(Ecclesiastes 9:13-18)........(SURVIVAL SERIES #2)-"UNSUNG HEROES"
Chesley Sullenberger spent practically his whole life preparing for the five-minute crucible that was US Airways Flight 1549.  He got his pilot's license at 14, flew fighter jets in the Air Force, investigated air disasters, mastered glider flying and even studied the psychology of how cockpit crews behave in a crisis. When the ultimate test came on a descent over the Hudson River, he spoke into the intercom only once and gave perhaps the most terrifying instruction a pilot can give — "Brace for impact" — with remarkable calm. This man they call "Sulley" has logged over 14,000 hours in the air....we never knew he existed until this week, yet he lived in a little culdisack raising his family un-beknowns to the rest of the world for all these years!
Today I want to focus on the ability to SURVIVE through the help of "UNSUNG HEROES".  Solomon here tells the story of a man that nobody knew existed!  No name is given....and somewhere in the Middle-East lies the dust of this UNKNOWN person who made such a difference in his little town.-(Stony Point-Hiddenite-Taylorsville?)  Nothing is said about how this man felt.  He was probably avoided by others because he didn't seem to have much to offer the world...BE HE DID!!!  For many of you here today, your life seems on hold....nothing ever changes (school, work, friendships, money, bills, LIFE HAS become STAGNANT!)  This story might be YOUR STORY....and you wonder if YOUR life will ever matter in the grand scale of things?  Before I go any further I want you to know that your life mattered enough for God to become human-flesh and bleed for your sins on a cross that you might live forever with him in heaven....AND he died that your life might matter in the world right now!  Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.   Let me ask you this; "what kind of life are YOU living"?  This story I read to you in the O.T. is the story of a poor insignificant man who in a moments time lived a life of faith.  The city turned to him for advice because they had ran out of answers! (THIS WORLD NEEDS YOU AND I, BECAUSE WE HAVE THE ANSWER TO OVERCOME THE WORLDS GREATEST ENEMY!)
(1)-HIS STANDING WAS POOR-(v.15-"Now there was found in it a poor wise man")
You DONT have to have money to be somebodys HERO!  (David & Goliath)(Lad with 5 loaves)(Jesus Christ!)
(2)-HIS SURROUNDINGS WERE PUNEY-(v.14-"There was a little city, and few men within it")
The trend of the day is to move where there is opportunity to advance.  I lived for 10 years near the epicenter of the movie star world.  We would spend Sundays driving through Beverly Hills taking pictures and looking for celebritys....but we didn't live that way.  You see, what is a place of success for one isnt necessarily prosperity for the other!  

You may wonder how your life can matter out here in "the sticks"?  Well, the man in this story didn't have money, and he didn't have a 
"happening place" to live either.....but he became the KEY TO HIS COMMUNITY'S SURVIVAL!
(3)-HIS SITUATION WAS PETRIFYING-(vs. 14-"and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:" )
(Gideon was affriad)-(Hezekiah lived in a "little city"seiged by a "great king")-(Moses at the Red Sea!)-(The CHURCH in this world-"Gates of Hell shall NOT prevail")
(4)-HIS SUGGESTIONS WERE PARAMOUNT-(v.15-"Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city")
James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 
(5)-HIS STORY WAS PUT AWAY-(v.15-"and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.") (read thru v.18)
(2 Corinthians 6:9-10-"As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;  As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.")  Like the story of the little maid who helped Naaaman the leper with her "little bit of information"......it was as if she was saying, "I might be a nobody, but at least I know somebody!")  You go out in the graveyards and you will see the epitaph "Gone but not forgaotten".....GOD WONT FORGET YOU!!!  (Hebrews 6:10 -For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name")-(Luke 23:42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. )   *Everybody else wanted that dying theif to disappear from the earth.....capital punishment is how society tries to erase a life....but even those who the world wants to forget, Jesus remembers!  DO YOU FEEL THAT YOUR LIFE IS GOING UNNOTICED-(Hagar said in Genesis "Thou God seest me"!)