I want to talk to you today about my father. I dedicate this message and the remainder of this service to the “Bishop”.
Dad, I probably haven’t told you enough times and made you aware enough how much I love you and how much I appreciate the things you have added to my life. So Dad – I love you.
The writer of Hebrews in our scripture text said that by faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain did. Because of that sacrifice he obtained a name or a witness that he was righteous. It says that God himself testified of Abel’s gifts. Then verse 4 of Hebrews 11 ends with a curious phrase. It says that Abel, although he was dead, still spoke.
Now I don’t know about you but the last time I checked dead people couldn’t talk. In fact, in preparation for this message, I walked through a cemetery and didn’t hear a thing coming from the graves. I didn’t see anyone coming up from the grave to order a pepperoni pizza or to carry on a conversation.
So the scripture must be referring to something else. What the scripture is talking about is influence. And what the scripture is talking about is example.
The scripture says that Abel lived such a pleasing life for God that even though he is dead he is still speaking today from the grave. His influence and his example was so powerful that even death could not limit or stop it.
John 13:15
15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
1 Peter 2:21
21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
Titus 2:7
7 In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,
So moms and dads how you and I live our lives and how we conduct ourselves may or may not leave an example and influence for our children to follow.
The Bible says that it is appointed unto every man once to die and after that the judgement. We will all take the graveyard route, one day, if the Lord tarries in his return. After that, only what we have done in this present life will make a difference and carry on. There is a possibility that though being dead we could still speak from the grave.
This is a powerful concept and one that we must master while we still have time in this life.
If my father passes from this life to the next before the rapture of the church I don’t think it will embarrass him for me to tell you that he doesn’t have a great estate to leave his children. He won’t be able to leave me a large sum of money for me to invest and live from for the rest of my life. There are no pieces of property that have been in the family that will one day be mine for me to manage and maintain. But what he will leave me will last long after the money is gone and long after buildings and houses have been torn down. What he will leave me is influence and example. He will leave me with words that will speak to me beyond the grave and beyond death.
My dad began leaving me a gift the day I was born. I was born on my father’s birthday, December 28th. I was brought into this world to a Christian home. I arrived into a family that loved Jesus and loved going to church and loved one another. That very day my father began to wrap a gift for me that will last beyond death and will still speak to me beyond the grave.
One of the first things that he put into that gift was that he was a man of faith.
When my father was voted in as Pastor of this church we traveled every service from Manchester where we lived at the time. He began to look for a house that would be suitable for our needs and still be in our budget. He told the real estate lady what we needed and how much we could pay. The lady laughed at him and told him it would be impossible. He told her to go ahead and check anyway. Why??? Because he was a man of faith. He could have given up and thrown the towel in but he knew that God could meet any need. He knew that he was called to preach the gospel in the city of Waterbury.
The lady called back and said that surprisingly, she had found something for us. That was the house that I grew up in. That was the house we used for a church for a while. Bro. & Sis. Pietrorazio do you remember the great services we had in the basement of that old house.
In the beginning we rented an old Methodist Church on Thomastson Ave. Then we moved to another church building on West Main St. It was a large building with many rooms. I can remember after one rally in Waterbury some of the other ministers saying Bro. Dibble is crazy. He’s in over his head. He’s never going to fill that building up. But my dad was a man of faith and saw that building already filled up.
Oh, what a time we had at West Main St. I can remember Bob Bell after he was in an accident that he was not supposed to live or ever walk again, walking across the front of that building as the congregation praised and thanked the Lord.
My dad was a man of faith. There was nothing he thought God couldn’t do.
During an anniversary party we had for my mom and dad it was the Methodist Church Pastor that we had rented from for years that stood up and said about my dad “This is a man of faith, I’ve never been around anyone with as much faith.
So my dad put in my gift being a man of faith.
And today because the way my dad lived his life I know and this church knows that God can do anything if we put our faith in him. We know today that there is nothing impossible to our great God.
My dad also modeled to me and put in my gift a tremendous work ethic.
My dad has always been a working man. Whatever he was doing whether small or great he did with all his might. If it was preaching the gospel or nailing 2x4’s or sweeping the floor he did it with all his might.
I can remember remodeling the old factory building on Wesley St. Does anyone remember that building? He thought we all should work like him. One day we were over there working and I was fooling around a little bit instead of working as hard as I should have and he like to laid into me something fierce.
If there was a work day at the church you could count on my dad being there – on time with coffee in his hand. We need him to kind of relax nowadays and take it easy but it’s hard to keep him away. If there’s snow to shovel he’s out there. If something needs done he’s out there getting it done.
In fact his grass cutting and tree cutting have become legendary. I believe if he had a hand saw and a lawnmower he could cut a forest down.
When we moved to Waterbury and dad began to pastor he preached probably for the first year, at least, from the passage in the book of Nehemiah that said “So built we the wall … for the people had a mind to work”. We had a sign on the wall of the church with that scripture on it. It seemed like every service that he would find a way to touch on that scripture.
Because of his work ethic I know and this church knows that we can get the job done.
My dad put in my gift a love for people and a love for souls.
There wasn’t anyone that he didn’t try to reach with the gospel. It didn’t matter where we were or what we were doing, he was reaching for lost souls. It didn’t matter what your state in life was rich or poor, black or white, life together or in shambles he would reach for you.
