Alan Bell Memorial Service

Introduction

Welcome! On behalf of Nancy and the entire Bell family, I would like to thank you for coming as we celebrate and remember a life well lived.

Alan was a man who loved his family, who served others, and ultimately committed His life to His Lord and Savior.

Nancy has shared with me a bit of their time together over the last 15 years.

She said she enjoyed traveling, so after they got married, the first thing Alan did was get his passport so they could travel together. They enjoyed going to many places throughout the world. They enjoyed getting outside into nature and reveling in God’s creation. Nancy had the opportunity to teach Alan to ski. They would hike, ride bikes, and go snorkeling together.

Alan was also a man who loved his kids and grandkids. He enjoyed getting to spend time with them and get to do special things with them. He was a man who loved his family.

Alan spent his life as a program manager working hard to provide for his family. However, his passion and the thing God had called him to was to serve the local church. From his teenage years, he knew God had called him to preach.

Alan experienced salvation when he received the gospel at a Billy Graham Crusade when he was a teenager and then he would attend church with some neighbor friends. He fell in love with Christ and wanted to serve him. He spent his time finding ways to serve the church and to help churches by filling in the pulpit and preaching whenever needed.

However, his joy became reality when he was called to pastor this local church right here in Pie Town. Some friends of his, Rusty and Glennys Elliott, recounted to me the day in which he told them he had just been called to be the pastor here. They said his eyes were filled with joy and excitement. Alan was a man who loved God and loved His people.

Alan wanted people to know this God who came to bring salvation and grace to us. In fact he saw Luke 4:18-19

Luke 4:18–19 ESV

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

as not only Jesus’ mission, but the mission Christ gave to him as well.

As we reflect upon Alan’s life and his love and service to the Lord and to others, I want us to see his life and death in light of how God sees it.

Psalm 116:15 (ESV)

Precious in the sight of the Lord

is the death of his saints.

The psalmist here tells us that the death of His saints are precious in the sight of the Lord.

We have a hard time seeing death as precious.

What does the psalmist mean here in this passage?

God Does Not Delight In Death Itself

First, I want us to know that God does not take delight in death itself. Death is an aberration to His creation. He did not create things to die.

Death has come into this world because of sin and now we are all in the process of dying. This is something we will all have to face, sooner or later.

But God does not delight in death.

There is an account of Jesus in John’s gospel chapter 11 where a friend of Jesus became sick and passed away. This friend’s name is Lazarus. Jesus had a plan to show everyone who He is and the power He has over death by coming down and bringing Lazarus back to life. He knew that this encounter with Lazarus would end with Lazarus walking out of the tomb because He wanted everyone to see that He is the resurrection and the life and that all who believe in Him will live forever.

However, even knowing that He was going to bring Lazarus back to life did not keep Jesus from weeping with everyone who wept over Lazarus’ death. Jesus Himself, was moved to tears over the existence of death in this world. But there’s more than just sadness in Jesus’ response to Lazarus’ death.

When Jesus came into Bethan to visit the home and family of Lazarus, He went to go talk with Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary. On His way to talk with Mary, John 11:33

John 11:33 (ESV)

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

The phrase, “he was deeply moved in his spirit” could also be translated “He was indignant.”

Jesus is feeling anger at the havoc that sin and death has caused within His creation. Jesus is not simply sad, He is angry at the existence of death and hates death. Jesus is life and death is diametrically opposed to His very character.

So when the psalmist says that the death of the Lord’s saints are precious in His eyes, he is not saying that God views death itself as precious. God hates death just as much as you and I and He weeps right along with us.

The Death of His Saints is an Entrance to Life

But physical death for His saints is an entrance to true life.

The problem we currently have as sinners is that we exist in a world that is separated from God Himself. Because God is pure and holy, He cannot dwell with those who are sinful.

However, for those who are counted as His saints, physical death is an entrance to God’s presence. We escape the corruption and suffering of this world and enter into the joy of God’s presence. John 11:25-26

John 11:25–26 ESV

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

While we grieve and mourn Alan’s passing, and it is right that we do so because death is not part of God’s plan, we also celebrate this morning because Alan is one of God’s saints and his physical death means that he no longer has to suffer in this life and he has gotten to enter into the presence of Christ. When his eyes closed here, his eyes opened up to the image of Christ and he is getting to worship and serve his Lord and Savior in his presence now.

In this way, Alan’s death is precious in the sight of the Lord because it has brought him home with the Lord.

How to Make Your Death Precious in the Sight of the Lord

So how does one get to be considered one of the Lord’s saints?

This is not an automatic thing. Not everyone is one of God’s saints. What does it take to be called one of His saints?

I know Alan would want everyone in here to be called a saint of God, to be called one of the Lord’s.

It is not by good works, although God has definitely called us to good works. But good works will not make us one of His saints. No matter how good we are, we cannot erase the sin and disobedience we have committed against the Lord.

James 2:10 ESV

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

It is not by being religious or simply going to church and reading the Bible, although, those who love the Lord will love His church and His Word. But those things in and of themselves cannot rid us of our sin.

Jesus actually gives us the answer in a midnight conversation He had with one of the Pharisees of the time, Nicodemus.

Jesus says in John 3:16

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

It is not anything you or I can do to make ourselves good enough. God knows you and I could never be good enough or religious enough to make it to heave. So God sent His Son, Jesus, as fully God and fully Man to live the perfect life we should have lived.

Only Jesus, God the Son, is good enough to be accepted by God the Father. But not only did Jesus live the perfect life, Jesus died the death our sin deserved, taking upon Himself the full punishment for sin. He was not forced or coerced to do so. He did so willingly because He loves us.

It is Jesus’ perfect life and redeeming death and resurrection that secures for us eternal life. However, it is still not automatic. We see here that whoever believes in Jesus should not perish or die, but have eternal life.

This believing is not simply acknowledging the existence of Jesus. This believing is trusting that you need a Savior, like Jesus has told us, that Christ’s perfect life, death, and resurrection is sufficient to save you from your sin, and that Christ is worth following and honoring with all that we are.

By trusting in Christ as our Savior and Lord, we can be assured that death will not be the end. Because of what Christ has done, we know that Alan has not truly died, but is more alive now than he ever has been, and in that sense, Alan’s death as a saint of God is precious in God’s sight.

If Alan were here, he would want to make sure you knew you were one of God’s saints as well and that your death, when it comes, will also be precious in God’s sight, not because of death itself, but because of the life you will receive in Christ.

If you want to know more, I would love to share with you how you can believe and place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

prayer

as we conclude I want to thank everyone again for coming to show your love and support for the Bell family and would ask that you continue to pray for them during this time. the family would also like to invite everyone to the Pie Town Community center for a reception and time of fellowship.