Ruthaleen Bricker Funeral

PROCESSIONAL

GREETING

Hello, my name is Scott Rowe. I am the pastor of Mount Carmel Church of God in Celina.

today, the purpose we are gathered here is to celebrate the life of our deceased loved one and friend, Ruthaleen Bricker.

To Mike and the rest of his family and friends who mourn and grieve today, we especially, offer our deep and sincere condolences.

Ruthaleen loved the Lord. She was strong, resilent, and was a fighter until the very end.

Ruthaleen graduated from Celina High school and worked at JC Pennies and the WCSM Radio Station.

She was also a member of Pleasantview Church of God and received Jesus as her Lord and savior at church camp. She will be missed by her family and friends.

INVOCATION

Now may we share with you the comfort from by God’s Word for such a time as this:

John 14:1–3 (NIV)

1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.

2My 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?

3And 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.

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...

“Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we come into this place of sorrow, realizing our utter dependence upon You.

We know You love us and can turn even the shadow of death into the light of morning.

Help us now to wait before You with reverent and obedient hearts.

You are our Refuge and Strength, O God—a very present Help in time of trouble. Grant to us Your mercies.

May those who mourn today find comfort and healing in Your sustaining grace.

We humbly bring these petitions in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”

SONG- AMAZING GRACE

SONG- HOW GREAT THOU ART

SCRIPTURE READING

Psalm 23ESV

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.

REFLECTIONS FROM FAMILY & FRIENDS

EULOGY(PASTOR SCOTT)

The Bible says that we are appointed to die once.

We are appointed. This means that we have an appointment. Now we all know what an appointment is....

Appointments are what we do on a daily basis.

We have appointments in which we have to be at work

We schedule appointments in which we have to meet someone for lunch or dinner

We schedule appointments with doctors and so on and so forth.

But this appointment that is talked about here is an appointment that is a bit different.

You see with an appointment with your doctor, you can cancel it but not the appointment that is spoken of here.

This appointment is written in stone. It is a done deal. And I have to tell you that this appointment that is carved in stone even before you were born.

Ruthaleen had an appointment with God that was decided and written in stone before she was even born.

God knew that on Friday October 3rd, 2025 that Ruthaleen had an appointment with him.

Ruthaleen’s appointment was already scheduled. Her appointment was right on time because God scheduled it. God is an on time God.

I believe 1 Peter 5:6-10 alludes to this fact also

1 Peter 5:6–10 (ESV)

6Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,

7casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

8Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

9Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

10And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

All of 1 Peter chapter five is good but I want to focus on verse 10 today where it says...

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, will make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

For believers, suffering will not last forever.

If you’re under stress,

if food is scarce,

if disease is spreading,

if death looms,

God promises that suffering will last “just a little while more.” That there will be a day where there will be no more tears, no more suffering, no more pain, and no more death!

Your life may be stamped “temporarily out of order,” with emphasis on “temporarily.”

A day is coming when the Great Repairman will wrench evil from the world and restore you so that it works as God intended.

You will be in mint condition, guaranteed to function as God designed.

God will restore or repair whatever is damaged, so the believer will be able to face up to whatever lies ahead. “Restore” could be used in a medical sense of “setting a broken bone” or of repairing and refitting a damaged boat.

Peter the denier who became Peter of Pentecost spoke from deep experience.

When we are suffering, we often feel as though our pain will never end.

Peter gave these faithful Christians the wider perspective. In comparison with eternity, their suffering would last only a little while.

Some of Peter’s readers would be strengthened and delivered in their own lifetimes.

Others would be released from their suffering through death. This was the case for our dear friend Ruthaleen. After that time of suffering, God promises to...

restore (set right what has gone wrong, put in order, complete),

support (by encouragement and guidance),

strengthen (give courage no matter what happens),

and place them on a firm foundation

While their suffering will be only for a little while, their glory in Christ will be eternal.

In life or in death, God’s purposes will be accomplished and his promises to believers will be fulfilled because believers have been called into God’s eternal glory.

Have you ever seen a painter begin their work of art?

It’s amazing to see an artist brush stroke upon stroke upon a blank page. Then suddenly they stop to take a break only to never finish it.

Is it not a source of regret to the world that the painting never reached it’s completion, since it was never finished?

That’s how God, our master designer is different. God will begin to sculpture and complete it.

The God of all grace, wants to do the following in us: restore us,establish us, strengthen us, and settle us.

First God will, Restore the hurting heart

God is a restorer. He loves to take things that are wounded, hurt, scarred and tarnished and make us into something beautiful.

Even something that is an aweful as death God turns it around into something beautiful.

God can restore our hurting heart, if we allow Him. It can be difficult to find what to do next or where to turn after losing a loved one because now we have to get use to a new normal.

When our hearts are broken, we should accept that fact that God knows you are hurting and that God see’s you. He feels your pain and his arms are wide open to hold you. God tells us in Psalm 34:18 that He is close to the brokenhearted.

