Funeral for George Hafele
Today we gather to celebrate the life and future of Mr. George Hafele. Times like these are never fun. But honestly, my grief today is not for George because he is in a better place, but rather for those of us who are left behind. We are the ones left with the void. The hole that he once filled in our lives.
This past December we had a lot of broken balloons out at Christmas in the Country. This year, we had some Campers on Mission helping us there. They were making balloon animals for the children and such.
What happens when you mix children with balloons and hay? Yeah. Exactly, we had broken balloons all over our place.
What happens when you break a balloon? It immediately explodes, the air leaves it, and all you have left behind is the shell. The remains of what the air used to be in.
What we have left of Mr. George is nothing more than a broken balloon. The remains of what George used to be in. Now, just like the air in a balloon, George has gone.
That’s why Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5,
> 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 “For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands. Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling, since, when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. So we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
That’s why, when our children are young, we teach them, Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake. I pray the Lord my soul to take. We teach them from an early age that there is a difference between what a person lives in and what a person is.
Before we go any further, let’s pray.
- Pray
- Read 23rd Psalm
David said he could walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil, because the Shepherd was with him.
Oh, how many people love this Psalm who do not know or love the Shepherd. My friend, the only way you can have that comfort as you walk through that valley is to have a relationship with the Shepherd.
Do you know Jesus Christ as your your Lord and Savior? Have you established that relationship? Have you admitted your need for a Savior, asked Jesus to forgive you, and asked Him to be your Lord and Savior?
George did a long time ago. I’m sorry, but when I think of George meeting Mrs. Kit for the first time in a Lutheran church confirmation class way back in 1955, way up in that frozen northern tundra, the opening statement from Star Wars keeps coming to mind, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away.”
Now mind you, Mrs. Kit was just a babe at the time, and it was several years before she was old enough for him to ask her out. But they have known each other for that long, and Mr. George has known the Lord for at least that long.
It is sad when I have to do a memorial service for someone who didn’t know the Lord because there is no comfort I can give, no promises I can make to the family. I am so glad Mrs. Kit and Mr. George took the counsel of the wisest man who has ever lived when he wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:1, “So remember your Creator in the days of your youth.”
Oh my friends, life is so short, and eternity is so long, we cannot, we dare not, treat salvation, and the future with brevity or callousness.
Jesus died but He rose again, and we shall as well. If we die with Him, we shall also be raised with Him. Death is our entrance into glory. Paul expressed it victoriously in the great resurrection chapter of 1 Corinthians 15.
- Read 1 Corinthians 15:20-25, 50-58.
The story is told of a dad and his son who were driving down the road, when they discovered a bee was in the car with them. The son panicked and started crying, “a bee, a bee.” The dad calmly stuck up his hand and caught the bee in the palm of his hand. After a minute or so the dad opened his hand and the bee flew out.
The boy started panicking again and crying, “the bee, the bee.” Then the dad opened his hand and told his son, “Look the stinger is in my palm. He can’t hurt you any more.”
That’s the way death is for the Christian. That’s why Paul is able to write, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting?”
I am reminded of the poem talking about Pale King Death, where after the resurrection of Jesus, Death confesses, “I’m just a lowly servant now, with little time to roam. I just push open these old gates, and help the saints get home.”
So today is a celebration. Oh, we miss our friend. We will miss his company, and his smiling face. Many will miss his companionship, but the grieving is for us, not for him, because he is in a much better place.
Paul wrote in Philippians 1:21
> Philippians 1:21 For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, for you to die is loss. You lose everything you have worked for and everything you have lived for. If on the other hand, you live for Christ, then when you die you gain.
Let’s think for a minute about some of the things Christians gain when they die.
1. They gain better bodies. Can I get an amen? Don’t know about you, but this tent I’m living in is breaking down. It’s wearing out. Things are beginning to hurt.
I know Mr. George had some stomach issues, and for a good while he was hurting and unable to sleep well at night, so he would sleep later in the mornings.
Oh, but now he gets a new body. A body with no pain. No hurts. No aches. A body that never gets sick and never dies again.
Believers gain better bodies.
2. They gain better homes.
I know George was always looking for a better home. They lived in New York where he had a business as a landscaper. Later they moved to upstate New York where he finished a house there, and they had acreage where they raised all kinds of poultry, and pigs, a horse and goats. Finally, God, in His infinite mercy saw fit to allow him to move down to God’s country and to settle into DeBary. Every move, he got just a little closer to heaven.
