Charles Jensen Funeral

Entry Music - Closer Walk with Thee, Rock of Ages, On Eagle’s Wings

Processional - Pastor and Family

Welcome and Prayer

Scripture Reading - Aaron Clark

Psalm 23 ESV

A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Sharing by Paul Cerutti

Sharing by the family Melissa Jensen for family

Amazing Grace

Scripture Reading - Will Pearsons

John 14:1–6 NIV

1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 NIV

13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Pastor Share - Thorsten

Witnessed love for friends

As we heard from Paul today, Charles was a great friend. I had a chance to sit with Charles and he told a story of one of the many time he and Wayne Dunlap got themselves in a “situation”. Wayne bought a big boat of a car in Wells River, sight unseen. He asked Charles to drive him there to pick it up. When they got there, the car’s back brakes were completely locked up. While a typical person might call a tow truck, not Wayne and Charles. Their bright idea...Have Charles jump up and down on the back bumper while Wayne drove it forward. I can’t imagine how Charles managed to hang on to the trunk lid while the car sputtered, but he did and eventually they got the brakes unlocked.

When I spent time with Charles, he thoughtfully remembered many of his coworkers, personal friends and church family he had the chance to do life with. It was clear to me that he love you all.

Witnessed love for family

His grandchildren might have been his favorite two people in the world. He also spoke fondly of Naomi and Jelly, his two grandchildren who did not have the chance to born due to miscarriage. He was excited to be able to see them in heaven.

By some who observed him with Bristol and Silas, they thought perhaps he loved them more than his own children. Recently, both of the grandkids were over at the house and they were having a blast jumping on the couch. The parents immediately tried to correct them as they were sternly corrected as kids, but Poppy stopped them and said let them jump. He told me this story the last time I was with him. The story was even better when Becca and Sam recalled that story with this look on their faces that said How come we didn’t get to do that.

Justin and Melissa - it is not often when a Father-in-law takes in the spouses as their own. I can tell you that the way Charles spoke of the two of you was in that way. He is so thankful you married his kids. He is so thankful to call the two of you son and daughter.

Sam and Becca - your dad is so proud of you. I am sure you both had your moments with him, but I only ever heard about how amazing the two of you are. Seeing you both step into the role of husband and wife and then as parents was indeed such a great joy for him.

Christine - You were his person. From the very beginning until the very last moment - you were his person. I admire your strength and your love for your husband. He shared some of the dreams the two of you had to do together. I believe that his only regret was that he didn’t get to do them with you. As he shared them with me, he expressed a great hope that you would go on and do them for the both of you. He wants you to be happy and to live this life you have to its fullest.

Witnessed love for Jesus

It’s not very often that you get to sit with the person who will die to plan his funeral. But that’s what I got to do. When I met with the family earlier this week, they told me that they had no idea what he wanted for this service. He chose to use his time with them in a different way. He did want to burden them with thinking about this. He had it all planned out, even some of the seating arrangement. As we talked, he would go in and out of sadness and grief to emotions of hope and joy. From tears to a sense of contentment and joy.

He knew his family would miss him and he grieved that, but also knew that his ultimate hope was in heaven. He loved Jesus more than he loved this life. It is the only way to describe a man who so looked forward to heaven. When we love this life more, we are scared of death, scared in what it means for us and for our legacy, but Charles loved Jesus.

As I’ve talked this morning about Charles’ love for his friends and for his family, that love he showed all of you was just a sliver of the love Charles experienced from Jesus. Without Jesus, Charles would not have had a hope of heaven. The Bible tells us that without Jesus we are separated from God, destined for hell. But in Jesus, all our sins are forgiven because of what Jesus did on the cross. When I asked Charles what he wanted me shared at the service, he told me to tell you about Jesus.

Jesus came to earth as the Son of God born in human form. He lived a sinless life. Jesus willingly went to the cross as a sacrifice for us. It should be us who suffered and paid the price for our sin, but Jesus did that for us. We deserved eternal punishment, but Jesus through this act provides us the gift of eternal life. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples and many others. You may have a hard time believing that, but there are so many historical records that speak of Jesus’ resurrection. After 40 days walking the earth instructing his disciples, he ascended into heaven.

The Bible tells us that in order to receive this gift of eternal life in Jesus, there are two things we are to do. We are to believe in hearts that what Jesus did is true. That he did indeed die for our sins and that he rose again. That’s the first part. The second is to confess with our mouth that Jesus is our Lord. We confess that we will follow the teachings of Jesus, that we’ll do what he commanded, that we’ll not do what he says not to do and that we’ll love him with all our being.

Charles did that. He gave his life to Christ, not only for the promise of this heaven...that a pretty good deal....I was asked recently what heaven would be like. I answered by saying that it’s going to be like nothing we know now. The world we experience now is full of brokenness, sorrow, hurt, conflict...Heaven is perfect, joyful, peaceful...we will lack nothing. We will be in the presence of the source of all love. Charles is there now. Charles didn’t just give his life to Christ for a promise of heave, he gave his life to Jesus in the here and now. As a result, he was able to express to you all an imperfect reflection of God’s love, imperfect, but pretty good. Now in presence of the source of love. He wants that for all of you.

I would love to talk with any of you more about this. Maybe you have questions about heaven, about love, about Jesus...I’d love to talk with you about that.

He had the request that we sing the song I’ll Fly Away. At the end of the song, we’ll repeat Chorus a few times, I am going to ask the paul bearers come to bring Charles out as we continue to sing this Chorus and the immediate family follows him out. I then close us in prayer and provide some instruction.

I’ll Fly Away

Prayer

Announce reception at Millstone

Graveside

Committal Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You this day for Your precious, eternal, and unchanging Word.  We thank You that You are, to us, the Rock of Ages and the great I AM.

In the midst of our natural sorrow, we thank You for Your supernatural comfort and grace.

In the face of death, we thank You for Your gift of eternal life.

In the face of separation, we thank You for the eternal reunion we so eagerly anticipate.

We thank You for Charles Jensen’s life here on this earth, and we recognize that the body that lies before us is not Charles, but rather the house in which he lived.  We acknowledge that Charles is rejoicing, even now, in Your very presence, enjoying the blessings of Heaven.

Father, we commit his body to the earth, from which our bodies were originally created, and we rejoice in the fact that his spirit is even now with You.

We anticipate the day when spirit and body shall be united again at the coming of You Lord, and we find great comfort in knowing that we shall forever be together with You Lord.

We thank You Father, that in the days, weeks, and months to come, these realities and the abiding presence of Your Spirit will especially strengthen, sustain, and comfort Charles’ friends and family.

IN JESUS’ NAME, AMEN.