's grace that you would by his grace turn from your sin and be rescued from that awful awful eternity now before I go today I want to do something kind of interesting I've never done this before but I'm going to have a little fun today because again I am giving a tribute in a sense to Alex Trebek and all he meant in my life and the life of my family and the life of my grandmother and me and the memories that we share I'm going to end by asking a few trivia questions these are directly from Jeopardy I've gone to the Jeopardy website and I've pulled out on the category of Bible study and so I'm going to ask or rather I'm going to give the answer and I'm going to encourage you if you're the listener I'm going to give you just a few seconds to try to shout out the answer I know I won't be able to hear you but you'll be able to hear and then I will give you the answer I'm going to do this for three or four questions and then I will sign off so I hope this will be a fun way to conclude the program and again to do a short tribute to Mr.