Funeral Sermon for Junior Garland (Option 2)
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Family, I want to comfort you right now.
I want to bring you healing and hope.
The last thing that I would ever want to do...
...especially at this moment...
...would be to hurt you...
...or to increase the pain you already feel.
But, to love you...
...I have to be honest with you.
To love you...
...I have to shoot you straight.
To love you...
...I have to tell you the truth.
My whole life, I’ve heard things like:
Those Garlands are good people.
And I know what people mean by that:
They mean:
They treat people right
They’re honest
They care about people.
They’ll help you out if you’re in need.
And let me say UP FRONT...
I think they’re right about that!
I think that is your tendency as a family.
I’ve seen it first hand...
...for nearly 30 years now.
And I’ve seen it first hand...
...with Junior himself for probably...
...25 of those 30 years.
And man… what a legacy is that?
What a privilege it is...
...to be a part of a family like that.
(And I mean that)
(You all have been blessed)
(I and the other in-laws...
...have been blessed through you)
But we all need to be careful with that.
There’s a difference between:
GOOD… in the way we use it most of the time.
(Being a generally good person)
And:
Being GOOD ENOUGH…
...to be in a right relationship with God.
It’s easy to be good...
...in comparison to other men.
But that isn’t God’s standard for righteousness.
His standard for righteousness...
Is HIMSELF
His OWN Moral Perfections!
In the days of the Law He said:
2 ...You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
In the New Testament, Jesus himself said:
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
That’s the standard that must me met.
And the truth is, that...
Junior didn’t meet that standard.
You and I haven’t met that standard either.
The fact that we’re here together...
...at another funeral...
...is the sad proof of that.
It reminds us of the Bible’s prognosis:
That...
10 . . . “None (are) righteous, no, not one;
That...
23 ...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
And that...
20 ...by (our own) works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight...
That’s the bad news.
We all stand condemned...
...because of our sin and guilt.
We can’t work hard enough...
...to overcome the guilt we already have.
(If the Lord tarries his coming)...
...none of us will miss our own funerals.
That’s the truth.
But so is this:
This is the Good news!
12 ...just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and . . . death spread to all men because all sinned—
Just as...
18 ...one trespass led to condemnation for all men...
...so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
To save you and I...
God didn’t just lower his standards...
...and show us love and mercy.
He showed us love and mercy...
...without lowering his standards.
By sending His Son...
To MEET those standards...
On our behalf!.
To Pay the penalty that we deserve...
For refusing to meet those standards ourselves.
Paul said:
8 ...God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Christ had done...
What you and I are unable to do.
What Junior was unable to do
12 he entered once for all into the holy places . . . by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
That’s why John 3:16 says:
16 “...God . . . gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
That’s the good news, family.
That’s the only comfort and hope...
That I can give you
That there is to be had
