Clark Sauls - Funeral
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sweet, Sweet Spirit - Congregation - Rhon Carter
Welcome and Prayer - Randy Darnell
I’m So Blessed - Rhon Carter
Eulogy - Randy Darnell
Goodness of God - Rhon Carter
Prayer - Randy Darnell
Midnight Cry - Rhon Carter
Sweet Sweet Spirit - Congregation - Rhon Carter
You can’t help but like a man who’s holding a two year old boy on his lap and they both have chocolate ice cream smeared on their faces.
The child 2 year old was Weston.
The man was Clark Howell Sauls, Jr. or better known by the two year old as Papa.
I would suspect that each one of us here has a Clark story like that.
We sat at Marilyn and Clark’s home yesterday for over an hour and story after story after story of Clark just rolled off his family’s tongues.
There was laughter and joy and hope.
Exactly what there should be on a day like today.
We are here today to remember Clark and give thanks to God for Clark’s life.
The family is so grateful that you are here today to join in this celebration.
Clark didn’t want sadness and he didn’t want tears.
But what he would want, more than anything, is for you to walk away today with a song in your heart
And a praise for Jesus on your lips.
Let us all try hard to make that our goal today.
There are several scriptures I’d like us to ponder over today.
The first is Jesus speaking in Matthew 6:1-4
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
The second passage is from 2 Corinthians 3:1-4
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?
You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all.
And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Let us pray:
Holy Father,
You created the heavens and the earth and everything in it.
You placed eternity in our hearts and when we admire your earth, Your Spirit tugs at us.
You are plainly visible all around us.
There is no denying that you are God.
Lord, you created the family.
You created Clark Sauls.
Knit him together in his mother’s womb.
You gave him life and one day you gave him eternal life.
You grew yourself a man who you took from sinner to saint.
You spoke life into Clark.
And Clark shared that life with everyone around him.
Lord, we count it a blessing that you put Clark in our lives.
We are sad he will not be with us here anymore
But we are pumped that one day we’ll see him face to face with you.
Dear Lord,
You know our faults and frailties.
You know our weaknesses and our stubbornness.
Lord, should we get depressed because Clark is gone, remind us of your grace in calling him home.
Should we get angry because you took him, remind us of your mercy that you took Clark to a place where he no longer hurts and struggles for air.
Should sadness overwhelm us, please send your angels to silently minister to our souls.
Should we forget you, remind us that you are the Lord who made Clark the man he was.
Thank you Father, that one of our final memories of Clark was the prayer he asked Marilyn to pray.
Clark said, “I just want to give thanks to our magnificent God.”
We want that prayer to be our prayer today.
All of the Christ followers in this place just want to give thanks to you, our magnificient God.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
I’m So Blessed - Rhon Carter
“Pawpa - Pop?”
“Pawpaw - Pop?”
That’s what little Weston would say when he walked into Clark and Marilyn’s house.
“Pawpaw - Pop?”
Clark and Marilyn always kept a stash of fudgsicles in the freezer - and Clark would tell him to go ahead and get one.
Their freezer was one of those freezer-on-the-bottom deals and Weston would pull out the drawer.
He’d ramble a bit through the frozen foods until he found his “Popsicle”
He’d race back into the great room and hop into Papa’s lap.
And then let Papa feed it to him.
And oft times, both Papa and Weston would end up with fudgsicle all over their faces.
That’s kind of a neat story, but Clark wasn’t always that kind of a man.
Clark was born in the city of Macon, Georgia on Saturday, November 23, 1935.
His mom worked for the base packing parachutes.
His dad was a Macon police officer and a wrestler.
You know, WWE style wresting.
His wrestling name was “Iron Man Sauls.”
He must have wrestled for a while as the July 29, 1931 Macon Telegraph reported, “Eddie Wagner and "Iron Man" Sauls will meet in the opening prelim -Wagner Is giving away 44 pounds but expects to make it up with speed and experience.”
When Clark was born, “Iron Man” gave him the nickname “Tin Man.”
Clark’s family went to church at the 2nd Baptist Church in Macon.
It was a pretty booming church back in the day.
Clark met Jesus there but he didn’t like crying.
So he waited until one Sunday when his mother wasn’t there and he walked the aisle and told the Pastor he was saved.
Ms. Myrtie asked him why in the world did he do that when she wasn’t there
And he told her, “I knew you’d be crying and hugging all over me and I didn’t want that.”
Clark may have been saved that day - but his walk with Jesus left a little bit to be desired.
