Funeral for Iva Lee Whitaker

Welcome: On behalf of Mrs. Iva Lee and her family, we want to thank you for your attendance today as we celebrate a life well lived. She would have loved that each of you are here!

Eulogy: Iva Lee Bussey Whitaker, 78, of Columbus, GA passed away on Tuesday, January 2, 2024 at Piedmont Columbus Regional Midtown. Funeral services will be held at Vance Brooks Funeral Home, 4048 Macon Road, Columbus, GA on Friday, January 5, 2024 beginning at 11:00 am .with Rev. Matt Mouser officiating. The interment will conclude at Parkhill Cemetery. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at the funeral home from 10:00 am until 11:00 am.

Mrs. Whitaker was born on April 22, 1945 in Macon County, Georgia to the late Marvin Bussey and Gertrude Jordan Bussey. She worked in the textile industry for over 30 years in Columbus, GA. Mrs. Whitaker was a longtime member of First Freewill Baptist Church in Columbus, GA where she was an active participant of the Golden Ages group. She was a dedicated sister who truly loved and cared about her family. She will be greatly missed but will always have a special place in the hearts of her family and friends.

Other than her parents, Mrs. Whitaker is preceded in death by her loving and devoted husband Roy A. Whitaker; sisters Verna Starner, Jeanette Melvin, and Frances Bone; brothers Herbert Bussey, George Bussey, and Steve Bussey.

Survivors include her sisters Catherine Taunton of Ideal, GA, Suzanne Bussey of Warner Robins, GA, and Grace Dennard of Columbus, GA, as well as many nieces, nephews and extended family.

Prayer

Song?

Message: Psalm 16:11

I find that the funeral services for those who have impacted our lives in a positive way are far sweeter no matter how difficult the situation. I believe that is the case today. The body, yes just the body, of a sweet lady, Mrs. Iva Lee, lies before us and she was the rare type of person who I never had a negative interaction with. Even as her health declined in more recent years, I found that she always had something positive to say on Sunday mornings after the message. Of course, I know better than to believe that had much at all to do with the quality of the sermon and more about Iva’s attitude. She even told me on multiple occasions, “Whenever I want to say something about you, I just pray for you instead.” That means the world to me. There is much she could have said to others, and yet she made a choice to pray for me. You see, this was a woman who loved God. And I want to focus for a few moments on what effect that has on a person’s life.

Is there ever a bad time to turn our attention to scripture? In times of grief and sadness, we ought to turn our attention to God’s word. In moments of celebration and great joy, we should turn to the inspired scriptures.

As I prepared a message to preach today, there were many passages of scripture that came to my mind that would be beneficial for us to hear today. My focus will be on the idea of joy because anyone who came across Iva Lee was faced with a person who had a joy that cannot be supplied from any place but from God.

The bible speaks about joy in many places. Of course Paul mentions joy as apart of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. Proverbs 17:22 reminds us that “a joyful heart is good medicine…” We are reminded in Isaiah 9:3 that it is God who increases the joy of His people. Even coming out of the Christmas season, we are reminded that the response of the Wise Men when they saw the star, they were filled with joy! The Psalms often remind us to enter the house of God with great rejoicing. But one particular verse I want to point us to in the Psalms outlines the life of someone who believes in God.

The sixteenth Psalm is a mixture of requests David makes to God as well as confessions about what is in the character of God. Preserve me. You are my Lord. The Lord gives me counsel. All of things are beneficial to us today but I want to focus in on the final verse, verse 11. Listen to the Word of the Lord.

Read Psalm 16:11

Psalm 16:11 ESV

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

First, we can see from David’s confession that

God Has Revealed the Proper Way to Live

I tell the people God has called me to preach to often that I am thankful that God does not leave us in the wind, wondering what it is that we should do. He has outlined for us how we should conduct ourselves. What is right and what is wrong. How to speak, how to think, and what to do in various situations.

Iva Lee’s life was lived in a way that made clear to all that were around her that God had revealed the path of life. She followed the divine road signs of where to go and how to navigate this fallen world that we live in.

When a person devotes themselves to living for God, there may be situations where it is difficult to know what to do, but we do not remain in the dark about how to conduct ourselves.

Not only are our lives guided by the King who sits on the throne but also our attitudes. Next,

Living For God Provides Complete Joy

It is one thing for a person to put on a face of happiness for others when times are good. It is altogether another when a person has the joy that David speaks of here. He does not say, “In your presence there is joy.” No, this is a joy that exceeds what the world considers joy because it is fullness. There is nothing lacking in the way of joy when we enjoy the presence of the Holy One! When I say that there is nothing lacking, what I mean is that there is an abundance. The cup overflows with joy when a person is in the presence of God.

I want to note here that we can see this in our own lives when we stray away from Him every once in a while. When this happens, I find that the number of times we wander are fewer and fewer and for less time.

One final note on the presence of God is that He is always present. However, in order for a person to experience the fullness of joy that comes with that, we must both acknowledge and accept His presence. When we do this, we experience a joy that is known to all. That was the case for Mrs. Iva. On Sunday Mornings, I would go into the sanctuary right after her Sunday school would let out and she was often one of the first people I would get to hug. Her smile was a reminder of why I love to do what I do. It was that same smile that was infectious to the members of the Golden Agers. So many in our church and community felt the complete joy of this sister and surely they were able to attribute it to the effect of God’s presence on her life!

Finally,

One Who Lives for God Experiences the Full Extent of God’s Blessings

This is the point of hope that I cannot stress enough for all of us today. You’ll notice the word forevermore. David is referring to the heavenly dwelling of the person who chooses to serve God on this earth. It is because Mrs. Iva loved God and served Him that she is now in His presence in heaven and enjoying His pleasures. And there will never be a day where those pleasures don’t exist for her!

Her flawed body remains here today and she has been given a new and perfect one.

But I want to offer that challenge to each one who is here today. Have you trusted God with your life? Do you strive to serve Him each and every day and is there assurance that you will enjoy His pleasures in eternity? It is my prayer that as you consider a life such as Iva Lee’s, that you will do that if you haven’t yet.

Let’s pray.

Committal Service

1 Corinthians 15:50-58

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 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.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 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.

While death is harmful in this moment, we rejoice in remembering this is only a body. We praise God that our sister no longer is suffering. Death has no hold on the follower of Jesus. In the words of the apostle Paul, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Since Almighty God, in His providence, has taken from this life the soul of our deceased sister, we therefore commit her body to the grave and entrust her spirit to Him who gave it. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Pray: Almighty God, we have gathered here at the grave of our departed sister. In the midst of this sadness, we seek you and ask that you would draw us closer to you. Sustain us, oh Lord, until the day when we will be united once again in heaven. We ask these things in your precious and holy name, Amen.