Funeral for a Christian Man
Psalm 46
We come here today not to mourn death but to celebrate life. __________ life here on Earth is over but his life in Heaven with his beloved Savior Jesus Christ has just begun. We rejoice because _______ gave so much of his life to us. But praise God his life of no pain, no physical struggles, no doubts, no lack of understanding has begun with Jesus in his new home! Everyone born into this world will also leave it but the Bible teaches that there is life beyond the grave.
Men and women have an allotted time on Earth, for some it short and for other relatively long, but for each there comes a moment when time ceases and we enter into another realm, the world of Eternity. where we will spend forever in the presence of God OR forever separated from God’s love and no way to ever receive God’s love again.
Everyone who has come here today has come with a sense of loss.
• The loss of a wife who will miss the presence of her husband.
• The loss of a son who will miss the sound of his father’s voice.
• The loss of grandchildren who will miss their grandfather’s laugh.
• The loss of a friend whose companionship will be missed.
In one way or another, we have all gathered here seeking comfort. Of course, comfort can be drawn from family and friends. We find comfort from shared memories. Helen Keller once said, “With the death of every friend I love- a part of me has been buried – but their contribution to my happiness and strength and understanding remains to sustain me in an altered world.” As we are gathered here, we all have different memories about _______ that will help to bring comfort - some are serious, some are humorous, some can only be fully understood by those who hold them. Comfort can be drawn from our memories today.
But our greatest source of comfort is God. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, (4) who comforts us in all our trouble, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with comfort that we ourselves have received from God.”
So, for a few moments this afternoon I would like to share with you comfort from one the great psalms of the Bible, Psalm 46. In the first three verses we read, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. (2) Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; (3) Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling.”
The scripture here paints a word picture of a time of great turmoil. He describes it as a time of “trouble” which is a Hebrew word meaning “pressed in, confined in a tight space.” Do you remember the old saying, “between a rock and a hard place?” This is the kind of pressure the psalmist is talking about; when life presses in upon us, when trouble comes, when we have no place left to run.
There is within these verses a three-fold promise, a promise of the Lord’s protection, a promise of the Lord’s power and a promise of Lord’s presence.
First, The Promise of the Lord’s Protection
The psalmist is telling us that God is that refuge and the strong one to whom we should flee when the storms of life become so overwhelming that we can no longer stand alone. It is a picture of someone running from a terrifying storm into a cave that is quiet, dry and safe or of a child running to their mother or father for safety and comfort in their arms. Three times in this Psalm (vv. 3, 7, 11), the psalmist reminds us that God is our refuge.
The psalmist says, “God is our refuge.’ It is God Himself that is our refuge – not some place or city – but the one true living and power-ful God. He is a refuge, a place of shelter during the time of trouble and storms. It is from this great psalm that Martin Luther got his inspiration for his beautiful song, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Martin Luther in that great hymn of the faith wrote, “A mighty fortress is our God, a (defence) never failing. Our helper He amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. …” [Hymn 333. Praise! Our Songs and Hymns (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979]
We have one to whom we can flee when we are overcome by doubts and fears and He will calm our fears and give us joy, even in the midst of our difficulties.We have one to whom we can flee when we are weary, we can flee to Him and find rest not just for our bodies but for our souls. When we are tossed about by the winds of adversity in this life we can find according to the Apostle Paul, “the peace of God which passes all understanding.” (Philippians 4:7).
Perhaps most importantly of all, we have someone to whom we can flee from the torment of our past sins and failures, and there we find forgiveness, pardon and acceptance.
We have not only a Promise of the Lord’s Protection but …
Secondly, The Promise of the Lord’s Power – for the Psalmist says, “God is our…. Strength.”
God is the God of strength. He was able to speak into existence a whole universe by the power of just His spoken word. He is able to watch over this universe for the purpose of sustaining it all at the same time.
All down through the ages men have been stirred by the realization that the eternal God of universe is available with sufficient power to do anything. Earthquakes, disasters, invasions, desperate situations of every kind need not over-whelm us when we take hold of the hand of the God who controls everything and everybody at all times and in every place.
We have the Promise of the Lord’s Power and …
Third, The Promise of the Lord’s Presence. The psalmist says that He is “A very present help in trouble.” Our God is not some absent deity who formed the world and then flung it off into space to work out its own problems.
Verse four continues the psalm by saying, “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. (5) God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn. (6) The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. (7) The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.”
I want to end our time this afternoon by drawing your attention to near the end of the Psalm where the psalmist says in verse ten, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! Verse ten simply says to “Be still and know that I am God.” In times of difficulty, it is often our first impulse to take matters into our own hands. We want to figure it out, to resolve the problem, and if all else fails, we want to “just do something.” And while it is true that there are times when God wants us to get up and work for ourselves, there are times that He tells us to sit down and be quiet and let Him do the work. There are times when all our efforts do is make matters worse, it is then that God says, “Be still…” The word here means “to abandon, to relax, to stop striving.” It can also mean to sink, as one might relax and sink into a favorite com-fortable chair. It also pictures a soldier who puts down his weapons, who stops his fighting, who lets down his defenses, who relaxes his entire body, because the danger has passed. It is a call for a step of faith.
Verse ten is a plea for each of us as individuals to place our faith and trust in the LORD. It does not just tell us to be still. It also tells us to know that He is God. That includes the idea of acknowledging that He is God, and all that means.The challenge before you this afternoon is that you would no longer rely on your own effort during the time of trouble in your life. But rather that you would allow God to be present with you, that He would be your protection, and your strength in times of trouble. This is your God too, if you come to him through faith in Jesus Christ
Let me close by sharing what the second verse of the Martin Luther’s great hymn says, “Did we in our own strength confide. Our striving would be losing. Were not the right man on our side, The Man of God’s own choosing. Do you ask who that may be, Christ Jesus it is He.” [Hymn 333. Praise! Our Songs and Hymns (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979]
If you have not already would you make Christ your refuge while there is still time. Death is a universal fate of everyone born on this Earth, but death is not the end. For each of us a time is coming when we will step from this life into eternity. But is it to be Eternity with God OR Eternity separated from God? That is the big difference!
For the Christian, the person who has placed their faith and trust in Christ, it is the beginning of life. Life is a journey, a journey to Eternity, Death is the vehicle that takes us home, to be with Jesus and with all those loved ones that have placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and have gone on before. None of us is going to Heaven because we have been good. We are going to Heaven because we have accepted the forgiveness that Jesus bought for us with His death on the Cross. Jesus opened the door to eternity when He died just for _____ and just for you.
It is so easy to receive Christ Jesus as our Savior that millions have stumbled over its sheer simplicity. The Bible tells us in (John 3:16), "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Jesus farther attests that He is not one of many ways to heaven but the only way when He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6 NKJV). Jesus explained all of these things to a woman named Martha when her brother Lazaras died. Jesus said unto her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” (John 11:25 NKJV) And then He asked her the most crucial question of all, “Do you believe this.”
You see heaven is attained by believing in the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross as a penalty for your sin and the acceptance of that sacrifice by repentance and faith. Have you ever accepted personally what Jesus did on the cross? Why not turn to God in repentance today and ask him to forgive and save you. I know that _______ would want everyone here to come and live with him in his new heavenly home.