Now I’m reading between the lines here, but I think life growing up in the Sauls’ household had it’s moments.
Clark learned somewhere along the line to be a strong and mean man.
Someone tried to correct the word “mean” to “strict”, but the word “mean” lingered.
Many of us didn’t know that Clark - and there is a reason we’ll get to later on.
When Clark was 14 he and Marilyn went on a double date to the skating rink at Reagan’s Park.
They had never met each other so before they really committed to meeting, there had to be a bit of a courtship dance.
There was a men’s skate and Clark zipped around the rink.
Clark worked at the skating rink in Gray so he had time to practice.
Marilyn told her friend, “I think he’s cute.”
The next skate was a women’s skate and out went Marilyn.
Clark turned to his friend and said, “I think she’s cute.”
So with the cuteness settled, they started dating.
While Clark was a senior at Lanier in Macon, he got his career job.
He went to work on the base and he stayed their for 40 years.
He also started in the Army National Guard but didn’t stay there too long.
But the Air National Guard came to Clark and told him he had the skills they needed.
So he joined up with them and eventually retired from them as well.
Five years after their first date, on November 20th, 1955, right down the hall in what we call the chapel now, Marilyn Greene and Clark Sauls were married.
Clark was 3 days away from 20 years old.
Marilyn was several months away from her 20th birthday.
2 years later Howell was born.
6 years after that Melinda was born.
And Clark set off to provide for his family.
In addition to the base and the Guard, Clark started building houses.
Marilyn said that was his hobby that he loved.
She said they built 20 - 25 houses over in the Turner Woods area.
Then they built some in Macon.
Then they built some in Warner Robins.
Among the last ones they built was the one the live in now - they built it in 01.
And built their last on in 08.
And while they were doing that, they were traveling.
This is where I got a bit lost in the timeline - now think with me here.
Marilyn and Clark made a pact that they would spend 1 night in all 50 states.
Not such a bit deal to get to Florida, the Carolinas, Tennessee or Alabama.
Washington State, Alaska, Hawaii were a bit harder.
They went to the mountains every year for I think 30 years with their First Baptist crew.
Every New Years eve that same crew went to Atlanta, stuffed themselves with seafood and then returned to Gray for the church’s watch night service.
They visited 21 foreign countries including China and Russia.
When did these people eat and sleep?
I get tired thinking of the hours they kept.
Clark had a work ethic like no body’s business.
And that didn’t take into account his church work.
Now, here’s the deal - remember I said Clark was tough and mean.
That’s for real - it’s not hyperbole - he was.
Clark could scare small children - no joke.
Now, like most people raised in his era, he knew he was supposed to go to church and read his bible.
And he did good in order to be good - like most people.
But something happened to Clark one evening at Church.
Marilyn said Clark never went into a lot of detail about it.
He simply come home from church and pulled his bible down for the top shelf where it stayed.
He dusted it off and started reading it.
That wasn’t typical Clark - Marilyn asked him what happened.
He told her, “The Lord got a hold of me.
“He told me to read my Bible and do what it said,” and Marilyn said from that moment on, Clark was a different man.
Old Clark would cuss and be mean.
New Clark would plan his tip before he went to the restaurant to make sure he had the right thing to give the waitress.
Steve Albanese said that Clark was the one person would stop and ask him how HE was doing.
And it was real concern, Steve said - it came from Clark’s heart.
Dusty Reynolds said that Clark was a good friend to him from the time he met him in 1987.
Both Steve and Dusty shared how Clark loved to visit folks and headed up the church’s visitation program.
Steve said if no one else showed up, Clark did.
They’d hop in Clark’s Nissan pickup and go visit all of the new folks that had visited the church.
Dusty said, “Clark genuinely cared for people.”
By the way, both Steve and Dusty wanted to be here today.
Steve’s daughter Stephanie is starting radiation therapy today for her brain tumor
So you will want to remember them in your prayers.
And Dusty is in Nigeria where his church has planted two churches and is working on their third.
So you will want to remember Dusty and Sycamore Church as well.
And I received this from Jeff Pratt this morning. Email
Clark did genuinely care for people.
I mean really, who does these kind of things?
When Clark went to the hospital, he always asked someone to make sure his wallet was filled with $5 and $10 dollar bills.
He would take those $5 and $10 dollar bills and give them to the nurses.
He told his folks, “I want buy them lunch” and he did.
Not to insure prompt service, but to show them that he appreciated what they were doing for him.
It meant something to him and he wanted to so something for them.
Jesus got a hold of Clark.
