Funeral Service
John Woodall
Welcome
On behalf of the family - I would like to both welcome you and thank you for being here to honor the life of John Woodall. And let me say, that you have no idea how much your presence today, means to them. The family will never forget they you took the time & effort to show them how much you care for them and how much you loved John.
What I’d like to do at this time is to read some scripture from God’s word - my reason for doing this is because the Word of God is powerful - it is living and active. And God says of His word - in Is;
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater. So is my word that goes out from my mouth; It will not return to me empty BUT will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Is 55:11,12
Prayer.........
NOW – the Scriptures that I want to read are some of the ones that I read to John just hours before he went home. I asked him if I could read some Scripture and John nodded his head yes.
Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, [1]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
Pslam 46
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither 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.
• Special Song – “I Come To The Garden”
• Comments On John’s Life - Ryckie
• Message - Steve
When death comes calling, it’ difficult for most of us to think good thoughts. In spite of the efforts of our friends and neighbors to comfort and encourage us, we still feel the sting - the pain & the heartache - that is so much a part of losing a loved one.
To be quite honest about it, there’s probably nothing I could say today that would completely alleviate the grief you feel. BUT I would like to try to lessen it a little bit by encouraging you to remember 4 important truths......
Now, these are truths that you’re probably already aware of, and yet, they can be awfully easy to forget at a time like this.....
First Of All, You Should Remember That We Have Gathered Together In This Place, Not Because Our Loved One Has Died, But Because John Woodall Lived.....
We are not here today to honor death. We are here because we’ve had the privilege and honor of knowing & loving John. His life was a good one. He brought love, joy & laughter into the lives of many people, both family and friends. And for that we can be very thankful.
I once heard the story of a mother whose 2 children died while her husband was away. For several years as she waited for him to return, she wondered how she was going to break the news to him. She wanted to do it as gently as possible because she knew it was going to be hard for him to take. Finally she came up with a plan.
When her husband arrived she said, “Honey, awhile back, someone lent me some jewels and now he wants them back. What do you think I should do?”
Her husband replied, “I think you should return them by all means. And when you do, don’t forget to say thank you.”
When you stop to think about it, that’s just about where we are today. God has lent us a precious jewel and now it’s time for us to return it. And as we do, we must not forget to say thank you. Thank you God for the gift of John Woodall.
I know that Jeanette is thankful for her loving husband
The Second Wonderful Truth You Should Remember Is That, Even Though Death Can Take Our Loved Ones Away From Us, It Can’t Take Away Our Memories Of Them......
I’ve always felt that the ability to remember is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. Now, of course, it can be abused, as any gift can. Some people use it to focus only on the negative things of the past. But if you learn how to use your memory in a positive way, it can be a tremendous blessing to you.....
Helen Steiner Rice, one of America’s best loved poet’s, has captured the essence of this truth in her poem entitled, ‘Love Always Remembers,’ It goes like this;
May tender memories soften your grief,
May fond recollections bring you relief,
And may you find comfort and peace in the thought
Of the joy that knowing your loved one brought
For time and space can never divide
Or keep your loved one from your side
WHEN memory paints in colors true
The happy hours that belong to you
It’s true that death can separate our loved from us in a physical sense, but they can still be with us forever in our hearts and in our minds. I am sure that each of you have many precious memories of John - when I say her name a flood of snapshots flash in your mind.
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Just close your eyes for a moment and think of your best memory....
Think of your funniest memory.....
God has given us the gift of memory, so that we can our loved one always close....
The Third Wonderful Truth I Want To Remind You Of - Is That Death Isn’t the End Of Life...
Even though it is the reality of death that has brought us together today, we are not marking the end of anyone’s life.... John Woodall is just as alive today as she ever was - even more so... In John chapter 11 we read of a time when a close friend of Jesus has died. His name was Lazarus. And his 2 sisters Mary & Martha we obviously upset; Jesus said the following to Martha;
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? Yes Lord, she told him - I believe you are the Christ the Son of God, who has come into the world...
And as I read between the lines here - as I picture this scene unfolding in my mind’s eye - I am convinced that Martha though still - upset at the lose of her brother had a much different perspective after hearing Jesus say those powerful words.... As it always is when you are around Jesus - despair was giving way to hope...
