Janice Oliver Funeral

BEGINNING OF SERVICE

Welcome and Opening Prayer: Pastor Michael

Psalm 23 : Pastor Michael or Ben Barnett

Congregational: The Old Rugged Cross

Eulogy: Jim Weston

Gene Cornett: I’d Rather Have Jesus

Slideshow w/ Music (Knowing What I Know About Heaven)

Message: How Do You Want to Be Remembered? (Michael)

How Will You Be Remembered?

INTRODUCTION

Alexander the Great was the king of Macedonia and he conquered much of the known world in the 4th century BC.

He was a brilliant military leader.

He was powerful.

He liked control.

One of the things that he sought to control was how he would be remembered.

The truth is that like many men who ruled empires in the ancient world, he was pretty brutal.

He was a rage-filled, murderous man with an alcohol addiction who committed some pretty terrible atrocities.

But that is not how he wanted to be remembered.

He wanted a legacy of greatness that was not marred by all his wickedness.

So he named cities after himself, like Alexandria in Egypt.

He encouraged the spread of the Greek language throughout his empire as a part of establishing a legacy that would carry on after his death.

But the truth of the matter is that he couldn’t control the narrative.

History can sometimes miss the facts, but most of the time, the record is the record.

You get remembered for What you did. What you said. What you didn’t do and what you didn’t say.

You get remembered for who you are.

Alexander was a brilliant brute and the memory of that is something he could not control.

So how will YOU be remembered?

It is a good question for us to think about on a day like today.

A day in which we are laying to rest a sister who will be remembered well.

She will be remembered for being a loving mother.

She will be remembered for being a faithful friend.

She will be remembered for being a wonderful, covenant member of her local church.

And she will be remembered for following Jesus Christ.

So what about you?

A CHALLENGING PROVERB

Proverbs 10 begins the section of God’s great wisdom book called, “The proverbs of Solomon.”

Short staccato sayings of wisdom fill chapter after chapter.

And just a handful of verses in, Solomon, carried along by the Holy Spirit, gives us a Proverb that we would be foolish to ignore.

Proverbs 10:7 ESV

The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

In just one sentence, Solomon explains something important to us about human legacy.

We all live lives here on earth and we might be tempted to think that what we do and say in our lives will begin and end with us.

We think that when they close the coffin and lower it into the ground or when they spread our ashes on some lake or ocean, that we are done.

We think that the good things we did are in the record books and that the chapter closes, never to be opened again.

We think that the bad things we have done are cast into a river of forgetfulness and carried away in just a few short moments.

But Solomon is telling us that these things are not true.

The reality is that the way we lived our lives will continue to impact others after we are gone.

The memory of the righteous will be a blessing to those who sit and ponder their lives.

However, the name of the wicked person will rot.

Matthew Henry said that this shows us that both the just and the wicked must die—but between there souls, is a vast difference.

HOW DOES ONE BECOME RIGHTEOUS?

Before we can go any further, we have to stop and ask the question— How does one become righteous?

Do we get there through doing righteous things?

Do we get there by performing works?

Is it a status of morality that we can attain through human will and effort?

NONE GOOD

It is a good question to ask. And as we consider it, we must think about what Paul said in Romans 3:10-12

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

No one is good. No one is righteous.

And this is because we have inherited our sin from our first parents.

On the 6th Day of Creation, God created Adam and Eve in His image—in holiness and righteousness, He created them.

And He gave them a whole garden to enjoy for food and pleasure, but told them not to eat from one tree in the Garden—if they did, they would surely die.

And yet, they believed lies about God and His Word and they ate from that tree. And with their sin, death entered the world.

And just as we have all sorts of genetics handed down to us from our parents and all sorts of tendencies handed down to us, Adam’s sin was handed down to us.

Romans 5:12 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

And ever since, every child born from two human parents have been born in sin.

Psalm 51:5 ESV

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

GK Chesterton said that he really can’t prove 6 day creation or the cross or the resurrection to you. These are Christian doctrines that take faith.

But the doctrine of original sin and the total sinfulness of humanity as a result is something easily proven.

Just look around or look in the mirror.

