Beyond What We See

All That Remains…

Originally for today, we initially discussed attaching a little ern carrying the ashes of Al Sr or Big All to a big balloon to carry his remains farther than he’s ever travelled here on Earth. Only God , The Almighty, the Creator of Us alll and giver of life could take where He’s always wanted to be. One of Al’s favorit scriptures comes from 1 Corinthians Ch 2 verse 9 which says :

1 Corinthians 2:9 NASB95

but just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

One of these days science will announce a cure for Alzhimer’s , cancer, Leukemia…but not for death. No matter what the cause, death remains an unpleasant but unchangelble reminder of who we are and who we are not. What we are and what we are not. My goal today is to help us to come to terms with that reality but also the reality of a HOPE THAT WE CANNOT SEE. Right now anyway.

You know back in 2017, can’t believe it’s been almost 9 years since I performed Rebecca and Manny’s wedding . I like weddings ,but it’s days like today when I believe that God has our undivided attention. You see in a wedding the bride looks stunning the way Rebecca was , The groom? Well like Manny , he’s checking out the Bride and how stunning she is.-they’re both goo goo eying each other thinking about the honeymoon. Guests are looking forward to the food at the reception…hardly anyone is really paying attention to the preacher. But on days like this , what are we waiting for?

Well that’s the million dollar question today isn’t it? Are we waiting at all? Maybe we’re all waiting for the alarm to go off so this nightmare will be over. Death, is the ultimate theme of all our worst nightmares isnt it? You’ll also be glad to know that death was not in God’s original plan for any of us. You and I were created in the image and likeness of God. We were made to live forever with him. In fact because we are made in image and likeness of God you are probably brokenhearted beyond belief. This is also good news because scripture says that God is close to the brokenhearted. So He is very close to you and me right now.

That s the reason that i’m here today. : To share with you probably the most important truth that you’ll hear today and that is this: You can experience the peace and closeness of God .

I’m coming you today did with my own family when I officiated my mother in law’s home going in 2021…You who loved Al Sr. You who knew him. You who are shattered by his absence, I come with an offering of HOPE and TRUTH. But there is a warning label on this bottle of medicine that says ‘ If you reject the Truth of Jesus Christ -THE RESURRECTION and THE LIFE , you also reject HOPE. In the Bible, the book that talks alot about Jesus-The Gospel of John Chapter 11 (btw if you havent seen the Chosen-it does one of the best dramatizations I’ve seen of this account, please do!) Anyway Jesus has a very dear friend named Lazarus who gets’ really sick and dies. Days before when Jesus is informed about how sick Lazarus is, He deliberately delay’s going so that the spotlight would shine a little brighter on His Heavenly Father. Of course when He -Jesus arrives, Lazarus has passed. Mary, one of His Lazarus’ sisters who believes that Jesus can do anything , scolds Jesus out of her grief-like maybe some of us have yelled at God through this ordeal- or another-let’s be real. She said, “If you had been here…”

You know before I finish that quote, Isn’t it funny how many times we aren’t aware that God is there, but when life -or death conflict with our version of how things should go we cry out in anger against God? Why? well because He didn’t do things the way we expected our version of God to do?

It’s in times like these that our loving God, Our Heavenly Father desires to draw us close to Him….or closer. He does by some big mouth preacher like me to say “So, babygirl, You don’t have a clue about the big picture, but I’m real, I’m here , I’ll never leave you and I love you.”

In the book of Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” As I said quoted before, “

Psalm 34:18 NASB95

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Jesus Himself said “Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you….REST.

Btw Whe is the last time you had a a good night’s sleep with no pills, drink, ganja- You just laid down in your underoos, pulled up your blanket and went NIghty-night.

God promises-among many other things to give the righteous sleep. Btw don’t stumble over that word “righteous” it doesn’t mean what you think.

I have a feeling when I said “I ‘ll never leave you or forsake you’ you probably said, but now I feel forsaken, nobody, understands how I feel, I don’t feel like God is even listening to me or cares” at this point I feel like taking a cue from the Rock and saying “ It doesn’t matter how you feel!”

The only thing that matters is that if you seriously consider what I’m sharing with you today, Alberto Gonzalez Sr- Big Al, AG1’s remains are the only thing physically that remains with us…That’s why they’re called “remains” He did what God said would happen to all of humanity when a thing called sin -man’s willful disobedience to God , came into the world. Death stings us all and today is no exception. Whether it’s a baby dying before it’s time or watching someone you love slowly succumb to a damnable disease-it sucks.

But God , who is rich and mercy and loves us like crazy wouldn’t leave us in that state of hopelessness. He said, “It’s not fair.” It’s wrong for the race that I made to be destroyed away from me” Jesus said “Over my dead body”. The Bible says that He , God the Son put on a human body just like ours, Jesus Christ , God in the flesh was born of a virgin because no man was going to get credit for for the coolest thing ever that would happen to us- He came in the flesh, died on a cross for all of our sins, and God raised Him up from the dead in accordance with everything written previously in the Bible.

Our only duty? To believe and receive that as truth in our hearts. As a result we are saved from the penalty of sin Death, the grave and Hell. separation from God forever. The power of sin fullness our every increasing proclivity to drift into the things that God hates and one day saved from the presence of sin, when we put off this body like Big Al did when we go to be with HIm.

The Bible says we’ve all done this sin thing and continuous fall short of His glory, His perfect standard. His righteousness.

Righteousness. There’s that word again. This is what happened when Jesus died for us , took our place, died our death. God the father who loved us so much that He sent down His Son to this world to die for us, imparted that righteousness to those who would believe in Him. His perfect Son onto our Imperfecdt lives. He treated His Son Jesus like we deserved to be treated so that He could treat us the same way He treated His Son. What does that look like? Everytime Jesus prayed God heard HIm. Remember Lazerus? Dead 4 days. God heard Him and gave the power to raise Him up from the dead. The night before He died, when the Prince of Peace needed peace Himself, the stress of what was going to suffer had Him sweating drops of blood- God sent His strength through an angel. Finally 3 days after He died , He raised up Jesus gave Him a new body and over a month later lifted His Son up into His presence to a heros’ welcome into Heaven where He reigns today.

So I want to close by asking you again: What are you waiting for? Who are you waiting for?

Alberto Gonzalez is no longer here among us. He’ll be getting his new body soon, but right now according to what scripture tells me that to be absent in our body here is to be present with the Lord there. in Spirit. This is what we’re looking forward to : Let me read to you from 1 Thessalonians 4:14 -17

1 Thessalonians 4:14–17 NASB95

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep 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 not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

I want to read Al Senior’s fave scripture again:

1 Corinthians 2:9–12 NASB95

but just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

Do you miss him? Alberto Gonzalez Sr.? It’s normal to grieve. Life here sucks without the ones you love. Please reach out to the ones you have left. But more than anything else reach out in faith today Jesus.Christ . He loves you. He feels you. He wants to see you and reunite those who are with Him. Talk to me if your have questions and as we get ready to release these balloons, prepare yourself to release whatever is coming between you and the Lord, or someone else. Listen this is a beginning . Expect God to meet you there so we can all truly celebrate! Amen?