Jimmy Sprinkle Funeral Philippians 1:20 (Feb 2014)

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****Message Evangelist Ronnie Miller****

On behalf of the family of Jimmy Sprinkle thank you for coming today….we are here today pay our respects to his life ….Jimmy was gentle, quiet man who loved his family and I also believe that Jimmy put his trust in Jesus Christ as his Saviour.

Sometimes life in this old flesh is not easy …sometimes it’s just plain cruel ….especially when our bodies give away to sickness and many times for some ..disability like it did Jimmy….when that happens it’s like we are trapped inside this body waiting to be healed…..

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With all the troubles and sickness that a Christian goes through ..God assures us and gives us promises ….that the best is yet to come….because death has been defeated by the Lord Jesus.

****Apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Paul wrote those words that are inspired by God while he was in a Roman prison.

***You know folks; Jimmy was in prisoned by his own body in the last several months because of the heart trouble he had starting back in Dec of 2011.

But for Jimmy and all who belong to Jesus….is to live for Christ and to die is gain.

How can the Bible make such a statement?.....how can dying be a gain?

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Listen to what the Apostol Paul says in II Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

How could Paul have so much confident that when a child of God like Jimmy Sprinkle left his body that he would be present with the Lord?

Because he says we as Christians walk by faith and not by site…….***Well…what is faith?

The Bible says in Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

That means that we rely on Gods promises……we believe everything that the Bible says…not only is the Bible inspired by God but those promises were witnessed by hundreds of people just like us.

Also the split second we ask Him to forgive us of our sins and save us …God sends the Holy Spirit to live inside us and He makes it real to us and is a deposit of the promise that when we die we will stand before God free from our sins because of what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary.

********death is not the end….it’s just the beginning of eternity*************

Jimmy Sprinkle was one of the kindest….humblest men I’ve ever met….he was what we call a “good fellow”….but, the Bible says that none of us are good enough to stand in Gods presents because of our sin….we must be forgiven….we must have a Saviour.

Jimmy put his trust in the only one who could do that…Jesus said Himself that He was the only way truth and life…..that no one comes to the Father except through Him…its belief…its trust…its faith.

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When God spoke to Jimmy Sprinkles heart …he responded by accepting Jesus as his Saviour.

The Bible says in Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Jimmy believed from the heart all of what God had promised….He believed that Jesus forgave him his sins and

Folks..now at this very moment because of Jimmy Sprinkle trust in Christ …is in the presents of the Lord…….Remember what the Bible says…to be absent with the body is to be present with the Lord.

***And the Bible says that nothing can separate us from Him….ever again…no one or anything can snatch us from Gods hand….Jimmy Sprinkles name has been written in the Lambs book of life….sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ and to forever be with Him.

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What happens to those who don’t believe and never except Jesus as their Saviour?....

To be absent from the body is to be present in one of 2 places… one is a place called Heaven …where the Lord is ….but the other one is a place called Hell where Satan will be.

The soul… the real you and me never has as an un conscience state..never sleeps….our spirit was created to last forever and it will in either Heaven or Hell.