Funeral Service Male Age 21

Funeral.088 Brian Patrick Sykes, Age 21

From the pulpit of Bayview Baptist Church, Saturday, June 2, 2001

Prelude: Organist

Processional: Organist plays hymn “Just When I Need Him Most”

On behalf of the O’Quinn and Sykes family, and from the heart and soul of the fellowship of Bayview Baptist Church, I would like to express our deepest thanks to all of you who have expressed your sympathies to this family in their darkest, saddest and most painful time to strike their lives.

You have given freely gifts of food, flowers, tributes and memorials, as well as words of comfort.

You have used Scripture to life our spirits with words of impression, and to you we are most humbly grateful and thankful for your compassion and care!

At this time we will listen to song recorded on cassette tape of a dearly beloved uncle of this family, Mr. Jack Pettigrew.

The song is entitled: “How Great Thou Art”

Play cassette tape of Uncle Jack Pettigrew

Psalm 23 K.J.V.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”

Prayer:

Solo: Wendy Campbell “Till The Storm Passes By”

I have chosen today to read a single verse from the book of Deuteronomy.

One that I memorized in my youth and one that since has meant a great deal to me personally.

Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

To this family, today, I would like to say something that you already know: A precious part of your world has fallen apart, but your life must go on.

In the midst of your deepest hurt, don’t be afraid of your feelings; for there is no such thing as normal grieving; each person grieves in his or her own way and time, and you have to do those things that you personally need to do to carry you through your personal burden of your sorrow!

Losing Brian has evoked emotions that you have never felt before.

As you feel those intense emotion: sadness, anger, fear, rage, loss of control, even guilt, or being powerless to control events, or any other emotion; remember that these feelings are not abnormal, but rather, they are normal feelings that will ultimately help you to bring closure to your grief.

What I would suggest to you as a family is simply to continue doing some of the things you are already doing.

Find support with one another through talking and sharing.

If you reveal the magnitude of your loss to those who are close to you, if you are patient in dealing with your deep hurt, if you cherish those good and pleasant memories of Bryan; then your life will again stabilize, and your days will be filled with special meaning that will help you maintain the memory of Brian, while you embark upon a new chapter in your life.

In your struggle with your loss, you may sometimes feel as though you are completely alone; yet God is certainly present in your life.

God has not stopped loving you, and neither has God stopped loving Brian.

Brian loved many things in his life.

He loved boating, scuba diving, riding the tube on the water at the lake.

Brian was efficient and skilled with computer knowledge, and he dearly loved his family.

But there is something else much more important about Brian’s life.

We can bear witness today that Brian loved Jesus and Jesus loves Brian.

In Brian’s hour of despair and anguish, Brian slipped from this world into the tender arms of Jesus.

Jesus Himself said, “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” (John 11:25,26).

Oh, friends, do you believe this powerful statement from the Word of God this afternoon?

A biblical promise of this is found in Romans 8:38,39.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”