Song – How Great Thou Art – Family Enters
John 14.1-6
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Purpose of Funerals
1. Comfort a Family
2. Reconnect with Priorities – This is the day for which we prepare
3. Funerals help us remember the realities: certainty of death; shortness of life; sovereignty of God
4. Remember and Honor a loved one – SO MANY STORIES to tell! Brent will be telling Family Stories after the Eulogy.
OBITUARY
Song – Blessed Assurance
In the meeting with Skip’s sons and grandson the comment was made that Skip was not a “God-Fearer” but a “God-Lover.”
We can fear God inappropriately and be frightened of him rather than in awe
But ultimately He wants us to love him because he loves us.
This is a good opportunity to be reminded of this important lesson
I. God’s Love for Us
A. Love is the Key Characteristic of God – Exodus 34.6-8
6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
1. Repeated for emphasis and to declare a truth (two witnesses)
2. Stubborn Israel still received the love of God
3. It reminds me of – John 3.16-17
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
B. It is a Love We Do Not Deserve and Cannot Earn – It is Freely Given – Romans 5.6-8
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1. He gives mercy and withholds what we deserve
2. He gives grace and gives us more than we deserve
II. Our Response to God’s Love
A. Healthy Awe of God – Revelation 1.17
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last,
B. Happy Love for God – 1 John 4.18-19
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.
C. Love for God Led Skip to:
1. Love God (Deuteronomy 6.3-4)
a. She did not serve God to receive his favor
b. She served God because she had his favor
Romans 4.4-5
4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
2. Love Others (Leviticus 19.17)
• She Loved Her Family
o Close Family ties with own and extended families
o December 7, 1941 – Pearl Harbor Day – her 13th birthday – told about the attack and had concern for her four brothers in the military and the fifth who would go.
o She had pride in her domestic chores for her own family
**Self-taught seamstress – made shirts and a double knit suit as well as the silk pillowcases she gave everyone as a Christmas gift
**Cleaned house to a fault – her mother told her to ease up and let her sons live in the house – it can’t be spotless all of the time
**Cooking was a high ` mark – made desserts for every meal – Brenda Williams “Best chocolate cake in the world.”
**Protective of family – She and Jason went for a walk in an area where a mean dog was known to be; she picked up a stick and off they went – for her protection and his
**Independent – She and May Sue Sanders in the congregation would take turns driving to church eventually Mary Sue finally had to stop riding with her – too scary – she was keeping her independence too long!
• She Loved Her Friends
o Church Family – High Priority – served in kitchen for funerals and any opportunity she had
o Community Friends – Spanish Cove residents received blessings from her in anonymity – She made friends everywhere
o Loved board games and card games
o She had a way of using these opportunities to let her light shone (Matthew 5.14-16)
1. Skip was a fighter and fought as hard as she could against her illness
2. She expected to get well enough to have a prosthetic and get around
3. She lived her life ready to go and be with the LORD
4. Her sons mentioned that she was essentially HOMELESS when she passed. They had moved her to Spanish Cove and then out to assisted living so she really didn’t have a home that is, an earthly home. She certainly has her heavenly home in the Father’s house.
2 Timothy 4.7-8
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Prayer
Family Memories – Brent
Video
Trust and Obey as Audience Exits
Graveside Service
John 5.25-29
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
