Hazel Moody

Long Black Train (Song)

Ronald Jones Opening Comments and Prayer

Funeral Message

I’ve know Ms. Hazel since I was 15 years old. It wasn’t long after I moved to Kinston, that I spotted her daughter sitting on the steps of the gym at South Lenoir High School and as they say the rest is history.

Since 1992 I have been privileged to be in son-in-law, for the last 3 weeks Michelle and I counted it a privilege to open our home to her, and today I have the honor and privilege to say a few words about what she’s meant to me, to honor her memory, and most of all to seek to bring honor and glory to the One she called upon several years ago to be her Lord and Savior.

What She Meant to Me

It’s difficult to put into words 30+ years of memories in just a few minutes. I used to think I was really special to Ms. Hazel, because she always called me “SHUG.” However, if you knew her very long, she called just about everyone SHUG.

I believe from what I’ve seen over the last 30 years she desired what she thought was best for her children and grandchildren. She may not have always known what was best in every situation and circumstance, but I believe she wanted what was best.

I certainly can’t speak for anyone else, but I know for me, as my mother-in-law she NEVER tried to once interfere in our marriage and in the way we tried to raise our children. I can’t say she was thrilled when I took her baby girl and 3 of her grandchildren to live up NORTH for 22 years as we served in ministry…but she never stood in our way. I alway joked with her that I could never tell any mother-in-law jokes about her, because she was such a wonderful and amazing mother-in-law.

She treated me like one of her own and anytime we’d come to visit for Thanksgiving or Christmas she’d always make sure to have one of her HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE PIES for me, because she knew it was my favorite.

Her Memory

Ms. Hazel didn’t have a whole lot as far as this world was concerned.

BUT SHE HAD SOMETHING MONEY CANNOT BUY:

She had THREE children, all who are deeply grieving today, who love her more than they can put into words.

She has a bunch of grandkids and great-grandkids, who are also grieving today, that loved going to GiGi’s house.

She’s got step-grandkids, and inlaws, and all kinds of friends and family that would visit her, and spend time with her, and take time to try to teach her how to use that new I-Phone she got a few months ago.

She had a home, she always had a home, and she made you feel at home.

She had a husband who adored her, who just a few months ago, we said goodbye to, and I remember looking at a picture of her on that day and saw sadness and emptiness in her eyes, because I believe she experienced true love with Claro.

She had an infectious laugh, she had a sharp mind, she had victory over breast cancer, she had a good dose of stubbornness...

She had almost 81 years of life on this earth...

Yes, Ms. Hazel had a lot of things that MONEY could never buy…But there’s something else Ms. Hazel had that money can’t buy, and I was honored and privileged to hear this with my own ears...

Her Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ

Several years ago she began going back to church at Piney Grove and gave her heart to Christ. She asked if I could baptize her the next time I was home and it was an honor and a privilege to do so.

Three weeks ago when she moved in with us there were a lot of things she talked to Michelle and I about. She wanted me to write down all of the arrangements about today, and the songs she wanted played, and who she wanted for pallbearers, and those kinds of things. She talked about these things with a great deal of ease and peace. I believe she knew that it was something she needed to take care of because she told me more than once, “I want it to be as easy on the kids as possible.”

My mind returned back to that day I baptized her so I brought it up and we talked for a few minutes about where she was with Jesus. I wanted to be 100% that not only did she have her final arrangements down here taken care of, BUT THAT SHE HAD HER FINAL ARRANGEMENTS UP THERE TAKEN CARE OF.

You see none of this has happened by accident today.

Someone had to contact the funeral home and arrange for her body to be picked up from Black Mountain. Someone had to drive to Black Mountain and bring her back to Pink Hill. Someone had to meet with the funeral home directors and give them instructions about what she wanted, and they had to take the time to set everything up and make everything work. The reason YOU are here today is because someone contacted you, or you saw something online, and YOU chose to get up this morning and get dressed and get in a vehicle and get here and walk through these doors and sit down.

NONE OF THIS IS BY ACCIDENT.

I’ve got news for you today:

YOU ARE NOT BY ACCIDENT.

It’s either, IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH

or

In the beginning nothing created everything.

If you believe that nothing created everything your life has no purpose, no meaning, no plan, no hope, no real future, and you are an accidental result of random chance processes that defied every law of nature to produce a rational, emotional, biological, living human being.

The fact of the matter is IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH...

The fact of the matter is...

Genesis 1:26–27 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Psalm 139:13 ESV

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Jeremiah 1:4–5 NKJV

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

Ms. Hazel was not an ACCIDENT. She was PLANNED by Almighty God, FORMED by Almighty God, and SUSTAINED by Almighty God.

BUT IT’S ALSO IMPORTANT TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT AN ACCIDENT. YOU were PLANNED by God, YOU were FORMED by God, and YOU are being SUSTAINED by God at this very moment.