And family and friends of John Woodall that is exactly what still happens today 2,000 years later - when we believe that Jesus is The Christ - the Son of God who came to into this world to rescue us.... Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He who believes in him WILL live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in him will never die...
Let me ask you a question - Do you believe this?
John Woodall believed this – He knew why, Jesus Christ came into the world - He knew that he came into to this world to save sinners - and John Woodall 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. Yes the body that housed John in gone - but John is very much alive.....Listen to these words from God;
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down - when we leave these bodies - we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself...we grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing....Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh, but it is not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life...God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. That is why we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident and we would rather be away from these bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord...
- 2 Cor 5:1-7
No John Woodall is not dead.... he is alive....death is not the end of life - In Fact for the Christian death is but a door - a valley, that we pass through in order to take hold of a better life - an everlasting life....
AND those who like John, have made that same decision in regard to Jesus, They will see her again.... God tells us that in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 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....For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, and with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left, will be caught up TOGETHER WITH THEM in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, And so WE will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
Together with them We will be with the Lord forever.
You WILL see him again......John is not dead he is very much alive
D.L. Moody is considered to be one of the greatest preachers who has ever lived. On his death bed with his family at his side, he made the following statement that all of us would do well to take note of... He said; “When I breathe for the last time, don’t dare cry for me For at that moment I’ll be happier than I’ve ever been, I’ll be holier than I’ve ever been, and I’ll finally get to meet the one person I’ve been looking forward to meeting all my life.. Jesus Christ...
As we gather here today - it is okay to mourn our lose - but we do not need to mourn for John - for he is happier and more alive than he has ever been...and he is looking into the eyes of the one he has been longing to meet his entire life.
The Fourth Wonderful Truth You Should Remember, Is That Christ Made Eternity Something Great For His Children To Look Forward To
The home that Jesus is preparing for his children is going to be awesome....
John 14
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Missionary Gregory Fisher writes: What will He say when He shouts?
The question took me by surprise. I had already found that West African Bible College Students can ask some of the most penetrating questions about minute details of scripture.
“Pastor, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says that Christ will descend from heaven with a loud command. I would like to know what that command will be.”
I wanted to leave the question unanswered, to tell him that we must not go past what Scripture has reveled, but my mind wandered to an encounter I had earlier in the day with a refugee from the Liberian civil war. The man, a high school principal, told me how he was apprehended by a 2 man death squad. After several hours of terror, as the men described how they would torture and kill him, he narrowly escaped. After hiding in the bush for 2 days, he was able to find his family and escape to a neighboring country. The escape cost him dearly: 2 of his children lost their lives.
I also saw flashbacks of the beggars that I pass each morning on my way to the office. Every day I see how poverty destroys dignity, robs men of the best of what it means to be human, and sometimes substitutes the worst of what it means to be an animal. I am haunted by the vacant eyes of people who have lost hope.
“Pastor, you have not given me an answer. What will He say?” The question hadn’t gone away. “Enough,” I said, “He will shout, “Enough! When he returns” The student had a look of surprise on his face, “What do you mean, enough?”
“Enough suffering. Enough starvation. Enough terror. Enough death. Enough indignity. Enough lives trapped in hopelessness. Enough sickness and disease. Enough heartache & sorrow. Enough pain and broken families. ENOUGH!!!!”
John in his Revelation says this about our new home....
Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear, from their eyes... - Rev 7:16,17
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.....Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.... Rev 21:4,8
Today , I feel a little like Peter must have felt in writing his second letter. In chapter 1 he said, “I shall always be ready to remind you of these things even though you already know them.”
I know that most of what I’ve said today, you’re already aware of. But as I said, sometimes it’s difficult for us to think good thoughts when we’re faced with the reality of death. Sometimes you need someone to stir us up by way of reminder. So I urge you today to remember:
First, that we here today not because John has died but because she has lived.
Second, remember that even though death can take our loved ones away from us - it can’t take away our memories of them.
Third remember death isn’t the end of life
Fourth, remember that Christ has made eternity something great for his children to look forward to....
