(1) Song – How Great thou Art
(2) Scripture – 2nd Samuel 3:38
(3) Prayer
(4) Message Part 1
There are 5 men identified in scripture as “great” men, men such as Moses, Daniel, and Naaman. These are the words of King David to his men at the death of the great Israelite General Abner.
Such words come to mind today as we come to celebrate, remember, and praise God for the life of ___________, to take time out of our normal daily existence on this day in November to give honor where honor is due!
If David could pronounce these words over Abner, how much more may we pronounce over this great man just departed from our lives?
While he may be gone from our daily lives, he will never be far from our thoughts and memories. Through wisdom known only to God, we were privileged to know him, and to have him in our lives for ___________ years.
Obituary
At a time such as this the words of the Apostle Paul seem fitting;
“The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.” - 2nd Timothy 4:6-8
In claiming his crown he has gone from this life to the next he has left an indelible mark on our world, impacting and helping shape the lives of others, including his wife of, his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great grandchild and many other lives which are too numerous to count.
Today we say goodbye, at least for now, and today, as we stop to remember ___________ and all those things that made him unique, who made him who he was, and so special to us.
Yes there are things that we’ll all miss about him… I will miss his warm smile, his quick wit, and endless sense of humor! I will, but most of all I will his encouraging words.
Even towards the end of his life, times when the pain that racked his body was at its most intense, he always had a way of encouraging me.
When I first came here to ___________ as the minister, he treated me as if I had always been here … which is how he treated everyone… I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that ___________ and ___________ adopted Kim and I into their family, and they were like grandparents to us, even when our family was so far away…
I believe that’s its appropriate for us to be here today in this place. There are countless people that have poured their lives into the ___________ Church, into the lives of her people, and into the people of this community.
___________ was one of those people; I can still see him handing out snacks a V.B.S. He loved the kids and found great joy in being with them.
He gave so much of his life to others, to his family, his friends and was a parent and grandparent to so many that were not his own, a joy I got to experience firsthand.
If someone was in need – you could count on ___________ to be there!
He also gave much to the work of his church, if one looks around the church today they cannot help but see some of what he’s done, it’s part of the very fabric of this congregation…
We can look in any direction here today and see ___________ … his fingerprints are all over this place!
(5) SONG – Mary Did You Know (Mark Lowery)
(6) Message Part 2
It is also during seasons of life such as this that we realize that life as we know it is uncertain. Scripture tells us that we’re not guaranteed tomorrow, or even the rest of today for that matter.
But today we can find comfort that in the fact that Jesus has power over the grave, power over death!
The words of the song… Mary did you know? She did! – and so do we!
Strange as it may sound the memorial service of a follower of Jesus is much like the Easter services we celebrate every spring… really like an Easter service?
Yes really… because both of them find their true meaning in the resurrection. In both we see struggle, and in both we see triumph!
This is true in the great story of Jesus. And it is true in the personal story of each Christian. It is true in the story of ___________ . There's triumph in the struggle. Grace glimmers here in this life. The struggle bears fruit in the triumph. We die in Christ to be raised with him.
While we live our lives our life and light is the word of God, this keeps us in days that are bright, and carries us through in days that are dark.
So while we grieve we can also celebrate, for we do not grieve as those who have no hope… Again we consider the words of the Apostle Paul…
"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord."
1st Thessalonians 4:13-17
We observe that Paul does not tell us to avoid grieving altogether. Mourning is natural, it is necessary. In fact it would be very unnatural not to mourn when we lose somebody near and dear to us.
To be sure, it is also appropriate at this time to be joyful, to celebrate Christ’s decisive victory over death, but we do so only through tears of personal sorrow.
If Jesus wept at the graveside of his beloved friend Lazarus, his disciples are surely at liberty to do the same. What Paul discourages is not grief but hopeless grief, not all mourning but mourning like the rest of men, who have no hope.
Our strength comes from the fact that Jesus, though His own death has conquered death and the grave. Because Jesus was victorious over death we too shall be victorious thorough Him. The sting, the fear and the power of death no longer hold us.
(7) Song – In the Garden
(8) Message Part 3
To all the things ___________ was and is to us, a big hug, an artisan of awesome meals, the purveyor of amazing potato chip cookies, a love of nature and the outdoors, and the animals of God’s creation… a true friend in all times… and the list could go on and on…
But today we get to add one more word to that list – and what a joy it is!
"NEW". In 2nd Corinthians 5:11 we read these words;
"If any person be in Christ, they are a new creation; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new."
For today ___________ has a lot of "NEW" things, including a perfect, a body free from pain, a body fashioned in the image and likeness of Jesus himself. A body he can use to enjoy all the splendors of that place called heaven – from a fallen world, raised up to a perfect eternity.
Its times like today reminded of a line from St. Augustine’s great work “The City of God”
"We shall rest and we shall see; we shall see and we shall love; we shall love and we shall praise. Behold what shall be in the end and shall not end."
What made the difference in ___________ life that sets him apart from so many others? It’s simple. He had enough vision to make his life want to count. One day he heard a voice that called him to die.
Now I’m not talking about the death he died Tuesday morning, but one that he heard long ago that said, if anyone wants to become my disciple, he must take up his cross, deny himself and come follow me. He heard the call of Jesus Christ and made the decision to give his life to follow after Him. It was a decision of his heart and of his mind.
We may say many things of ___________, that he was my friend, he was my uncle, he was my brother, he was my father, my grandfather, or he was my husband, but the greatest truth of them all is that ___________ is and forever will be a child of the King.
A humble, loving, giving, and committed follower of Jesus – what a legacy he leaves with us!
Today it is fitting that one who had so much influence upon the lives of so many be remembered. All of you are here because ___________ made an impact on your life through the life he lived and in the shadow of which we now walk.
___________ knew that this world wasn’t the best of all places, but that it was the place to prepare for the best of all places… He made that preparation; today we must ask ourselves… Have we?
(9) Prayer
