Ron Bass Funeral

Welcome

Lamentations 3:22–25 CSB

22 Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! 24 I say, “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him.

We have come together today to honor, remember, and celebrate the life of Ron Bass.

On behalf of Ron’s family I want to thank you for being here today and for supporting this family through this difficult time.

We are reminded in this verse that:

God’s love for His children never runs out.

His mercy toward us is new every morning.

And that He is faithful even in the most challenging times of our lives.

So this afternoon, as we gather to remember, honor, celebrate and mourn the father, brother, grandfather, and friend that Ron was, may the Lord be our portion and our Hope, for He is GOOD to those who seek him.

Message

Today we come to remember the life of a husband, a father, a grandfather, a friend, and a child of God.

Amanda asked me to speak today because Ron’s pastor is battling cancer and wouldn’t be able to speak.

I didn’t know Ron well, but what I knew about him is that he loved his family.

Ron and Shirley were staples at all of their grand kids sports and activities, and I believe it was decided at some point that Ron would be the official purchaser of all snacks and candy because it seemed every few minutes one of the kids would be eating something Papaw had just got them.

Our schools have celebrated grand parents day these last couple of weeks, and Ron really deserved to be celebrated as a grandpa.

He and Shirley moved from Booneville so they could be big part of their grand kids lives.

Some people move to Florida and go fishing, Ron moved to Beaver Dam and went to baseball games and band competitions.

Ron was a mechanic by trade, but according to Shelia and Amanda, he was a fixer of all things.

He could fix a car, build a house, and was trained as a EMT, so he could fix people as well.

Shirley and Ron were soon to celebrate 58 years together.

They met at church and that is where many of the memories they have together were made.

Ron was a Sunday school teacher for many years.

As his obituary said, he has volumes of notes and lessons from those years of teaching.

Ron loved to study the bible and it wasn’t just academic, he believed it and lived it.

When Amanda asked me to speak, I knew Ron enough to know that this funeral would be sad, but it would be filled with hope and comfort knowing that Ron is home with Jesus.

Paul speaks to this in 1 Thess 4

1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 CSB

13 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

Today is a sad day and the weeks and months to come will be hard, but what we can do in our time together is turn to God and His Word to help us to grieve, lead us to truth, and comfort our hearts as we mourn.

Some of the most helpful and comforting words for times like this come from Jesus himself in the Gospel of John.

John 14:1–6 CSB

1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. 4 You know the way to where I am going.” 5 “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Don’t let you heart be troubled

Jesus is talking to his disciples when he tells them to not let their hearts be troubled.

There hearts are troubled because He has just told them that He is going away.

This conversation happens the day before Jesus is nailed to a cross and dies for the sins of those who would trust in Him.

The disciples are troubled because the one they had grown to love and had placed so much hope in was telling them He was leaving.

But don’t take Jesus’s words the wrong way.

They aren’t the empty platitudes we often hear people say when someone we loved has died.

“Don’t worry, time will heal.”

"Don’t cry, be strong.”

“They are in a better place.”

No Jesus’s words are rooted in an imperative/a command.

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled, instead BELIEVE in GOD and ME.”

Jesus says the way to overcome a trouble heart is to trust in God the Father and to trust in Him.

Ron and Shirley have met trouble in their live together.

Their son Jeff died in 1995. The tie Ron is wearing was the one he wore to preach at Jeff’s funeral.

The same year Jeff passed away, Ron’s granddaughter Lauren was born, whom he loved for 27 years before she was tragically lost a little over a year ago.

In both those tragedies, Ron turned to Jesus for comfort and hope

His faith in the Lord was a place of refuge, a source of strength, and a reminder of God’s grace.

Jesus points us to three promises in our passage that I trust Ron knew in part, but now knows in full.

1) There is room in God’s house for anyone who believes.

Get that picture in your head. God has a huge house in heaven and room enough for anyone who would trust in Him.

He will never run out of rooms.

There was a worry in the disciples that once Jesus left they would have no place to go, no hope left in their life.

Jesus’s assurance here is that His departure is good news for them.

There is a reason for hope that goes beyond the things of this world.

We live in a world that continually offers us temporary securities and comforts, a world that keeps our eyes fixed on the things right in front of us, that distracts us from them reality of our mortality.

Here Jesus directs our attention to a much greater security and comfort.

Our true home, our complete security has already been built for us by him in heaven.

It is comforting to know that the moment Ron closed his eyes on this side, he opened his eyes in his new heavenly home immediately.

There is room in God’s house for anyone who believes, who trust in Jesus.

2) Jesus is there to meet us.

One of the things us preachers often do in funerals is focus all the attention on heaven being a reunion with all our loved ones.

Don’t get me wrong, I long for that great reunion, and am confident that Ron was welcomed into heaven by a crowd of people and that it was quite the celebration.

But the thing that makes heaven such a glorious place is not mansions, streets of gold, or even all our loved ones being there, it is that Jesus is there.

Jesus tells his disciples, “Don’t let your heart be troubled friends, I am going to prepare a place for you and then I will come take you there myself.”

Ron loved Jesus, and I can’t help but think that the moment his eyes opened in heaven, all those there to welcome him were quick to guide him to the one he longed to see.

3) Jesus is the way.

Thomas’s words here hasty and worried. “Jesus we don’t know where you are going, we don’t know the way? How will we ever get there?”

It is a troubling feeling to not know the way to where you are going. To be lost.

But there is such a confidence in knowing the way.

Jesus answers Thomas’s troubled heart with one of the most wellknown statements in all of the bible.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

You know the way already Thomas, because you know me. I am the way. I will be enough for you. You don’t need to look elsewhere; you don’t need to supplement me with anything else.

You’re disoriented, and I am the way. You’re confused, and I am the truth. You’re fearful, and I am the life.

Knowing me is enough, and will be enough, he says. Your search can end with me.

Ron wasn’t troubled because he knew the way.

And in his life, in his words, and in his witness, he has shown us, each of us, the way.

Invitation

Do you know the way?

Is your heart troubled today, weighed down by the worries and struggles of the world?

Bring your troubled heart to Jesus.

He has prepared a place for you.

He is there to bring you home.

He is the way, the truth, and the life.

In Him and Him alone will you find the comfort and security you desire, the same comfort and security we all witnessed in Ron.

Come to Jesus.

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