Eulogy Jonnie Hayes
Matthew 7:13-21 John 3:16-18 7/15/2021
Our God is an incredible God. God looks out for us even before we are born, and God has elaborate plans for people to become a part of our lives that we never could have imagined.
We may not believe it, but God is working all of a creation together for God’s own ends and purposes. God has invited us to join him in this great discovery so that in the end, not only will we discover what God was doing, but we will realize God actually has a blessed plan for our lives if we are willing to receive it.
We often use the phrase God is Good. We see that goodness in the gifts that God has placed in our lives in the form of people. One of the great gifts that God has given to us was the gift of Johnnie Hayes. We have heard the wonderful testimonies of how she has blessed others with her many wonderful attributes. She has been an incredible woman in so many facets of life.
I never knew that there was a woman from Fordyce Arkansas named Jonnie Hayes until a little over 33 years ago. Yet God had appointed her to be an incredible gift to me, to my wife, and to my family. Pastor Toby and I were pastoring a church in Roxbury Ma. It was a wonderful congregation, yet we felt the call of God to move to another ministry.
We sent our resume to Glenville Presbyterian Church here in Cleveland. We were delighted to receive a call to come and visit the church and to meet with the pastoral search committee. Unknown to us, the committee had been allotted a very small amount of money to find a pastor. Even though they had invited us to come, they didn’t have enough money to put us up in a hotel for two nights.
The committee probably regretted not having enough money to put us in the Comfort Inn, the Holiday Inn or the Sheraton. But it was actually all part of God’s plan to get us in the best place in town which was the J and J Exclusive Suites. God blessed us with the gift of meeting John and Jonnie Hayes and spending those two nights in their home on Ashbury Avenue .
Their southern hospitality, combine with their Christian witness touched us deeply. They immediately accepted us as one of their own. It was as though God was telling us, this is where I am calling you to be. If we had to point and say, what’s the main reason you ended up in Cleveland, it would probably be, because God used Johnnie and John Hayes to touch our hearts on a weekend visit.
We had no idea that that brief encounter would change our lives forever. God often uses us in situations, that we do not realize are life changing events for us or for others. Our willingness to say yes in the area of our giftedness from God, will get God’s will done.
Johnnie’s gift of hospitality was the door to our ministry in Cleveland for the past 33 years. So anything we have done to be a blessing to you, can be traced to Johnnie’s willingness to be a blessing to us. As I said before God has an amazing unfolding plan. Don’t ever think you are insignificant and do not have anything to offer. God want to use you, right where you are.
One of the other gifts that Johnnie gave to the world came in the commitment she made to a man named John Hayes. There was a high school dance taking place and Jonnie did not have a date. That was sort of unusual since she was one of the stars on the girl’s basketball team. But Jonnie has had a strong sense of confidence and independence about her throughout her life, so she went to the dance by herself. She obviously came in looking pretty good.
This tall skinny good looking guy by the name of John Hayes also came to the dance. Unfortunately, John had asked Rosa Lee to go to the dance with him, and she had accepted his offer. Nobody knows for sure now what happened at that dance, but we do know that John Hayes got a glimpse of the beauty of Jonnie Childs.
We don’t know who looked first or who said what, but before the end of the night, John had lost his mind, forgot he had come with Rosa Lee and instead took Jonnie home. Nobody knows how Rosa Lee made it home. From that moment on John was Jonnie’s biggest fan cheering her on in her basketball games.
John knew he wanted this to be a lifetime of cheering. So he finally got up the nerve to ask her if she would marry him. Jonnie expected him to ask her, but she was surprised at his timing. She still went ahead and said yes.
But then came the real challenge. John was a country boy, and he knew that was one yes and one more to go. John would have to go and ask Mr. Childs, her father for permission to marry her.
I can imagine John was thinking Mr. Childs was going to ask him some tough questions like, “Well Son, what kind of job do you have?” “How much money you got saved up for a wedding” and “where do you plan to live.” It wasn’t easy to go and face her father, but sometimes a man’s got to do what he’s got to do.
I can imagine him saying, “Mr. Child’s if it’s alright with you, I’d like to marry your daughter Jonnie. To John’s surprise, Mr.Child’s question caught him completely off guard. Mr. Child said “Yes, You do mean today right, because I can take both to the Justice of the Peace right now.”
What do you do when your future father in law has just planned your wedding and reception and its either yes or no. Well history tells us, John said yes, and the engagement period lasted from the time it took to go from their house to the courthouse.