YOU ARE NOT IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD BY ACCIDENT

Ms. Hazel would have been the first to tell you that she wasn’t perfect.

That’s why she realized all those years ago something was missing in her life.

The Bible tells us that ALL HAVE SINNED AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.

The Bible tells us that ALL OF US WHO HAVE SINNED have EARNED SEPARATION from God. The Apostle Paul put it this ways in Romans 6:23

Romans 6:23 NKJV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The word DEATH doesn’t just represent what we have been reminded of today, but it represents ETERNAL SEPARATION from God. You see God is a HOLY GOD and for SIN CANNOT enter into His presence.

There was a time when Hazel’s daughter Michelle, as a 17 year old girl, realized something was missing in her life. She had a mom and dad. She had a home. She had a car. She had food to eat…BUT SHE WAS SEPARATED FROM GOD.

There was a time all those years ago when Ms. Hazel also realized something was missing in her life. She called upon the name of the Lord Jesus as her Savior, because she realized that HE, AND HE ALONE HAD PAID THE WAGES OF SIN FOR HER.

She wanted to be baptized to let her friends and family know that day that she wasn’t ashamed to be identified with Jesus.

But what about YOU today? NO ONE is in a relationship with God by accident. The Word of God puts it this way:

John 3:16–18 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Don’t miss this:

God GAVE His Son intentionally, not incidentally. He came INTENTIONALLY FOR YOU. He came to SEEK AND TO SAVE THE LOST!

YOU MUST believe. The word “believe” means TRUST, to DEPEND on, to LEAN on…ILLUSTRATION ABOUT BLONDIN!

YOU are either CONDEMNED because of YOUR SIN or you are NOT CONDEMNED because of your trust in Jesus…notice, “HE is condemned already.”

THERE IS NOTHING MS. HAZEL WANTS MORE FOR YOU RIGHT NOW THAT FOR YOU TO BE IN A RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

You will not be in Heaven by Accident!

Sometime between 1:30-3:30 AM last Wednesday morning I mentioned this Scripture to Ms. Hazel:

John 14:1–3 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

I told her I thought the Lord was putting the finishing touches on her mansion and it didn’t seem like it would be much longer before it was ready and sure enough she took her last breath of earthly air at 3:24am and her first breath of Heavenly Air in the next moment.

Just like you aren’t here by “ACCIDENT” or “COINCIDENCE” today Ms. Hazel isn’t enjoying Heaven today by accident or coincidence.

She made her RESERVATIONS by calling on the name of the Lord, believing in her heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and she trusted Him to take her sins away and create in her a clean heart.

If YOU want to go to a place of no more pain, no more tears, no more sorrow, no more cancer, no more funerals, no more burials, no more grief, no more sin…YOU WILL NOT GO THERE BY ACCIDENT OR BY COINCIDENCE.

YOU WILL NOT GO THERE BY TAKING ANOTHER ROAD, OR BY BEING RELIGIOUS, OR BY BEING BAPTIZED, OR BY TRYING TO BE A MODEL CITIZEN, OR A GOOD PARENT, OR WHATEVER PLAN YOU COME UP WITH…YOU WILL COME THROUGH JESUS OR NOT AT ALL...

I looked through Ms Hazel’s Bible in preparing for this message and noticed she had 2 Corinthians 9:6 circled:

2 Corinthians 9:6 NKJV

But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

For some reason the concept of “sowing and reaping” stood out in her mind and she circled that verse in her Bible.

There’s a law in nature and there’s a law in the Word of God that says a person REAPS WHAT THEY’VE SOWN.

We’ve already established that the “WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH.” Death (separation from God) is what a person reaps from the SEEDS of SIN.

But 2,000 years ago, long before any of us existed, God looked ahead in time and knew we would need a SAVIOR.

So He stepped in, and REAPED THE JUDGMENT we deserved. While on the cross, He cried out:

MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?!

Remember the WAGES OF SIN is what? DEATH—BEING FORSAKEN BY GOD AND SEPARATED FROM GOD.

At that moment God the Father was separated from God the Son…at that moment God the Son took on HIMSELF THE PAYMENT FOR THE SINS OF THE ENTIRE WORLD, INCLUDING MINE AND INCLUDING YOURS.

HE REAPED WHAT WE SOWED SO WE COULD REAP WHAT HE SOWED

AND TODAY IF YOU WILL ADMIT YOU HAVE SINNED AGAINST A HOLY GOD, AND BE TRULY SORRY FOR THAT SIN AND TURN FROM YOURSELF AND YOUR OWN WAY TO TURN TO GOD’S ONLY REMEDY…THE LORD JESUS CHRIST YOU CAN NOT ONLY BE READY TO DIE, BUT YOU CAN BE READY TO LIVE!

Prayer

It’s all made possible because of God’s

Amazing Grace

Graveside

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 NKJV

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Prayer