Yes, God mends broken hearts but are you willing to let Him heal yours?

God never forces Himself on us, Revelations 3:20 says He stands at the door and knocks.

He will never force the door down to reach you; you’ve got to open up to Him willingly.

For God to begin His healing work on your heart, we have to surrender all to Him.

Accept that you have no power to fix your heart yourself, and you need His help. Submitting all in faith puts you in a position for the healing power of God to start working in your life.

Second God will establish the hurting heart

We are established through experience. When God says he will establish you, I believe He is saying that he will mend and put together the broken pieces of your life.

Proverbs 16:3 says “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans”.

A lot of our broken-ness comes from our anxiousness.

We can trust in the Lord. He cares for us like no one else. We are precious in His sight.

He will not abandon us. God will provide for us in our needs even when we cannot see how.

We are told to walk by faith and not by sight. It is through these experiences that we become established in him.

Just as an author is considered “established because of the books they have written, or a tv star is considered established because of the roles they have played.

So are we established in Christ as Christians because of the experiences we’ve had in His Presence.

Third God will strengthen the hurting heart.

You are strengthened by the fact that God is doing the mending, not us. For when we are weak then He is strong.

You are in the plan, that God is working out.

God will give us strength to make it through. We need to take the time though to grieve.

Even Jesus wept when he lost his dear friend Lazarus. If the Son of God took time to weep how much more so should we!

There is sometimes an operation performed upon horses that one must consider to be cruel—the firing of them to make their tendons strong.

Now, every Christian before he can be strengthened must be fired.

He must have his nerves and tendons braced up with the hot iron of affliction, trials and sufferings.

We will never become strong in grace unless it is after we has suffered a while and went through a refiner’s fire.

There is purpose in our pain.

There is light in our darkness.

There is joy in our sorrows.

Fourth God will Settle the hurting heart.

What does it mean to be settled? It means knowing that I am in union with His will, that I am established in the knowledge of it, that day by day, I am strengthened.

It is an eternal work of righteousness, until by the Spirit we are perfected.

It’s hard for me to “settle” with anything. But God has a plan and purpose for your life.

It’s hard to stop, be confined to one area of my thoughts or even to let my thoughts stop completely, and just stop frantically trying to figure out WHAT TO DO!! 

Sometimes the point is, that there is nothing for you to do, only for God. 

It’s very difficult for us to settle in God’s plan for us and simply wait patiently while He works out all kinds of details that are beyond us. 

It’s having this trust in spite of fear and It’s having this faith that this world is not our home.

APPLICATION

We can know that our suffering is only temporary. That regardless of what we go through, It serves a purpose.

Whether it was cancer or criticism, slander or sickness. It wasn’t meaningless!

Don’t look what is seen but look at what is unseen.

Gaze your eyes on the prize of Jesus Christ. Therefore do not lose heart!

For these troubles are producing in us an eternal glory that far outweighs all our suffering, all our pain.

God will restore, establish, strengthen, and settle our hurting heart.

BENEDICTION(Concluding Prayer)

Let us pray.....

*After the viewing Please follow us to Mercer Memory Gardens Cemetery on Mud Pike rd. for the graveside service*

RECESSIONAL(Viewing)

GRAVESIDE SERVICE

Today we are gathered together for the graveside service for Ruthaleen Bricker.  On behalf of the family, I would like to thank all of you for coming today.

Let us pray...

O God, you have ordered this wonderful world

and know all things in earth and in heaven.

Give us such faith that by day and by night,

at all times and in all places,

we may without fear commit ourselves

and those dear to us

to your never-failing love,

in this life and in the life to come. Amen.

We have a precious realization today, and that leads us to…

A Promised Resurrection

There is a period of time when we are, as the Bible describes, “absent from the body” and “present with the Lord.”

But one of the most clearly taught doctrines of Scripture is that of the resurrection.

Paul said, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body…” (Philippians 3:20-21)

1 Corinthians 15:51-54

51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed– 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Because of the resurrection, we also have the hope of…

A Perpetual Reunion

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

13 “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 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 by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

Notice how beautiful and how powerful those words are: “thus WE shall always be with the Lord.”

There will be no isolation in heaven… we will not be separated from each other.  Heaven, for us, will be a place of perpetual reunion.

Standing at the head of the coffin and facing it (preferably casting earth upon it as it is lowered into the grave) the pastor says:

Almighty God,

into your hands we commend your Child Rex Ferguson,

in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

This body we commit to the ground

(to the elements, to its resting place),

earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Gracious God,

we thank you for those we love but see no more.

Receive into your arms your Child Ruthaleen,

and grant that increasing in knowledge and love of you,

he may go from strength to strength

in service to your heavenly kingdom;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The pastor dismisses the people with the following

This concludes our service for Ruthaleen Bricker.

Thank you for coming.