Funeral Denver Pendergrass

Denver Pendergrass

Words of Grace & Greeting: Friends, we have gathered here to praise God and to witness to our faith as we celebrate the life of “Denver Pendergrass”. We come together in grief, acknowledging our human loss.

May God grant us grace, that in pain we may find comfort, in sorrow hope, in death resurrection.

Hymn

Scripture : Psalm 139 13For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,

I know that full well. 15My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

1. We are gathered here to celebrate something special the life of Denver Pendergrass We are not here because he died but we’re here because he lived a full life

• We grieve because our loved one is gone but we can rejoice because of hope, hope in Christ

• The Bible does not remedy suffering and pain by discouraging us from grieving. Rather, it instructs us to “not grieve as others do, who have no hope” (1 Thes 4:13). Friends and family we have hope

• Of a Great care giver, he is able to remove suffering, death, pain, gives peace.

2. Denver apparently was a special person God is a special God as well

• Denver was Special because he had a soft spot for dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, guinea pigs, mice, hermit crabs, etc. he loved animals,

• Denver was special he was Lay Potato chip man

• Denver was special because he was kind, loving, compassionate family

• Denver was special he liked Bingo for a while then he just didn’t like no more He told me the same ones always won

3. No doubt Denver is special and God gives us something special and that is Hope

• When David lost his son he said. He can’t come to me but I can go to him

• If we are redeemed, saved, born again, if we are Christians we do not have to wonder we will see Denver again.

• We have Hope we know what The apostle Paul describes those who die in the faith as merely being “asleep” (1 Thes 4:14), For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

• We have a special Hope that the dead shall awake “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

4. Denver receives something Special Victory In Jesus

• I certainly didn’t know Denver very well but I know the scriptures say, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

• I am sure Denver believed in Jesus who came into to this world to save sinners - and at some point Denver obeyed the Gospel plan of salvation and was immersed into Jesus Christ and he received the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

• I don’t know a lot but I do know The Good Shepherd can do the impossible He can save the impossible

5. Yes friends Denver is Special But I also want to share with you That God is Special and death is not the final.

• Our earthly death is not final—there will be a life to come, a waking-up of sorts, for all of mankind

• (1 Cor 15:54), 51Behold, I shew you a mystery;, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

• 54So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then

• Death is swallowed up in victory. 55O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

• 57But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. God wants to give each of us resurrection

• Paul says that just as Jesus was raised, so we will be too (1 Cor 6:14). . 14By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.

• Just as Jesus lived after death, so we will too (1 Cor 15:20). 20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive