A Funeral Message

TI would like for you to turn your attention to the book of Romans and find with me chapter 14, and once you find chapter 14 would you be so kind, and only if your able, would you stand with me in honor of God’s Word tonight. I will be reading our verse today from the Christian Standard Bible and if your able, follow along with me from verses 7 to verse 9.

Hear the word of the Lord…. 7 For none of us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 Christ died and returned to life for this: that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living.. Now, I ask for grace for I need a moment to turn to Matthew gospel, and find Chapter 11.

I’ll read verse 29. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your wonderful presence and your faithfulness to be near those who are hurting and broken hearted. I Pray, in this hour that Your Word would be planted deep into our hearts. Help us not to be a forgetful hearer but a doer of Your Word.

Strengthen us to meditate on Your Word and so build our life on the rock of Your truth. In Jesus’s name we pray, Amen. You may be Seated. She would be so humbled by your kind words over her life tonight. If I was to sum up her life. The life I knew as her pastor. I would sum it up with one word, Jesus. This past Saturday, I sat with family and friends and I was telling them on how Charles Spurgeon had pointed out that in all four gospels given to us, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

And out of 89 chapters of Biblical text, there is only one place in the Bible where we hear Jesus himself, tells us what his heart looks like. and it’s found only in Matthews gospel where Jesus says this of himself, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28–30) In this one place in the Bible, it’s as if the Son of God, pulls back the fleshly veil that covers his heart, and he gifts us the opportunity to peer down into the core of his heart and see him for who he truly is. Jesus says, “I am lowly and gentle in heart.” That’s what Jesus says.

According to his own testimony, this is Christ’s very own heart. This is the core of who he is. And it’s the very nature of her spirit. Think about it. Jesus says, I am gentle. In other translations it says, I am Meek. Humble. Gentle. What we learn is this… Jesus was never trigger-happy. Not harsh, or reactionary, or easily angered. He is the most understanding person in the universe. The posture most natural to him is not a pointed finger but open arms.

Regardless of who you are… he says, come. The most humblest invitation by Jesus to you and to me is to just come. Now, This is only in the time that I’ve known her. Which has been in her mid to late 90’s. Her family may know a different side of her. I can only imagine how many times you boys have tested her gentleness and her sanctification. But I can affirm this..

regardless.. she loved you boys dearly. She was every word of what Peter would say of a Christ-like wife other husband, and to you boys… Peter writes, “but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.” Jesus also said, he was lowly… Do you know what it means to be lowly? It’s a word that doesn’t connect to being gentle, but it overlaps it.

It’s translated in many of our bibles as being humble. Such as in James 4:6: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” In Mary’s song while pregnant with Jesus, for example, this word is used to speak of the way God exalts those who are “of humble estate” (Luke 1:52). Paul, in the same chapter as he says, that our bodies are to be living sacrifices, used to glorify Christ, he uses the word lowly when he tells us to “not be haughty, but associate with the lowly” (Rom.

12:16) The point to what Jesus is saying by saying that he is lowly, is to say that he’s is accessible. He’s willing to listen. He’s approachable. In all honesty, when you encounter his presence, you’ll find yourself wanting to be around Him more. I loved every minute that I was around her. Because She was always kind, and lowly, and gentle and meek, and thoughtful. When I was in her presence, I always found myself to be at rest.

But she would go on to tell me one time that she wasn’t always good. Just a couple months ago I sat with her at her table. Filled with papers, and cards and a magnifying glass, and often there would be a tea cup sitting on the corner wall by her chair. And we began having conversations but it was hard to communicate because she couldn’t hear very well. So one day I said to her…

“why don’t you start telling me about your life growing up. You might not be able to hear me, but I can hear you.” What was it like growing up in the 1920’s and during he great depression, and through so many other things. Just think about it. She lived through some amazing moments. Time magazine was first published only 9 days before she was born. Bubble gum was invented when she was 5.

The US went into the great depression when she was 6. By the time she was 17, McDonald’s was founded and when she turned 18, Pearl Harbor was attacked thrusting the US into the second Word War. IN the 1960’s the beetles were formed in Liverpool England. She lived through the 70’s, the 80’s the 90’s and the 2000’s. There is so much she could have said to me.. but do you know where she started.

She began telling me of when she was a teenager and she wasn’t a very good person. Believe it or not.. she goes, pastor… I’ve been known to be a little mischievous. She began telling me about when she was in school and she would sit up on the front row and her and another boy would cheat on their tests. Until one day, her and her friend went to a tent revival and she received Jesus into her heart.

She began telling me how, when she went back to school she was a different person. She didn’t want to cheat anymore. She had to tell the boy that sat up front with her, that she couldn’t cheat anymore. She just said, “I got saved and I didn’t want to look back.” And I never noticed it until last night as I was thinking about this tory she had told me…

but she was giving me the gospel, in her own way she was giving me me the gospel. The frost gift that God gives to each and every person is their testimony. She could have talked about the wars, or the beetles, or to her amazing marriage to Lee, and her love for her boys… but the first story was to tell me about how her life was changed one day in a tent, by a revivalist, where she lived one way, but when she had a real, authentic interaction with Jesus, who offered her grace, and love and forgiveness.

Who met her there in that tent, with a heart that was lowly and gentle, her life was changed. That’s why I believe the Holy Spirit led me to Romans chapter 14. Romans 14 reminds us of this.. That we are not our own but that we belong, body and soul, both in life and death, too God and to our Savior Jesus Christ. The essence of the Christian life is not to be lifted up.

But to lift the name of Jesus. You see, this is what she would have heard in that tent meeting. God sent his Son, Jesus, to save us by grace and to adopt us into his family. All of which came through the shedding of the blood on the cross. Then in three days, the Son, was raised to life and now sits at the right had of the father. So now, because of that grace, in our gratitude, we want to resemble our Father.

We want the family resemblance. We want to look like our Savior. We want to please our Father. We want a heart that is lowly and gentle. And the only way for that to happen is for His son to come and live in us. We’re not to live as if we belong to ourselves or the world… As Paul had said, and as she had lived.. we belong to Christ.

And that could mean several things. But when we’re called to live for Jesus. I think of two things… First of all, it means we are not to determine for ourselves what is right or wrong. We give up the right to determine that, and we rely wholly on God’s Word. She lived this kind of life… a holy life, a life that says, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

A life that would resemble the famous hymn, It is well with my soul. Regardless of what happens, God you are in control over my life. She lived a life totally surrendered to her Lord. Also, to belong to Christ, meant that we stop putting ourselves first, and we always put first, what pleases God and what loves our neighbor. Let’s be honest… it’s easy to love God.. but sometimes it’s hard to love those who are hard to love.

I don’t think there was a soul here on earth that she didn’t love. Her words were always compassionate. Her words were always encouraging. Her words always pointed to Jesus. Could we live like that? Could we, every day, choose God's way, choose love, even when it means laying down our own wants and desires for someone else? Could we live everyday putting what we want, and how we want it, and what we think is right or wrong behind us to please God and to love others.

She did. And she showed us by her example that we can Love God and Love others and serve both faithfully. She showed us what a holy life looked like, to wholly give ourselves to our savior. Mind, body and soul. It means she trusted God through thick and thin, through the good and the bad times, in life and in death. Her faith was rooted in love. She lived this life of belonging!

I to Jesus and Jesus to I. You too can live this life. I can’t promise you 100 years of life like hers, but I can promise you this… Jesus says, If you put your faith in him, you will inherit eternal life. That a promise… And when Christ comes into your heart like it did jeans… you too can sing the words to the song we’re about to hear. When it's all been said and done, There is just one thing that matters, Did I do my best to live for truth.

Did I live my life for you, Lord I'll live my life for you. For none of us lives for himself, and no one dies for himself. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.*