Funeral.088 Brian Patrick Sykes, Age 21
From the pulpit of Bayview Baptist Church, Saturday, June 2, 2001
Prelude: Organist
Processional: Organist plays hymn “Just When I Need Him Most”
On behalf of the O’Quinn and Sykes family, and from the heart and soul of the fellowship of Bayview Baptist Church, I would like to express our deepest thanks to all of you who have expressed your sympathies to this family in their darkest, saddest and most painful time to strike their lives.
You have given freely gifts of food, flowers, tributes and memorials, as well as words of comfort.
You have used Scripture to life our spirits with words of impression, and to you we are most humbly grateful and thankful for your compassion and care!
At this time we will listen to song recorded on cassette tape of a dearly beloved uncle of this family, Mr. Jack Pettigrew.
The song is entitled: “How Great Thou Art”
Play cassette tape of Uncle Jack Pettigrew
Psalm 23 K.J.V.
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”
Prayer:
Solo: Wendy Campbell “Till The Storm Passes By”
I have chosen today to read a single verse from the book of Deuteronomy.
One that I memorized in my youth and one that since has meant a great deal to me personally.
Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
To this family, today, I would like to say something that you already know: A precious part of your world has fallen apart, but your life must go on.
In the midst of your deepest hurt, don’t be afraid of your feelings; for there is no such thing as normal grieving; each person grieves in his or her own way and time, and you have to do those things that you personally need to do to carry you through your personal burden of your sorrow!
Losing Brian has evoked emotions that you have never felt before.
As you feel those intense emotion: sadness, anger, fear, rage, loss of control, even guilt, or being powerless to control events, or any other emotion; remember that these feelings are not abnormal, but rather, they are normal feelings that will ultimately help you to bring closure to your grief.
What I would suggest to you as a family is simply to continue doing some of the things you are already doing.
Find support with one another through talking and sharing.
If you reveal the magnitude of your loss to those who are close to you, if you are patient in dealing with your deep hurt, if you cherish those good and pleasant memories of Bryan; then your life will again stabilize, and your days will be filled with special meaning that will help you maintain the memory of Brian, while you embark upon a new chapter in your life.
In your struggle with your loss, you may sometimes feel as though you are completely alone; yet God is certainly present in your life.
God has not stopped loving you, and neither has God stopped loving Brian.
Brian loved many things in his life.
He loved boating, scuba diving, riding the tube on the water at the lake.
Brian was efficient and skilled with computer knowledge, and he dearly loved his family.
But there is something else much more important about Brian’s life.
We can bear witness today that Brian loved Jesus and Jesus loves Brian.
In Brian’s hour of despair and anguish, Brian slipped from this world into the tender arms of Jesus.
Jesus Himself said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25,26).
Oh, friends, do you believe this powerful statement from the Word of God this afternoon?
A biblical promise of this is found in Romans 8:38,39.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Yes, the Apostle Paul said that nothing shall separate us, or Brian from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Another suggestion I would make to you as a family is that you draw upon the power of prayer.
God feels the depth of your pain and He wants to share your burden of sorrow as He guides you along the pathway of healing.
In your prayers to God, you can express to Him your sense of desperate loss.
You can express to God your anger at Bryan’s sudden death.
You can express your helplessness and your need for God’s healing.
So, within your personal covenant relationship with God, you can share with God your darkest despair, and allow God to lead you to hope, understanding and peace.
Picture in your mind the fact that God is on your side; for the way you or I picture God in our minds has so much to do with the way we walk with God during our time of
God is a God of change, and your life as a family has changed!
There is certainly an emptiness that will never go away, but:
Remember the wonderful times you have had with Bryan.
Share those memories with your family, friends and with God.
Remember those wonderful holidays together and the times of Brian’s youth; for those are a treasured museum of memories that allow you to have Bryan forever.
Remember the good times at the lake, the family cookouts, the scuba diving beauties and wonders of our underwater earth; remember the fishing trips, and the recreation on the water.
Remember the special projects Brian was a part of,
Remember the quiet times in the home when your family concentrated upon just being a family together.
The quiet meals together, the building and renovation projects, washing and waxing the car together.
The times of worship spent here at Bayview Baptist Church together.
God’s desire for all of us is that we might have life.
As painful as our experiences are today, we still serve a mighty and wonderful God who helps us to overcome our pain and hurt, as we experience with God a deeper meaning of His love.
It’s critical that we allow God to enter into the most sacred and private chambers of our hearts, as He carries for us the heavy burdens we bear.
For it’s only through God’s Amazing Grace that our sorrow can be turned into joy!
May God be with you as a family as He leads you in your healing journey!
And may God bless the wonderful memories each of you has of Brian Sykes, who loves Jesus and is with Him eternally today.
Solo: Wendy Campbell “Amazing Grace”
Recessional: Organist plays “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”
Postlude
At grave:
Read John 3:16-18
“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.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
John 3:16 is certainly one of the most famous verse in the Bible and it was preached by Christ to a religious sinner, Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was somebody special in Jewish society.
He was a Pharisee, one who had been separated from all ordinary life in order to keep every detail of the Law of Moses, as had been worked out over the centuries by the Scribes.
But Nicodemus was guilty of creating his own religion of works.
He came to Jesus inquiring about how he could be born again.
It’s good for each one of us to take a spiritual inventory of our lives from time to time.
I think that now would certainly be a great time for each of us to do that, and make things right with the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, KJV).
Prayer of committal:
Eternal God in heaven, we have prepared our hearts to give Brian Patrick Sykes to you; for it has pleased you in your great mercy and love in receiving the soul of Brian Sykes into heaven eternal.
We, as Brian’s family, friends, and pastor, commit his earthly body to your safe keeping in the certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
May you, our God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant, work in our hearts today what is pleasing to Christ; and to Christ be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Rev. Jimmy Davis
Bayview Baptist Church
5300 Two Notch Road
Columbia, SC 29204
Email: BayviewBaptist@aol.com
Telephone: 803-754-8690
