Celebration of Life (2)

for Randy Willems

Opening Prayer & Welcome

Heavenly Father I come to you in the name of Jesus and I ask that You would be glorified here today. I ask that You would comfort us with your love and that the Holy Spirit would be very evident here today. We invite Your presence and ask that You would minister to each of us today.

Randy’s sister, Barb

will come and share some words of tribute for Randy

At this time we have a special song: Day by Day

By Cousins: Wayne, Janice, Bob, and Auntie Wanda

Message: You, God are my God

I think that it was 2019 that I met Randy. He stopped in at the church, probably 3-4 times, but before we knew it Covid hit, I didn’t have his contact information, and you know the rest of the story.

Just last week Virginia stopped in to let me know that Randy had passed away and would have liked for me to be a part of his funeral.

Even though I didn’t know him well, it’s my understanding that he loved the LORD, and looked forward to the day that he could see Jesus face to face.

Today, I want to share from Psalm 63:1-2

Psalm 63:1–2 NIV

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.

There is nothing in life that we can desire that can ever come close to having a relationship with Jesus.

We can seek possessions. We can long for relationships. We have seem to have it all together, but unless Jesus is our Rock, our foundation, everything that we have will crumble around us.

David who was the king longed to for God. He was in the wilderness. He was separated from the Ark of the Covenant which represented God’s presence, and he starts this psalm out in a way that is applicable for us today.

1. You, God are my God

To David, God wasn’t a God that was distant. He wasn’t a god that was the god of his nation. God wasn’t just his father, Jesse’s, God.

David declares, You, God are my God. David recognized the need for a relationship with God.

David had a lot of bumps and bruises in his life. He was hated by his father-in-law. He had been a fugitive in his own country, even though he had been a hero. In later years, his son, Absalom, tried to take over the kingdom with a rebellion, and yet David was a man after God’s own heart.

God is a personal God and He longs to have relationship with us, so much so that Jesus died on the cross for us.

Earnestly I seek for you...

Have you ever lost anything, and you just couldn’t live without it?

Maybe in your mind you try to retrace your steps to where you might have left something or where you last saw it.

A couple of years ago, I went to a farm. I went in a corral and even a field. When I got home, I realized that my wallet was missing out of my back pocket.

Where do you even begin looking? Night fall was approaching so I didn’t have time to look, so being the next morning was Sunday, we as a church family prayed that God would help me find the wallet.

I took my son, Josh, and we went to the farm. As we were going it was starting to snow. I knew that time was of the essence. Josh and I got out of the car and within about 20-30 feet, There it was.

Isaiah 55:6–7 NIV

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

God wants us to seek Him, and we seek Him, He will be found.

James 4:8 (NKJV)

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

My whole being longs for you...

like in a dry parched land where there is no water.

Physically we can know what it’s like to be so thirsty. When we see drought, we can see how the land is cracked and needing water.

My prayer today that that we would long for God as though life itself depends on it. It doesn’t take long for our bodies to dehydrate if we don’t have any water, but we can become spiritually dehydrated without even knowing it.

In John 15:5

John 15:5 NIV

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Here’s a little illustration about being plugged in to God:

When God made trees he spoke to the earth. When God made fish he spoke to the water. When God made man he said let us make man in our image. He breathed life from Him into us. These three things are alive. however they are not independent. If you pull the fish out of water it will die. If you pull the tree of out the dirt it will die. So too if we don’t stay plugged in to God we will die. (Glynda Lomax)

Psalm 63:2 NIV

I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.

Let’s not be too busy to behold the LORD in His power and glory. Let’s always keep Christ first in our lives.

If you haven’t, It’s as simple as saying “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. I believe you died for me. Please come into my life as my Lord and Savior.”

I want to close with verses 3-5.

Psalm 63:3–5 NIV

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

I believe based on Randy confession of faith in Jesus Christ, Today, he can lift up his hands and sing that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Let’s pray!

Barb will read some of Melanie’s thoughts and then we’ll listen to the

song: I Am Your Beloved

By Jonathan David Helser & Melissa Helser (8 min)

Let’s pray!

Lord, you know our hurts and our heartaches, but You are greater than these. Thank you for the cross. Thank You that You gave all for us so that we could come to the Father because of Your blood. You gave it all so that we could have life. Thanks for replacing our shame with Your love which is more than enough. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

At this time, we are going to commit Randy’s body to the ground.

Committal Service

Psalm 27:1 (NIV)

The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:4

Psalm 27:4 (NIV)

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

I believe that we need to live for eternity because only God knows our days.

“We brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can take nothing out…The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:50–58 (ESV)

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Just as it was God’s will to take Randy Willem to Himself. We therefore commit his body to the ground, and we know that,

Philippians 3:20–21 (NIV)

“… our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

The Lord’s prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed by thy name,

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.

Forever and ever. Amen.

Benediction

Hebrews 13:20–21 (NIV)

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,

equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.