So at 18 and 19 they went to the Justice of the Peace and got married. Jonnie said she was ashamed to kiss him in front of her father. But sometimes a woman has to do what a woman has to do. She overcome her embarrassment, gave John a kiss and they were married.
John took his new wife home where he was living with his mother. His mother was not at home when they arrived. His mother had not given him a key to the house, so they had to climb through the window to get inside for their honeymoon.
When his mother got home and heard the news His mother told them, she always knew he was going to come home married someday, but even she was surprised by the timing.
We were having a marriage day at church one Sunday, and I asked John and Jonnie if they would help me to tell the story of a long lasting marriage between a couple. John had done some acting in high school, and he was glad to be able to once again use his talent for the church.
Jonnie was more than happy to do it. The video is entitled He Was Walking Her Home. It’s the story of a man who fell in love with a woman and was with her until the end of her life. Here is the video they made together.
(show video)
John and Jonnie were able to do all that they did together because of their individual and joint commitment to follow Jesus Christ. Life for them was not always easy.
They experienced together the deaths of the parents who came before them and on the other end the deaths of some of their great grandchildren who came after them. Their marriages saw some highs and lows. Their working schedules were not always ideal. They didn’t always see things eye to eye.
But Jesus provided them with the love, the grace, the mercy and the forgiveness they needed to both endure and enjoy each other for nearly seventy years. Many loving moments were spent just fishing and talking together.
They loved each and every one of their descendants, and there are plenty of them to love. They not only had plenty of love for the Hayes tribe, they had a lot of extra to send out to a lot of the rest of us who they made their own.
Jonnie Hayes has left behind a legacy of ordained days and has gone home to be with Jesus Christ. You may think, with all the joy and laughter she brought into the lives of her family and friends, and with all the love and commitment she gave to her husband, children, and grandchildren, great grandchildren, and all the service that she gave to her church and her pastors that Jonnie certainly deserves to go to heaven.
But if she could speak to us today, she would say, “ that’s not true. As a matter of fact, despite all my good deeds, I never forgot that I was a sinner in need of God’s grace and mercy.”
You see, according to the Bible, the word of God, none of us deserves to go to heaven based on our good deeds. Good deeds can’t pay the penalty for our wrong doing. For all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s standards.
Did you know that according to Jesus, most people will not go to heaven? Jesus ought to know because He’s been there and back.
We are all traveling a broad road that leads to destruction because of our sin. All of us know we have done wrong, and we are convinced that we will do more wrong in the future.
Most people will not leave the broad road of destruction because of pride. “I don’t need God to get through life.” Because of pleasure: I”’m going to do what I want to do and enjoy myself”. Or Because they honestly believe they can remove God simply by refusing to believe in God. We all know that you can’t get rid of gravity by refusing to believe in its existence.
God sent Jesus Christ to make it possible for us to change directions so that we end up in a different place. It’s not a matter of what you believe, it’s a matter of whether or not what you believe is true.
You can believe you are on your way to Charlotte North Carolina when you’re heading West on I-90., But after you pass dead man’s curve heading West, if you don’t get off on I-77 South, you’re on you way to Chicago, not Charlotte. You may be honest in your belief, but it won’t change your destination.
You have to take the exit. If you want to go to heaven to be with Jonnie Hayes again, you have to take the exit off the broad road and follow the same narrow way which leads to life.
Entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the only way to get on that narrow road that leads to eternal life. 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 your 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." Johnnie Hayes made that decision years ago and has not regretted it since.
The most important decision everyone on the planet makes, is what did they do with Jesus Christ. For the word of God says. 6 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 1
God made us all to be gifts to the world. He also created us to be gifts back to Himself. When Jonnie Hayes stands in the presence Jesus Christ, she has every reason in the world to believe she will hear the words, “well done my faithful child, enter into the joy of my kingdom.”
My friend what about you. If you died today, what could you expect to hear from Jesus. For you too will be standing in the same place as Jonnie Hayes, in the presence of Jesus. Will you be welcomed or will you hear the words that have no hope, “Depart from me into the lake of fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels?”
God created eternity and has a place in it for you to spend with Him. But God will not force himself on anyone. The choice is always yours to make. Remember God does not have any grandchildren, we must all know him as our own Heavenly Father.
Jonnie Childs Hayes left this world as a child of God because her faith and her trust was in Jesus Christ. At the judgment her sins will not be able to speak against her, because Jesus will declare before the heavenly host and all the angels, “She’s one of mine. I already paid the penalty for her sins.”
Friends, there is going to a be a great reunion of all the saints. Jonnie invites you to join her and John once again for a huge family meal at the throne of God from whom all blessings flow.