Just judge yourself by God’s law—the 10 Commandments.

So if none are righteous, how can we ever be remembered as a blessing?

Are we all doomed to have a name that rots?

THE ONE RIGHTEOUS

This is where we get to talk about God’s great and abundant love.

See, if we are indeed unrighteous and guilty of breaking God’s law, then we are in danger of His wrath.

This is not because God is mean, but because He is fair.

He will judge according to His law.

And if you transgress the eternal law of an eternal God, you get a punishment that fits the crime—eternal punishment.

These leaves all human beings in an eternally compromised position before God.

It leaves us feeling guilty before God because we are guilty before God.

But here is the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God so loved the sinful world that He sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to come and live a perfect life, which He did.

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.

His only begotten Son died an atoning death, which He did.

Jesus never sinned like Adam sinned.

Not in His thoughts. Not in His actions. Not in His words.

He was innocent before God’s law.

But He volunteered to lay down His life.

John 10:11 ESV

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

The Good Shepherd suffered and died on Calvary’s Cross and it was much more than a good man suffering a tragic death.

It was the God-Man suffering as if He was a sinner in the place of people who are sinners.

Isaiah 53:5 ESV

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

But listen to what else the Good Shepherd said in John 10...

John 10:17–18 ESV

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

The One who died said He would take up His life again, and indeed He did.

I got to spend 12 Easters in this room, celebrating this fact with Janice Oliver—celebrating the fact that Jesus’ body cannot be found in a tomb in Jerusalem, because after three days, He rose.

And this resurrection proved that His death on our behalf, truly forgives sin.

This resurrection proved that Jesus truly is the Son of God.

This resurrection proved that He holds the power over sin and death.

And this is the rock that Christian hope is built upon. It is the piece that holds the whole thing together.

1213The resurrection of our divine Lord from the dead is the cornerstone of Christian doctrine. Perhaps I might more accurately call it the keystone of the arch of Christianity, for if that fact could be disproved, the whole fabric of the gospel would fall to the ground.—26.193

Charles Spurgeon

REPENTANCE AND FAITH

And if someone turns away from their sin, admitting that it is evil and it slayed the Messiah and they turn to Jesus and trust in His death and resurrection for salvation, they will be saved.

They will be united to God by faith.

Their sins will be washed away and forgiven.

They will be reconciled to their Creator.

And not only will they be seen as righteous in the eyes of God the Father—they will be able to walk in paths of righteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit

Before someone is a Christian, they have a heart of stone that is dead to God.

But when God saves a person, He gives them a new heart that can know Him and respond to Him. He gives them the Holy Spirit to dwell in them.

Ezekiel 36:26 ESV

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

And once that happens, everything changes.

Their lives begin to produce a new type of fruit.

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Life may not be easy—many Christians have suffered and continue to suffer.

And our lives won’t be perfect—followers and believers of Jesus are fighting their old sins and putting them behind them all the way to the grave.

But our lives are made new. And they are free to follow Christ. And they are headed to a new eternal destination.

ETERNITY AND LEGACY

ETERNITY

And so there is a choice to be made. And on a day like today, where death has confronted us once again, we must consider that choice with seriousness.

These lives are short. They are like a vapor that is here today and gone tomorrow.

When they end, will we die in unbelief or will we die trusting in Jesus?

More than that, when we die, will we look back at a life spent on ourselves or spent on the service and worship of the Lord Jesus?

We must give thought to two things as we close up today.

We must think about eternity and legacy.

We begin with eternity.

In Luke 16, Jesus told a parable about eternity.

He told a parable about two men who lived very different lives and experience very different deaths.

There is a rich man and there is a poor beggar named Lazarus.

Lazarus is very sick and begs for scraps from the rich man’s table, but the rich man ignores him.

Both men die and one is carried to Abraham’s side in heaven and one is sent to the grave and experiences torment.

He is being judged for his sins.

Luke 16:24–31 ESV

And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

How different are the two eternal destinies of these men?

One is in heaven—the place that Jonathan Edwards called a garden of love.

The other is in Hades—having received his reward in his life of selfish living, he is now under the judgment of God for his sin.

