A Good Man

Song – How Great Thou Art

“Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. John 14.1-6

1. The Funeral is a universal custom. It is our attempt to:

a. Remember

b. Honor

c. Offer Comfort

d. Prepare

On his eightieth birthday, John Quincy Adams was walking slowly along a Boston street. A friend asked him "How is John Quincy Adams today?"

The former president replied graciously,

"Thank you, John Quincy Adams is well, sir, quite well, I thank you. But the house in which he lives at present is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering upon the foundations. Time and the seasons have nearly destroyed it. Its roof is pretty well worn out, its walls are shattered, and it trembles with every wind. The old tenement is becoming almost uninhabitable, and I think John Quincy Adams will have to move out of it soon; but he himself is quite well, sir, quite well."

That is the attitude we need to cultivate so that when the call home comes we may say with Paul:

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Timothy 4.7)

2. Funerals remind us of:

a. The Certainty of Death (Ecclesiastes 9:5)

b. The Shortness of life (James 4:14) – this was a shocking death – should not have happened

c. The Shortage of life (John 10:10)

1) How much do we waste on the trivial?

2) There is power in priority!

d. The sovereignty of God and Reality of Eternity.

The truth is, we preach our funerals by the way we live.

Dexter Webb was born March 31, 1937 in Okemah, OK to Hubert and Bessie (Groves) Webb. He passed away October 27, 2013 at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, OK after a long battle with leukemia.

Dexter worked for Mustang Fuel Corp./Enogex for 41 years and was a district superintendent for Edmond and Minco divisions. He retired in 2001. He lived in Yukon for the last 40 years.

Dexter is survived by his wife of 53 years, LaVerne; daughter, Renee Prentice and husband Merle and grandson Blake of Yukon; daughter, Regina Webb of Yukon; sisters, Charlotte Horton and husband Damon and family of Tulsa and Ramona Truskunas and husband Casey and family of The Colony, TX; sister-in-law, Bonnie J. McCoy of Yukon; brother-in-law, David Prickett and wife Hilda of Denver, CO; and numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents; and brother, Nigel Webb.

Dexter loved the Lord and became a Christian at an early age. He was a member of the Church of Christ - South Yukon.

The family would like to give special thanks to Dr. Saadia Chohan and staff, Dr. Robert Lockwood and staff, and also the staff of Canadian Valley Regional Hospital for all their devoted care to Dexter.

Song – Amazing Grace

When I think of Dexter I have often thought of the biblical description of the disciple of Jesus named, Barnabas. The word means, “Son of Encouragement (or Consolation)”

He was that to his family and others throughout his life.

Charles Swindoll shares this story in an issue of Leadership magazine: “On May 24, 1965, a thirteen-and-a half-foot boat quietly slipped out of the marina at Falmouth, Massachusetts, for Falmouth, England. It would be the smallest craft ever to make the voyage. Its name? Tinkerbelle. It’s pilot? Robert Manry, a copy editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who felt ten years at the desk was enough boredom for a while, so he took a leave of absence to fulfill his secret dream.

“Manry was afraid, not of the ocean, but of all those people who would try to talk him out of the trip. So he didn’t share it with many, just some relatives and especially his wife, Virginia. She was his greatest source of support.

“The trip? Anything but pleasant. He spent sleepless nights trying to cross shipping lanes without getting run down and sunk. Weeks at sea caused his food to become tasteless. Loneliness, that age-old monster of the deep, led to terrifying hallucinations. His rudder broke three times. Storms swept him overboard, and had it not been for the rope he had knotted around his waist, he would never have been able to pull himself back on board. Finally, after seventy-eight days alone at sea, he sailed into Falmouth, England.