Joe Parish Funeral

As I spent time thinking about Joe…one of the first things that came to my mind was that He was a “Jack of all trades.” I was affirmed when I later read those very words in the obituary.

Every time I saw Joe he was on his way to get into something … and it was never the same thing!

Joe, What are you going to do this morning? Ahh…I’ve got to go do some dozer work...What about today… Well I’ve got to go work on the dozer...

How bout now…I’ve got to go cut down a few trees and make a load of fire wood...Or I’ve got some welding I need to do then I’ve got to go to the fire department...By the way…you need anything?

Joe had a servant’s heart.

I was not blessed to know Joe as long as some of you did. But our relationship began here a couple of years ago at a local destination called the “Round Table.”

Joe would come in every now and then and drink some coffee as he was figuring out what he needed to do to help somebody, most of the time that meant John Ralph.

But it was there that I had the blessing of initially meeting him and it wasn’t too long after that, that I found myself in need of some firewood. “So who did I call…Joe Parish!

By the way a little side note…I think it’s awfully suspect that a man who has spent his life serving as a fire fighter... also sold wood for people to light on fire....I’ll let you come to your own observations there, but it sounds like job security to me!

But I found myself over at Joe and Ms. Kathy’s house on a few occasions and Joe and I had several conversations about life.

He told me about there son Jacob, about how he loved the Lord and about the car accident. He also spoke high of Ms. Kathy and we even spent some time talking about church and preachers. I was in my overalls on our first visit…I guess Joe was impressed with that cause he mentioned it a couple of times.

I tell you all this to frame a picture for you this afternoon. Of a man that we have already described as a “Jack of All Trades.” But I would submit to you that not only was he a “Jack of All Trades,” but he was also in the best way possible, just an “Average Joe.”

He wasn’t fancy, he wasn’t flashy…he said what he meant and he meant what he said. He loved to serve people and to do right by them and he made an impact on me over the course of the last couple of years.

God’s Word tells us in Mark 10:45 that:

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

One of the things that I love about this particular verse, is not only that it illustrates the gospel, but also that when it says that Jesus “came not to be served, but to serve...” that the word “serve” means that Christ was affirmed as a servant by the “menial kinds of service and ministry that he performed.”

Folks I am not standing up here and telling you that Joe had a servant’s heart because of what I heard people say he did… I’m standing here and affirming that Joe had a servant’s heart because of what I saw him do!

Over the last couple of years, I have been dealing with a back injury that hinders me from time to time. A year or so ago I had previously purchased some fire wood from Joe but when the time came to go get it, I wasn’t able to physically load it because of my back.

I get a call several days later from Joe. Hey Ben…just wanted you to know that I’ve got your firewood loaded up on my trailer and will bring it to your house and unload it for you if you need me to...

Now...I already had some guys lined up but I have no doubt that Joe Parish would have been in my backyard unloading firewood for me if I had needed him to… Nothing was too menial, nothing was beneath him, he was just an “average joe.”

Now I want to tell you about another man…who by worldly standards was also just “ an average Joe...who, like Joe, wasn’t fancy or flashy, who always said what he meant and meant what he said…who loved to serve people, to do right by them and even gave his life to save the lives of others… He is the Christ, the Son of the living God and his name is Jesus...

I’m here to tell you this afternoon that Joe was many things, he was a good man, he did love his family and he did possess the heart of a servant…but one thing that he was not was perfect. You see, Like you and I… Joe was a sinner. And although he did serve in many noble areas in his life… those things could not nor would not take away the reality of his need for a Savior.

1 Samuel 16:7

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

You see what this passage is talking about is that…God had rejected Saul as King of Israel and was preparing to anoint David as the new King by the hand of the Prophet Samuel.

So Samuel travels to Bethlehem and meets Jesse and his sons (which was the family that the next King would come from). When Samuel first saw Eliab, Jesse’s oldest son, and looked upon his stature and the way that he carried himself, Samuel thought that this young man has got to be who the Lord has in mind for Israel’s next King.

But he wasn’t…in fact, David, who the Lord had in mind for Israel’s next King was just a boy, a boy who grew into the King that God himself said was a “man after his own heart.”

Folks…God doesn’t look at the outside, he looks within…And whether you are a influential King or an average Joe…God’s desire is that you surrender your life to him.

Joe’s own confession affirmed that he had given his life to Christ as we stood out in his yard one day…but what made Joe right in the eyes of the Lord wasn’t all the good, servant things he did during his life here on earth… what made Joe right in the eyes of the Lord was that he had given his life to Christ.

And there may be some of you here today that have assumed that if you can be a good enough, moral enough person and serve others enough… then God will grant you salvation and that is a lie straight from the pits of Hell

Folks… God says in Isaiah 64:6 that our righteousness, all the good deeds that we could ever perform and all the moral things we could do, are like filthy rags to the Lord. And I am here to ask you this morning, Have you given your life to Jesus? Or are you depending on the evaluation of men and/or you being a good person to get you there?

Ephesians 2:7–10

so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Christ came to save the lost? And he will change your life…but the only way to Him is by faith.

Are you playing a finite game or an infinite game? And you living for the “temporary, finite things of this world” or are you preparing for your” infinite life hereafter?”

Today is proof and a reminder that “life on earth, doesn’t last forever! The choice is yours… you will spend eternity in a place called Heaven or a place called Hell?

And if Joe were here right now…That average Joe would tell you to choose Christ!