Brad Doerksen Funeral

The idea of God’s calling is found throughout the Bible.  

In both the Old Testament and the New.  

God calls us to seek justice, 

He calls us love mercy, 

and He calls to live holy lives, 

but there are two other callings that God would remind us of today.

The call to new birth, 

and the call to bring us home.  

For Brad the call to new life, 

or what some would call being ‘born again’, 

came when he was a young age.  

And like many of us, 

the waters were choppy,

and the sailing wasn’t smooth.  

As time when on life became complicated and Brad drifted.

But God never let him go.

Even when Brad fought against Him, 

God’s grace and mercy was always close at hand.

God continued to pursue Brad,

and eventually Brad heard His voice once more.  

A fresh start was made, 

and a new direction was forged,

a direction which leads towards God,

and not away from Him

Now Brad didn’t overcomplicate his faith.  

He knew God’s hand on his life 

and although the road was often rocky and the path unconventional, 

Brad always trusted God.

And then on Friday, January 3rd, 

God called him home.

For 62 years God has held Brad tight.

He had watched over him through all of life’s difficulties, 

and all the decisions Brad had made.

And through it all,

God never stopped loving Brad.

He never turned His face away.

Never let him go. 

There are lots of things I could say about Brad.

We talked a lot together.

We laughed a lot together.

And we probably drank too much coffee together.

But I think Brad would want me to talk about His God.  

The God he trusted and believed in.

The God who called him.  

And the God who cared for him, 

right to the end.

In John Bunyan’s book ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ 

it tells the story of a man named ‘Christian’ and his often hard journey along the narrow road to the Celestial City.  

The story works as an allegory for the Christian life.

A journey from the City of Destruction, 

where we so often find ourselves, 

to the Celestial City, 

or what we would think of as Heaven.  

The journey of ‘Christian’ is fraught with many dangers, setbacks, 

sadness 

and pain.

But through it all, He eventually finds his way to what the story calls

‘The Wicket Gate’, 

a metaphor for Jesus Christ.  

The story of Pilgrim’s Progress shows not only the struggles we go through in life but also how God is always with us, 

always helping us along the way.  

Bringing light to our footsteps 

and illuminating the path when the road ahead is too hard to see

Our ultimate goal is to be with Christ, 

to be found in Him and Brad understood this. 

He believed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  

And I believe that through Brad’s faith in Christ,

he is now in the presence of God.  

And for those of us who also believe in God’s saving grace,

we too will one day see Brad again.

But as for today, we are here to remember Brad.

To remember his hope,

and to hold to ours.

But our hope is mixed with sorrow and grief.  

We lament his passing, 

we feel the pain 

and sadness of him not being here with us.  

Yes, we rejoice and celebrate that Brad is no longer suffering, 

and no longer walking the stony path of life, but also saddened.  

Saddened that we are left with only the memory of our beloved friend, 

father, 

and husband. 

And I believe that Brad would want to remind us 

that his Saviour understood our sadness.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was often called “a man of sorrow” 

and that He was “acquainted with grief”.  

He knew what sadness was, 

He knew what it meant to mourn the loss of loved ones.  

And because of this, 

He knows how we feel today. 

He knows our sadness,

and He knows our grief.

But in our sadness, there is also hope.  

The hope of the resurrection, 

the hope that death is not the end, 

the hope that one day we will see Brad again.  

For Brad, 

and for many of us here, 

that hope is grounded in one place, 

and one place only.  

The person and work of God’s own son, 

Jesus Christ.  

In His life, death and resurrection.

The Bible teaches that Jesus came to earth to do what we couldn’t.  

That we had turned away from God, 

that we lived our lives our way, 

separated from Him, 

in what the Bible calls ‘sin’.  

And the Bible is clear when it tells us that the wages, 

or the outward working of our sin is death.  

So God planned a rescue mission,

and sent His only son Jesus Christ to carry it out.

Jesus came to earth and lived a perfect life, fully pleasing to God, 

without sin.  

And instead of us dying for our sins, 

He took our sin upon Himself.  

He paid the price that we couldn’t.  

He died in our place.  

But then three days later, 

God raised Him from the dead.  

The Bible tells us “the last enemy to be destroyed is death” and that was accomplished by Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross.

This was Brad’s hope, 

and this is can be our hope too.

The hope of forgiveness,

and eternal life with Christ.  

 The Bible says, 

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.”

1 Corinthians 15:54 (ESV)

And because of this hope, 

we believe God has wiped away every tear from Brad’s eye.

For him, 

there is no more death,

or mourning,

or crying,

or pain.

So today we find ourselves in the in-between.  

The veil of heaven is very close,

but we are still here,

and Brad is not.  

Today Brad is in paradise, 

free from sin, 

free from sickness, 

free from suffering, 

He is made whole in Christ, 

and yet we are no.  

We are still here,

In our sorrow and grief.

With nothing but our memories to hold onto.

But let us remember, 

Let us hold fast to this truth,

that in our sorrow there is hope.  

Not hope in ourselves,

but hope in Christ.  

Not hope in what we can do, 

but hope in what He has already done.  

Hope in His life, 

His death, 

His resurrection. 

No doubt for some of us, 

we have already put this hope in Christ, 

but for others, 

you have yet to make that decision.  

Brad chose Christ.  

Although his life was far from perfect, 

he knew God loved him,

and accepted him just as he was.  

He knew that even in his weakness God made him strong.  

And at the very end, 

he knew with confidence that he would see God face to face.  

At the very end of 'The Pilgrim’s Progress, the main character comes to the foot of the cross. 

It says, 

“his burden was loosed from off his shoulders, 

and fell from his back.  

Then Christian said with a merry heart, 

“He has given me rest by His sorrow, 

and life by His death.””

Brad knew what it meant to lose his burden, 

to trust in the death of Christ.  

So in our sorrow and sadness, 

as we contemplate Brad’s life, 

his death, 

his faith,

what will you choose?  

who will you trust in?  

Brad chose Christ,

and I think he would want you to do the same.

Let me leave you with a few verses from Psalm 33.

We wait in hope for the LORD; 

he is our help and our shield. 

In him our hearts rejoice, 

for we trust in his holy name. 

May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, 

even as we put our hope in you. 

Psalm 33:20–22 (NIV)