Celebration of Life Service for Hannah Amstutz

It is a privilege to be with you today to celebrate Hannah’s life and honor her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And I love how she is ministering to you today through her writings…that’s powerful stuff.

I don’t need to add much to what she is saying through God’s Word.

Hannah struck me as a woman who loved the Lord, loved her family, worked hard, was a talented gardener and baker.

and I want to use that image of baking to make you hungry for God.

soon we will eat a funeral meal—that’s physical food… (and you are all invited after the committal service at the grave site)

but i want to give you some true spiritual food...

I am not much of a baker, but I admire them.

b/c people who are good cooks, are incredible—they have a science and an art about them.

they have a science—b/c they have to follow the recipe at some level—and make sure they have the right ingredients… (if you mess it up and substitute salt where you needed sugar—that’s not good!)

but they also have an art—b/c they can follow the recipes and put their personality into it—their heart and soul and love into it.

and i want to use that image baking and think about 3 ingredients we need for a relationship with God.

3 ingredients for a relationship with God.

before I mention the 1st one...

some background info: the Bible is clear that from the very beginning—there is a big all-powerful God who made all things, and at the height of his creation, he made human beings in his image to know Him and love Him. God did this out of his love. He is a good king who loves us!

but we quickly turned from that—Adam and Eve, the 1st human beings when given the chance were tempted by Satan; they ate from the tree that God told them not to…and introduced all sorts of horrible consequences into our world.

The Bible calls this sin—and it’s not just Adam and Eve who do this:

Romans 3:23 NIV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

all of us now experience this—instead of allowing God to call the shots—we do. we think we know best rather than God...

so the first ingredient you need—if you are going to know God and enjoy God:

A. Admitting — admitting before God that you have messed up. you are a sinner. you fall short of his glory.

Isaiah 53:6 NIV

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

and we have made a big mess of our lives.

The Bible is clear that b/c of this we actually deserve death

Romans 6:23 NIV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

not just physical death—but spiritual death away from God for eternity.

but if we are going to avoid that and have real life with God now and for eternity, we had to admit it— and this is the hardest part—I have noticed—b/c we are stubborn and prideful—we don’t like admitting when we are wrong—but if you humble yourself and admit—God will begin to cook something beautiful in your life

The 2nd ingredient

B — believe in Jesus Christ.

so A - admit

B - believe

If A is the bad ingredient

B is the good ingredient

You see — God sent His Son Jesus Christ into our world on a rescue mission. Jesus who always existed came and took on flesh—and lived the life we failed to live. He lived perfectly on our behalf…unlike Adam, He succeeded. Unlike us—he always followed God.

and not only that—even though Jesus was all-powerful and did miracles, he humbled himself and became obedient to death on a wooden cross. He did this b/c on the cross he was paying for our sins in our place, taking the punishment we deserve. Jesus didn’t deserve it—we did. but He did it for us.

Romans 5:8 NIV

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

and not only that—3 days later he rose bodily from the dead proving that sin was paid for, death defeated—

and if you believe that Jesus died on your behalf—if you trust Him, the Bible says you will be saved.

John 3:16 NIV

16 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.

you and I don’t earn it or work for it. it is by grace.

Ephesians 2:8 NIV

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

Ephesians 2:9 NIV

9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

so are you willing to admit you are a sinner?

and believe on Jesus to save you?

if you do—you get forgiveness of sins; eternal life; life with God now and forevermore.

B — believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved-you and your household.

the last ingredient...

C — Confess—that Jesus is king of your life...

not only do we trust Jesus to save us—but we surrender our entire life to Him. He is not just our Savior—He is our Lord and King.

Romans 10:9 NIV

9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Luke 9:23 NIV

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

this is another tough ingredient...

and it is not always easy—in fact, if you are a believer, every day, you have to say no to self and yes to God.

everyday you have to surrender

and if you are not a believer—you have to have that initial, first time where you surrender—and that’s hard.

but the beautiful thing is this—if you allow God to work these ingredients into your life---

A - admit your sin

B - believe in Jesus

C - confess He is Lord

you will be saved, God will bake something beautiful, you will get forgiveness of sins; you will be a new creation with God’s Spirit living inside you, empowering you.

He through the Holy Spirit will create in you a clean heart, a new creation...

you will learn that God is cooking something beautiful in your life—and that you do not live on bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of the living God.

Jesus gives a wonderful promise:

Matthew 16:25 NIV

25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

I want to give you a time to respond..and the family has asked that we do the following:

I want to invite the family forward here for a time of prayer; we will come up here..

and I want to invite you to forward for a couple of purposes:

if you feel led to pray for the family—come forward, surround them, lay hands on them

if you feel stirred to surrender your life to Jesus, come forward, and just pray

bottom line—is I don’t want know why you are coming forward—you can come for either or both purposes...

let’s pray...

Dear God,

I know that I am not worthy to be accepted by you. I don’t deserve your gift of eternal life. I am guilty of rebelling against you and ignoring you. I’m sorry, and I need your forgiveness.

Thank you for sending your Son to die for me so that I may be forgiven. Thank you that he rose from the dead to give me new life.

Please forgive me and change me, so that I may live with Jesus as my ruler. Amen.

heads bowed eyes closed—look at me.

(I have a booklet for you)

and then I want to pray for the family...

invite Henry Schaadt up