You ever seen George and Kit’s house? My word, George has so many plants growing along side the sidewalk i thought I was going to need a machete to get to the front door the first time I went there. I started carrying a weed eater in the back of my truck just in case.
And he has those birds he’d make all along the path and on the back porch and around the house. If you’ll look closely, you’ll see a number of those critters he made in neighbor’s yards on the way to his and Kit’s house. As a matter-of-fact, there’s one of his wood peckers on my front porch. I think he missed the peacocks, and chickens, and ducks and geese they used to raise.
Jesus tells us,
> John 14:1-3 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.”
Now, I don’t know exactly what heaven is like, exactly what it looks like and everything that is there, but Paul tells us that,
> 2 Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
In other words, what God has created for us is beyond our imagination. It is better than we can ever dream of.
That famous pastor from Memphis, TN, R. G. Lee, was on his death bed, and slipped into a brief coma shortly before he died. When he came to he turned to Dr. Rogers who was sitting by his bed and said, “I have preached on heaven many times, but I didn’t even begin to describe how beautiful it is.”
And Jesus has prepared a room, or a mansion for each of us. I can just imagine Mr. George’s, much like the original Garden of Eden, surrounded by the plants and birds he loved so much.
We can clearly understand the Apostle Paul’s struggle when he confessed in Philippians 1:23,
> Philippians 1:23, “I am torn between the two. I long to depart and be with Christ—which is far better.”
You see, this place is not our home, it is just a place to prepare for what is coming next.
Christians of old used to sing this song,
I am a stranger here,
Heaven is my home
Earth is a desert drear,
Heaven is my home
Sorrows and dangers stand
Round me on every hand
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.
For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If you are a Christian when you die you gain a better body. If you are a Christian, when you die you gain a better home, and if you are a Christian, when you die you gain a better inheritance.
3. You gain a better inheritance
The things in this life will pass away. You never see a hearse with a u-haul trailer behind it, because the things we accumulate in this life we leave behind. That’s why Jesus tells us in
> Matthew 6:19-21 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures[i] on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
It is in heaven where we receive the rewards for the things done in this life. It is in heaven that we receive an inheritance with no inheritance tax, and an inheritance that can never be taken away. It is in heaven where we finally get to hear from the precious lips of our Savior, “
> Matthew 25:23, “‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy.’”
Oh, to hear those words. I can still picture Mr. George and Dennis out raking at the church after the last hurricane that came through. A man who built and owned multiple businesses, out raking at the church. Cleaning things up. Serving the Lord. A servant of the Lord! Well done!
We gain better bodies. We gain better homes. We gain a better inheritance, and we gain a better fellowship.
4. We gain a better fellowship.
“All of us in this world live in a dissolving family circle. Mother is gone, or father is gone, or a child is gone, or our beloved grandparents are gone, or friends are gone. If we live long enough, we shall be strangers in this earth. Everyone we knew and loved will be gone. But the circle is unbroken in heaven, forever and ever. There is no death there, no more sorrow and crying and pain, for all of this is passed away.” (Criswell’s Guidebook for Pastors, W. A. Criswell. Broadman Press, 302).
Oh, can you imagine what it will be like in heaven, getting to see Jesus, the One Who lived and died for us? Can you imagine what it will be like, meeting the saints of old? Talking to David about fighting Goliath. Talking to Shamrock, Meshack and Abednigo about what it was like in the fiery furnace, or to Daniel about his time in the lion’s den?
What a great time of fellowship that will be. Oh, but one of the best times, next to seeing our Savior, will be reunited with our family and friends who have gone before us.
The older I get, the more I look forward to getting to the other side, and seeing all of my friends and family who have gone before me. What a reunion that will be!
Remember that old song Johnny Cash used to sing?
I remember when I was a lad
Times were hard and things were bad
But there's a silver linin' behind every cloud
Just poor people, that 's all we were
Tryin' to make a living out of black-land dirt
But we'd get together in a family circle singing loud
Daddy sang bass, mama sang tenor
Me and little brother would join right in there
Singing seems to help a troubled soul
One of these days and it won't be long
I'll rejoin them in a song
I'm gonna join the family circle at the throne
Oh, the joy of that great reunion.
Oh, believers will gain better bodies. They will gain better homes. They will gain a better inheritance, and they will gain a better fellowship. I look forward to heaven. I look forward to that reunion, and I look forward to George showing us around, showing us all of the plants and flowers he has and teaching the names of all of his pets. What a great day that will be.
Oh Mr. George, this is not goodbye, but rather, until we meet again.
Prayer.
