Eulogy Albert Pritchard By Rick Gillespie- Mobley
November 17, 2018 Ecclesiastes 3:1-14 John 14:1-6
While World War II was raging in Europe, and The Japanese were conquering the nations along the western Pacific Ocean, God wanted to do something special for the world on October 26th, 1943, and God decided to complete the work in the womb of Beulene Pritchett .
God gave Willie and Beulene a double blessing with the gift of twins, Alberta and Albert Pritchard. God probably took a step back and looked at them, and said," this is good, very good.” God had a plan for Alberta and God had a plan for Albert. Today we look at the life and death of Albert.
When God created Albert, I believe God was determined to fill him with a capacity to love others and to enjoy music."
And that little infant baby from Wetumpka, Alabama, grew to be a boy, who grew to be a man who grew to be a child of God. And after 75 years, God was once again delighted to have that same gift return to him again. For the scriptures boldly proclaim, in Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
Today, we often think death is something to be avoided at all cost, but for the believer in Jesus Christ, death is merely the passing from one form of service to God to another. You see Albert Pritchart decided to die a long time ago, when he made the decision to follow Jesus Christ. He took Jesus at his word, when Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; Last Sunday Albert Pritchart made it to church as one of the great cloud of witnesses who has gone on before us cheering us on in the faith.
Albert had the privilege of being part of a large family. His parents Willie and Beaulene took seriously the commandment to be fruitful and multiply, and as a result they had ten children. If they had of had just two more, we could speak of the 12 tribes from Wetumpka, Al.
Believe it or not, in 1845 Wetumpka lost by just a few votes to Montgomery to become the state capital of Alabama. If Wetumpka had of won the vote, we would have been talking about the Wetumpka Bus boycott instead of the Montgomery Bus Boycott with Rosa Parks.
Albert knew the pain and suffering of racism and Jim Crow laws having been born in the deep South of Alabama. He knew what it was like to see the bathroom signs, Men, Women, and Colored. He tasted the water from the Colored water fountain. If he got on a bus, he knew he had to go to the rear of the bus to have a seat. He knew what it was like to be judged simply by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character.
He knew what it was like to grow up in poverty in terms of material possessions, yet still be rich in the things that really mattered such as a love of family, of Friends and most important of all, the love of God.
The triplets of poverty, racism and prejudice could not keep him from developing a song in his heart to sing to the Lord or to encourage others, nor could they keep him from becoming a person with a generous and a quick smile.
The discrimination he faced in the world , caused Albert to develop a compassion for people. We always have a choice to allow evil to make us bitter or better. He chose to become better. His neice described him as the uncle who would always come and get her out of whatever trouble she found herself in. Her mother knew he would stay calm when he went to get her. He would tell her, “now you know when you get home you’re going to get a whipping.” She said yes, but he was never the one who gave her the whipping.”
Albert had a great sense of humor. He enjoyed seeing you laugh and he loved to make you laugh. He enjoyed the presence of people. God gave him a certain twinkle in his eye when he got excited. I’m told that he was quite a dancer. One of the favorite things he likee to do was eat. When I asked what was his favorite food, his family responded food. But then they said he was partial to greens, chicken and dressing. Give him a pepsi cola to go with it and he was a happy man.
Life was not always easy for Albert, and people didn’t always treat him with the utmost of respect, but he would tell you in a minute, it didn’t matter to him because he had God on his side
Life is a gift with a beginning point called birth and an ending point called death. During that entire time, there is one choice that we make, that determines a change in one’s live forever after it, and determines what happens on the other side of death. We all have to make a choice about what will we do with a guy by the name of Jesus Christ.
Jesus made two important claims about Himself. He claimed to be the Son of God, and He claimed that no one could come to God the Father except through Him. A person has to be born again and have a living relationship to him if the person is to be saved.
If Jesus’ claims were false, then it does not matter what we believe. We can get to heaven on our own efforts of being good. If his claims were true, then we need to consider further what he says about this life and the life to come. He tells us our works will never be good enough for us to have eternal life.
Mark 8:34-37 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
Albert Pritchard wrestled with that decision on what to do about Jesus Christ. He realized that no one could force him to choose to follow Christ, and that God Himself would leave the decision up to him. He recognized he could never be good enough to earn the privilege of eternal life. He choose to follow Christ, and it made a difference in his life. He chose to live out some of his role in the body of Christ here at New Life At Calvary.
Albert’s gift in our church was the role of a worshipper. He would come into the church singing. He would sing during the service waving his hands in the air. He would leave the church singing as he went out the door. He would tell me, “Reverend, one day you are going to have to let me sing my solo.” I told him, you have to first be a part of the choir. In the meantime, he would ask me if I knew this song, and he would break into a song. Some of which I knew and some of which I didn’t.
I appreciated his gift of presence in the church. He walked with a spirit of humility. He would encourage you saying, “that was a good sermon today, oh yes it was.” I will miss our time outside on the access ramp where we did most of our talking.
Nobody made him come to church He wanted to be in the presence of God’s people. Jesus had stood at the door knocking on Albert’s life and Albert opened the door and invited him in. It was this first invitation that made his death last month merely a passing event from one form of service to God to another.
For those of us who die without knowing Jesus Christ , Albert Pritchard will only be a memory, a very good and loving memory. But for those of us who do know Jesus Christ, Albert Pritchard is simply waiting to meet us on the other side.
Let me ask you. Are you prepared to meet Albert on the other side. Did you know that according to Jesus, most people will not go to heaven? Most people will not get to see Albert Pritchard on the other side.
Jesus said in , Mat 7:13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the only way to enter that narrow gate. All you have to do is to admit, "God, I have done a lot of things I should not have done. I realize I cannot pay for all that I have done. I ask you for forgiveness. I accept that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He being holy and righteous, paid the penalty for my sin. I invite him to come into my life and take control of it."
You will make numerous decisions in your life between your birth and your death. But the only decision that will still be personally affecting you a 1000 years from today, is what did you do with Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches there will certainly be a resurrection of everybody from the dead, and then comes the judgment of God.
We may say of Albert Prichart , was my friend, he was my uncle, he was my brother, he was my father, or he was my grandfather , but the greatest truth of them all is that Edward albert Pritchard is and forever will be a a child of God who has now completely returned to God.
He is ready to stand in the presence of Jesus Christ, and fully expects to hear the words, "Well done thou good and faithful servant enter into the joy of my kingdom." We need not wonder what the future holds for him, because if he could sing one song one last time, I think he just my choose, "It Is Well With My Soul."
When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, he not only paid the penalty for our sins, he conquered death and promised us eternal life if we would believe in Him and follow in his footsteps. Albert Prichard is more alive now than he ever was, and one day we shall be with him. For the Bible clearly teaches,
1 Th 4:13 Brothers and sisters , we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men and women, 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. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, 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.