I remember as a young boy going places with my dad and me being impatient, even back then, as dad would stop to witness to someone and I would have to wait until he was done.
He was always visiting people at the hospital, and still does. He had a way about him of putting people at ease. I remember how my dad, when King Turner was sick with the cancer that took his life, would stay up at the hospital all night long and then go to work in the morning. For months and months he did this. Dad your going to wear yourself out your going to make yourself sick. I know it but he’s got a soul and his family has souls and I just feel like if I can be there it will do some good.
Because of my dad’s life I know and this church knows that he has a love for people. This church has always been a place where the doors have been open to anyone. It didn’t matter what your past was, dad felt that everybody should have a place to hear the gospel message preached.
My dad put in my gift laughter. He is a person that enjoys having a good laugh. He is also a person that enjoys a good practical joke. He is a person that enjoys making other people laugh.
When my dad came out to visit me the first time at Bible School in California everyone told me, after meeting my dad, now I know where you get it from. Like father like son. They say the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree.
At camp every year someone always says to me “Your dad is such a cut-up – he’s so funny”. So I asked him about that one year and he told me, “Son, people are so bogged down with everyday life and the things they go through that they never take the time to laugh, so it’s my job to make people laugh”.
Does anyone remember the big water fight we had down at the pavilion? I seem to remember Bro. Jerry or Bro. O’Neal standing up on the roof with a big bucket of water ready to dump it on someone. How about the great volleyball games we used to have? Where does that come from? That comes from a church that knows how to have fun.
Because of my dad’s example I know and this church knows how to laugh.
My dad put into my gift how to be a good pastor.
It’s not the easiest thing in the world being a pastor. Trying to make everybody happy. Trying to please everyone. Living in a glass house where every move you make is visible and scrutinized by everyone.
I’ve seen a lot of pastor’s kids get very bitter and lose their walk with God and quit going to church at all. But my dad never let that happen with us.
He taught me that it’s a pastors job to tell people three things:
1. what time it is
2. what he sees
3. what God tells him to say
Sometimes people won’t like it but you have to do it anyway. It won’t make you popular with people but you’re the pastor and you are responsible to God for their souls.
He taught me how to keep going on in the good times and in the bad times. There were some hard times here in Waterbury. Most of you here today don’t know the price that was paid to bring us to where we are right now. What a struggle it must have been to build up a church and then see it dwindle down because people didn’t want to live by the word of God. But my dad never back down or away from the word of God. My dad never backed away from declaring the whole counsel of the Lord even though it meant losing some people.
I can remember some times that it was just my mom and myself in the congregation and dad would preach or teach just like the place was filled. Why, because he wanted his family to be saved just as much as anyone else. He taught me how to keep pressing on.
I’ve heard people say Bro. Dibble you’re a hard man and I’ll admit there is certain hardness to my dad. You have to have that to a certain degree to be a pastor because there are many hurtful things that are said about you. A lot of people see the hardness of the outside of my father. I was there when dad helped people get their lives put back together, but when something happened that they didn’t like they lashed out and said things that hurt. I was there and saw beyond the hardness. He taught me to keep going on even during those times.
I remember one time about five or six years ago my dad calling me into the office and asking me “Tom, are you ready to pastor the church?”. I saw pain and hurt over people that he had poured his life into and now were lashing out at him with words that cut to the bone. But he taught me that you have to still have to declare the whole word of the Lord with love and keep going on.
Because of the way my dad lived his life I know and this church knows that we can keep going on in the good times and in the bad times.
Finally, my dad put into my gift, prayer. He is a man of prayer.
During prayer meeting at the church it was always his voice that I heard above everybody else. Now, I have to be honest with you, it was his voice that I wished I wouldn’t hear sometimes. Everybody would be done praying and sitting in their chairs and dad would go on praying for another hour. It wasn’t a passive prayer either. It was the kind of prayer that after you listened for a while caused you to slip out of your seat and back down to your knees for another season of prayer.
He knew how to pray a burden on those who were at prayer meeting. He knew how to get a hold of God and touch God and in the process touch everybody else that was there. He was a man of prayer.
Many were the times late at night that I was awakened by the sound of my father praying. He was praying for his family. He would call each of our names out in prayer. He was praying for the church. He would call each family’s name out in prayer. He was praying for the city of Waterbury. He would pray and travail for lost souls of this city.
My dad was a man of prayer and he put that into my gift.
Because of the way my dad lived his life I know and this church knows that prayer changes things. We know that we can go to prayer for any need great or small and God will come through for us. We know that prayer can make a difference in the life of any person.
If it hadn’t have been for the way this man lived his life I would not be here today. So dad, let me say again that I love you.
If it hadn’t have been for the way this man lived his life I wonder would you be here today? Think back with me if you will – how many people here today has my dad impacted your life and been there for you when you needed him to be. So dad, let me say for this church we love you and honor you for your faithfulness, your work ethic, your humor, your love for people, your being our pastor for 25 years and for being a man of prayer.
Hebrews 11:4
4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
What kind of a gift are you leaving for your children and for those who are around you.
What kind of words will speak from beyond the grave when you are no longer able to speak.