He made sure to be in church on Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night as well as Tuesday Visitation.
He was the Sunday School superintendent forever.
He said, “Don’t ask me to teach. But I can organize,” and that’s what he did.
Clark didn’t like the lime light and I think he caught that from Jesus.
Remember us reading Matthew 6.
Do you remember the line, “when you give to the needy, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing?”
George Sheffield and I do what we call bringing the church to those who can’t come to church.
George will bring his guitar and sing some hymns and maybe a song or two of his.
I’ll read some scripture and give a short devotion and then we pray.
We visited Clark one day - I don’t know where Marilyn was that time.
George and I did our thing and were ready to go.
Clark asked George if he would leave us alone for a minute.
Now listen to me, when you are a pastor and someone asks to be alone
Well, typically there is some sort of surprise involved - and not always pleasant.
But this was a very pleasant surprise.
I’m not going to tell you what we talked about but I will tell you this:
I started preaching in 1983 at the Ohoopee Baptist Church in Tennille, Georgia.
I preached until 1999 - and then I did pulpit supply when I was asked.
I started doing interim work here in 2013 and became the Senior Pastor in 2014.
I’ve been involved in 5 churches in my ministerial career and no one at any of those churches ever did for me what Clark Sauls did for me that day.
For the space of a few moments, this man graced me like no other church person ever has.
I was moved so much, that tears came to my eyes.
When Clark saw that he said, “Well, it’s time for you to go,” and I left.
I cried in the car with George - that was Clark Sauls.
The 2 Corinthians 3 text - 2 Corinthians 3:2–3 was written for Clark.
“You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
When Jesus got a hold of Clark, Jesus booted the ritual that Clark lived by.
We do so many things by rote - it’s what we’ve been trained to do.
Clark had been trained you could be a good person even if you were mean and didn’t mind cussing a few folks out here and there
As long as you abided by the rules - go to Church, read your bible every now and again.
Provide for your family - work hard - that makes you good.
But it really doesn’t.
What made Clark good was the day Jesus did whatever He did at church that night and Jesus changed Clark.
He still worked hard and he still did church.
Only now, it wasn’t by habit or because he wanted to be a good man.
It’s because he learned he wasn’t a good man
And the only way you can be good, is for Jesus to make you good.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to find out one day when I join Clark that his day of salvation was the day Jesus told Clark he had to change
And He did change - he repented.
Clark truly became a new creation.
In verse Revelation 21:5 we hear this: “And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
You know what’s funny?
I believe that now more than ever.
Maybe because I’m getting older
Or maybe it’s because I’m seeing more Jesus around me.
But I am convinced, I am thoroughly convinced that Jesus does make all things new.
If you saw Clark recently, you knew physically he was hurting.
But he’s not now Revelation 21:4 says “[Jesus] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.””
Clark is done with hurting.
His legs will never swell again.
There will never be a worry about his O2 level.
No concerns that he might fall and break something.
Revelation 21:3 tells us why: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”
The entire Bible is God’s love story to us.
He wants to be our God.
He wants us to be His people.
When Jesus got a hold of Clark
When Jesus told him to read his bible and then do it
Jesus was telling Clark, I want you boy.
I love you.
I want you to be my man.
I want you show other people what I look like.
And Clark did.
I am thoroughly convinced that Clark was escorted through the gates of heaven.
He saw streets that looked like gold and walls of unimaginable beauty.
The streets were lined with the witnesses that had cheered Clark on for years and years.
I can hear the angel saying, “we’re almost to where Jesus is”
And I can hear Clark say, “Shut yo mouth.”
Clark Howell Sauls, Jr. - a family man, a loving man, a giving man, a praying man
Clark Sauls our brother - knows what it means right now to be home.
And you know what, I don’t think Clark would want you to know Jesus so you could see Clark again one day.
I think Clark wants you to see Jesus because nothing in all creation can beat his magnificient Lord and Clark so much wants you to see Him too.
Goodness of God - Rhon Carter
Let us pray:
Father,
As we leave this place, let the words of Jesus ring in our ears.
“Behold, I make all things new.”
Cause everyone here to remember what made Clark new
And the benefits of being made new
And the glory that being made new brings.
It’s what you want.
Your word tells us Exodus 20:6 NLT “But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.”
Help us to love you and obey your commands.
Let our brother Clark be our example of how that is done.
Let Marilyn and her family be comforted by the fact that Clark has been made new.
In the magnificient name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we pray.
Amen.
Midnight Cry - Rhon Carter