This shows us how all of eternity hangs on this vapor of life.

If we are left to face God in our unrighteousness, we have an eternity of separation from God ahead of us.

But if we trust in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, our sin will be atoned for, and we will be counted among the righteous by faith.

Revelation 7:9–14 ESV

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

LEGACY

And yet, as we learned with Alexander the Great, we don’t only think of our experience in eternity, but the experience of others with the memory of us on the earth.

Those who are transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ and live a selfless life, bearing fruit for Him, will have a legacy of righteousness.

They will leave a trail of righteous living, produced by the grace of God that was at work within them.

We are experiencing that today.

We are not speaking of a woman whose name rots. Far from it.

We are speaking of a woman whose memory is a blessing.

When I consider how Janice loved her children, it makes me want to be a better father.

JANICE’S PRAYER

Oh, heavenly Father, make me a better parent. Help me to understand my children, to listen patiently to what they have to say and to understand all their questions, kindly. Keep me from interrupting them, talking back to them and contradicting them.

Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me. Give me the courage to congress my sins against my children and ask their forgiveness when I know I have done wrong.

May I not vainly hurt the feelings of my children. Forbid that I should laugh at their mistakes, or resort to shame and ridicule as punishment. Let me not tempt my children to lie or steal. Guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate by all I say and do that honesty brings happiness.

Bling me to the little errors of my children and help me to see the good things they do. Help me to allow them to make their own decisions.

Forbid that I should ever punish them for my selfish satisfaction. May I grant them all their wishes that are reasonable and have the courage always to withhold a privilege that I know will do them harm. Help me to be fair and just, and considerate to my children.

Thank You Lord for giving me such beautiful children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I pray that they will always keep You first in their hearts. And know that You will always be there for them.

Thank You Lord for loving me so much. I know Lord if I had been the only One on earth, You would have died on that cross just for me.

When I consider how Janice loved her church, it makes me want to be a better pastor.

When I consider how all of Janice’s friends came to her room to say goodbye to her, it makes me want to be more loyal to those who are my confidants.

When I consider her faithfulness to her Lord to the end, it makes me want to persevere.

In fact, I hope that everyone here today will leave with some sense of motivation to go and love their neighbors as themselves and love their families, because of the memory of Janice.

This is what the memory of the righteous does.

But when people live for themselves and makes themselves the constant priority, even to the detriment of others, their memory isn’t a blessing.

Their name decomposes in the minds of those who knew them until it is forgotten.

Their name goes sour when remembered.

And just as their soul is separated from the goodness of God, their name is separated from being a blessing in memory.

HOW WE LIVE MATTERS

All of this then reminds us that how we live matters.

How we live impacts our eternity and how people think of us.

Life is more than the years we live.

There are eternal effects.

So how do you want to be remembered?

We can’t ask that question without asking:

How are you living?

Who do you trust in?

What sort of fruit is coming from your life?

In his classic book, Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper says that his father, who was a Baptist evangelist, once preached a sermon and as the service ended, there was a man who came to him.

"The church had prayed for this man for decades. He was hard and resistant. But this time, for some reason, he showed up when my father was preaching. At the end of the service, during a hymn, to everyone's amazement he came and took my father's hand. They sat down together on the front pew of the church as the people were dismissed. God opened his heart to the Gospel of Christ, and he was saved from his sins and given eternal life. But that did not stop him from sobbing and saying, as the tears ran down his wrinkled face, "I've wasted it! I've wasted it!"

John Piper

Maybe your heart laments much of how you have spent your years thus far.

Maybe you think, “I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!”

It is not too late to make it count.

Turn from sin.

Trust in Christ.

He will change your eternal destination.

He will change the legacy of your memory.

He will change everything.

That is what the Good Shepherd does for His sheep.

REST OF SERVICE

Gene Cornett: Give Me Jesus

Congregational: Because He Lives

John 11:25-26: Pastor Michael

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?”

Closing Instructions: Pastor Michael

Procession after the service to: Beech Grove Baptist in Gloucester, VA

After the burial, friends and family are welcome to come for a time of fellowship and remembrance at Seaford Woman’s Club (Expect to be back by 1:30pm)