Funeral for Ryan Allen Lentz (Died at Birth)
Title “Awaiting You In Heaven”
Introduction: On behalf of the family, I want to extend a thank you to all who have in some way made time to minister to Ryan Allen’s family. We are thankful for the nurses at the Norton County Hospital and doctor McKinley. We are thankful to Pastor Kirk Kasson who ministered to the family, as they waited for word from the doctor. We are blessed by the ministry offered to the immediate family through this wonderful funeral home, through those who minister at Phillipsburg First Assembly of God and those who assist me at CrossRoads Ministries. I personally want to thank all of you for coming to support and give comfort to Jay and Melinda who have suffered a great loss, the loss of Ryan Allen Lentz.
We are broken hearted over the loss of Ryan. Bonnie and I know the cut of grief, the doubts, and the many questions that plague the soul in trials just like this one. Bonnie and I lost our first child to miscarriage. We understand how it feels to make preparations in the home and have exciting plans in the heart for the future, then to have them taken away never to be fulfilled on this earth. I do know now that the loss of our baby in 1984 prepared our hearts to minister to others who lose their babies. (2 Corinthians 1:4) I urge you to let the Holy Spirit use this difficult trial to prepare you to comfort others who may suffer the loss of a child.
No one here is taking this lightly. All of us grieve with Jay and Melinda, their family and friends. It is okay to grieve, it is okay to cry. Tears are not a sign of disbelief in God, nor are tears the results of a lack of trust in Christ. Crying with those who grieve over of the loss of child is not a sign of weakness. It is showing compassion and most importantly it is ministering to all who mourn.
Jesus Christ showed the example when He raised Lazarus from the dead. (John 11:1-44) When Jesus arrived in Bethany He saw Mary and all the Jews weeping over the death of Lazarus. Even though the Lord knew He was going to do a miracle by raising Lazarus from the dead, He still wept, because He was saddened by the grief of those who loved and knew Lazarus. (John 11:1-44)
Proposition: I would propose to you that even on this day, a day that does not even make sense to us, God is wanting to do a work in and through all who are here today!
There a several truths you must take with you today if you are going to enjoy the comfort that comes from God through the power of the Holy Spirit of Christ. Just what are those truths?
Transitional Sentence: One powerful truth is found in Psalm 139, a word written by David as the Holy Spirit moved him to give us this wonderful revelation. “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together…, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:13-16) Pray!
Psalm 139:13-16 is the Word of God and there are truths worth grasping as we remember Ryan Allen. Ryan’s body was only seen by a few of us. However, he was seen by the Lord and he was never hidden from God’s sight. Even while Ryan’s body was unformed, the Lord knew him and the Lord’s plans for his life will see its fulfillment. Even to this day, Ryan’s home going will give all of you an opportunity to think upon and consider eternal life offered by God in Jesus Christ’s Name.
Too often, we see death as untimely, or too early – but God is in full control. We are surprised at Ryan’s home going, the Lord is not. We are naturally grieved, but heaven welcomes Ryan Allen to his eternal home. Ryan will never have to suffer heartache, the results of a sin stricken world or interrupted worship of the God who created him and of the Christ who died for him. Even the most spiritual people have to suffer heartache, are stricken in some way and have their worship to the Lord interrupted. Ryan will never have to experience any of those things. Ryan is enjoying all the blessings of heaven right now. Ryan Allen is enjoying his inheritance, he knows heaven is a real place, a personal place, a Holy place, a place of reunion and a permanent place.
Transitional Sentence: Our all knowing God had Jesus prepare a place for Ryan Allen and Ryan fully understands it all. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” Grasp this truth. Ryan knows fully as he is fully known by God. I do not have the answer and nor does anyone else on why the Lord chose to take Ryan into His presence at this time. I can assure you, Ryan knows.
Transitional Sentence: God, Jesus Christ and Ryan want you to have the same revelation that King David had when he lost a son. He said, “I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” (2 Samuel 12:23) King David had full confidence in the truth that his faith and trust in God would grant him eternal life with the Lord he loved. He knew his entry into the Kingdom of Heaven someday would bring him the enjoyment of seeing his son again. The Bible says “[David] comforted his wife…” If David could comfort “Bathsheba” with this hope, then parents who have Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, can find comfort in this same hope.
David wasn’t the only man of God who knew the truth that not living in this world gives you the blessing of being in heaven. Paul wrote, “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” The Apostle Paul did great works with the Lord that still affect lives today, yet he prefers to be with the Lord. It has often been said, “Those who are in heaven have no desire to come back and be with us, but all in heaven want to someday, in God’s time, see all of us in heaven.”
According to Scripture Jesus longs for the children to come to Him in this world, He said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14) Let Jesus’ teachings on heaven be a comfort to you in this troublesome time, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. In 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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you may also be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)
Transitional Sentence: The Jesus who says He prepared a place for you in heaven has a truth you must understand. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) These are the very words of Jesus Christ. The apostle Peter, when speaking about salvation to the Sanhedrin boldly proclaimed; “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts. 4:12)
This goes all the way back to the birth of Jesus and the instructions to Joseph. The angel told Joseph that Mary would give birth to a son and he was to give Him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)
He is the Savior. That was His name from the very beginning. Peter makes it very clear and I must make it very clear also. There is no other name in which you can be saved. There is no other person to put your trust in if you want to go to heaven, that place of reunion for the children of God.
In Closing: There are the powerful words of Christ, Jesus says, “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) Jesus gave another powerful truth, “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10:15)
Some years ago in Dayton, Ohio, a very young little girl came to know the love of Jesus Christ. She became an earnest Christian. She loved her father very much, but her father was not a Christian and he had no concerns for the affairs of the Body of Christ.
Each evening as the father came home from work, this little girl would meet him at the gate. The gate was very high and the palings of the fence were close together. In order for his daughter to see him come home through the gate, he took a paling off the gate. Each night when the father came home from work, his little Christian daughter was waiting for him, eagerly looking through the palings of the gate.
Then one day the little girl became very ill, an illness that would lead to her going to heaven. As she became more and more ill, the little Christian girl told her father, “When I get to heaven, I am going to ask God to pull a paling off Heaven’s gate so I can look through to see you come.” (Knights Treasury of 4,000 Illustrations, Walter B. Night)
As a devoted student of the Word of God, I can assure you that God still expects people to come to Him with a heart like that of a child. Could it be, is it possible, that Ryan Allen and multitudes of other children are looking through heaven’s gates to see if you are coming?
Let us pray!!!
