Chance Huggins Funeral
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On behalf of the family I want to thank everyone for being here today.
Thank to everyone for the flowers, the food, financial gifts, for those who have called, or went by the house, most of all thank you for praying for this family
At times like these people need us to gather around them to check on them, to give a hug, to whisper a prayer, or just be present with them.
And so thank you.
To the family—
I want to say, on behalf of everyone here, we are so sorry that this happened.
We all know that this is incredibly painful for your family.
There are really no words that can take away the pain you feel right now.
The pain of losing a child is a pain that is unique.
But all of us here in some way desire you to know that we care. That we love you and that we want to be there for you moving forward.
As we begin this afternoon, I want to read a passage of scripture and then pray.
Matthew 11:28-30 says this,
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Jesus here offers rest for the weary and brokenhearted.
On days like this, when the weight of all this is heavy and if we are truly honest, we don’t have the answers, Jesus invites all of us—wherever we are spiritually—to come to Him, to find peace and rest in His presence.
That is my prayer for all of you today that you are finding your rest and your comfort and your peace in Jesus
Let’s pray.
Lord God, we thank you for the truth of your word here. We thank you that though we are burdened and heavy laden, you offer rest.
My prayer this afternoon to you is that everyone here is looking unto You for their help and their strength. Lord, on days like this, we are reminded of how fragile life is. My prayer today is that this reminder will lead us to the rock that is solid.
God, if there’s someone here that does not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and who is unprepared to meet you…my prayer today is that you would open their eyes and open their ears and open their heart to the truth of your word
I pray that you would comfort this family and that you would do so through Word and by your Spirit. I know my limitations today and so God I pray that you would be what I cannot be for this family. Lord be near today in all your strength we pray,
In Jesus name.
Song.
Eulogy—
I guess it was about 10 years ago now that I met Chance for the first time.
I remember having him in class at Vacation Bible school.
I remember he had a sneaky grin.
Where he looked like he was up to something, but I have to say, I never had any trouble out of Chance.
The hard part was getting him to talk to me.
I do remember one day I went over to visit his aunt Mrs. Martha, Chance was outside of her house across the road over at the swamp where there was a big opening where you could catch fish.
And I remember walking over to him and trying to strike up a conversation with him
And I asked him if he had caught any fish and he looked at me with a little smile he said not yet.
I talked a few minutes with him a little bit there and then went inside to see Mrs. Martha, and I came back out probably 35-40 minutes later and Chance was still standing there in that same spot fishing and so I went over there and asked him if he had caught any yet.
And he looked at me with another little grin and said no, not yet.
One thing I can say from that Chance was definitely a more patient fisherman than I am.
I would’ve been gone a long time ago, I’m sure Chance was much better fisherman than I am.
Talking to the family, I learned Chance love to ride four wheelers, loved hunting fishing, loved his dogs.
And apparently, he has a suped up Lawn Mower. I would love to see that.
All of those are thing I will remember Chance by.
For me, Chance was a young with whom I had the privilege of speaking with the number of times and preaching to a number of times.
But for many of you, Chance was much more- he was a son, a brother, grandson, a friend.
And I can’t imagine the pain that some of you are feeling today as you wrestle with the loss of this young man.
My hope this morning is to point us to a verse scripture and I hope that each of us are challenged in this moment from God’s word.
In Psalm 90, which is a prayer attributed to Moses.
Moses prays to God in verse 12 and he says this—
12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Sunday morning, whenever I received the phone call telling me that Chance had passed away, the feeling in my gut and the emotions that I experienced in that moment, which I’m sure most of you felt as well was just the unexpectedness of this.
You know, in our minds, this is not how life is supposed to go.
A 16-year-old is supposed to have all of his life ahead of him.
I mean, he’s just a few years from graduating high school and entering into the world.
He’s just really getting off the runway of life.
And because of that , this moment brings a thousand questions, and really no answers to go with them.
But moments like this, do serve in someway to speak to those of us who are left behind grieving.
Moments like this remind us that life is fragile.
Moments like this remind us that life is not promised.
That every breath and every heartbeat that we have is a gift from God that is not promised tomorrow.
Because of that this verse of scripture I just read is super important that we really read and listen and understand what it says.
The verse says
Teach us to number our days.
You know, Most of us just expect to live 70–80 years.
We expect to see graduations, weddings, children, grandchildren, and all sorts of other things.
But the truth is: we don’t know how many days we have.
So God tells us here to remember our days.
In other words, don’t take today for granted.
Really all we have is today and this moment right now.
And God telling us this, and he isn’t being cruel in reminding us of this—He’s being honest.
He wants us to live with this awareness that life is precious.
That life is fragile.
And that we need to consider that.
I think its safe to say—
No one expected this.
None of us expected to be here today, but since we are here, we are forced to think about our own lives.
We are forced to realize that life is short.
That it is here today it’s gone tomorrow.
Scripture teaches us this—
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Beloved friend, we need to live in light of that.
We must number our days.
Because death is unexpected.
No one here got up this morning, thinking that today would be their last day.
We got up this morning, thinking that today would be a lot like yesterday and probably a lot like tomorrow. But truly, we never know.
The Lord says number your days.
Consider every day as a gift.
But then he goes on-
12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
So the goal of numbering our days is wisdom from the heart.
Now, let me just explain something really quick— wisdom is different than knowledge.
SLWLY
Everyone knows that our death will come one day. That is just a fact of life.
Wisdom is applying that knowledge to how I live my life now.
Wisdom is not just knowing facts—it’s living in light of what’s true.
We don’t get wisdom by pretending death is far away—we get it by facing it honestly.
And so in that sense. There is a wisdom in grief.
It reminds us of eternity.
In Ecclesiastes 7:2
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.
So the Bible teaches us that morning and grieving, especially a loss like this can be something that benefits us if we truly wrestle with what happened here.
And the reality that this is the end for all of us eventually.
But then we mjst apply that wisdom that we get from it.
What we learn from this is that life is fragile. Life is short.
So, now the question is, how do we wisely respond to this understanding that life is fragile?
There are some general acts of wisdom that we can put in place-
The world says in light of this truth—
Live your Life.
You only live once.
Seize the Day.
But while that all sounds really great, its worldly wisdom.
True and godly wisdom, in understanding the shortness of this life is wrestling with the reality that when this life ends, we all stand before God our creator and we answer for all that we’ve done.
On that day, there’s only one way to stand before God and be accepted in to his glorious kingdom.
And that is by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God who was sent by God to this earth.
He was born of a virgin.
He lived the life you and I could not live in perfection.
All of us are imperfect. Jesus was perfect.
His life earned the father’s favor. In other words. the Father looks at Jesus’s life and He’s satisfied with how he lived.
When he looks at my life or your life, he’s not satisfied with how I live because we are sinners.
But Jesus’s life is pleasing.
But then Jesus does something else.
Jesus goes to the cross, and he dies in the place of sinners. As the substitute. And as the substitute he absorbs the wrath of God.
He was buried.
But on the third day, he rose again
He appeared to many different people.
And then he ascended into heaven and one day he is returning.
Now that is really good news, if you respond in faith and truth.
The good news is that if you will cry out to Jesus Christ today to save you from your sin, he will. And then you can live this life truly wise.
Truly living in light of God’s grace.
Truly living, understanding that every day is a gift from your creator, where he expects you to live for his glory.
As we number our days, we gain a heart of wisdom.
True wisdom leads to a cry for mercy and grace and salvation.
Jesus said.
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
The most important thing we can do today is number our days, gain wisdom, and wisely call upon the name of Christ.
Thank you family for this privilege to speak.
