Annamarie Smith

Service: 8/15/2026: 11:00 AM-12:00 PM (New Life Bible Fellowship Church)

Agenda of Main Funeral Service: (about 45 minutes)

Welcome & Prayer (Pastor Dick Bickings)

Obituary (Pastor Dick Bickings)

Song: “Be Thou My Vision”

Song: “Before the Throne of God Above”

First Scripture Reading: (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) (Michael Green)

Eulogy: (Friend/Family Member)

Second Scripture Reading: (John 14:1-6) (Adam Green)

Message of Hope: (John 11:17-27, Pastor Dick Bickings)

Song: “How Great Thou Art”

Closing Prayer & Benediction: (Pastor Dick Bickings)

Main Funeral Service Detail:

Welcome & Prayer (Pastor Dick Bickings)

On behalf of the Smith and Green families, we welcome you this afternoon as we celebrate the life of our sister Annamarie Smith, and more importantly, celebrate God’s greatness and goodness as we magnify his glory. Lets pray:

Our Father and our God, we come this afternoon to remember the one whose life has touched so many of us, and celebrate how you our God are able to begin and complete your good work in our dear sister Annamarie. We grieve this morning for our loss, but we do not grieve as the world grieves for we grieve with hope, the hope of Annamarie presently being with you, and that we shall join her some day and together with one voice, worship you in a way that we could only have dreamed. I pray that you would provide comfort through the Holy Spirit to both the Smith and Green families, and for all those who are also grieving, and that as we proceed through this service, you would be seen in all of your glory, in Jesus name, amen.

Obituary

Annamarie Hilda Sack Smith, beloved wife, mother, Nini, Great Nini, sister, and friend, went home to be with her Lord and Savior on July 28, 2026, at the age of 90.

Born on October 4, 1935, in Mt. Vernon, New York, Annamarie was the daughter of Waldemar Sack and Marie Korp Sack. She grew up in New Rochelle, New York, where she graduated from New Rochelle High School, Class of 1954. After graduation, she attended Berkeley Secretarial School and started working for Nestlé. 

She married the love of her life, Leonard Smith, on July 27, 1957. They cherished their time spent together on Long Beach Island, where they enjoyed boating, trolling for fish, and relaxing on the beach.

 Together, they poured their hearts into raising their two children, creating a warm and welcoming home filled with love, laughter, and unwavering support. After 36 wonderful years of marriage, Leonard passed away following his battle with cancer.

 Strong in her faith, she continued to be an extraordinary mother and grandmother whose kindness, wisdom, and gentle spirit touched every generation of her family.

 Throughout her life, she had many passions which included quilting, painting, and Stampin' Up, but her greatest joy was gardening. Annamarie had a true servant’s heart for her family, friends, and community. Early in her life, she was involved in many of her children’s activities, including Cub Scout, Brownie, and Girl Scout leader, as well as homeroom Mom and PTA President.

Later in life, she served as a Welcome Wagon hostess for Eastchester, NY. She was an active quilter with the Mamaroneck Quilters. During her time on Long Beach Island, she was an active member of the LBI Garden Club, Barnegat Breakfast Club, and Zion Lutheran Church, where she helped with the annual bazaar. 

After relocating to Millsboro, Delaware, Annamarie became involved with New Life Bible Fellowship Church, where she continued to share her gifts in her new community. 

 To those who knew her, she will be remembered as a woman who was full of love, warmth, generosity, and grace, and whose life reflected the quiet strength of a servant’s heart.

 Annamarie was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Leonard P. Smith; her cherished son, Michael L. Smith; and her parents, Waldemar and Marie Sack. She is survived by her loving children; daughter, Linda Green, and her husband, Jeffrey; son, Stephen Smith, and his wife, Linda; her treasured grandchildren, Michael Green (Sarah), Sarah Shuey (Scott), Brian Green (Caris), Adam Green (Kate), and Hunter Smith; her 11 adored great grandchildren; her brother, Gary Sack; and her faithful rescue dog, Coco, who brought her much comfort and companionship. 

Though her family grieves her earthly absence, they find comfort and hope in the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ. They rejoice in knowing that Annamarie is in the presence of her Savior, reunited with loved ones who have gone before her in faith. She will be deeply missed, lovingly remembered, and her legacy of faith will continue to inspire all who were blessed to know her. 

Song: “Be Thou My Vision”

Song: “Before the Throne of God Above”

First Scripture Reading (Michael Green):

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 (ESV)

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Eulogy (Friend/Family Member)

Second Scripture Reading (Adam Green):

John 14:1–6 (ESV)

14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Message of Hope: (John 11:17-27 Pastor Dick Bickings)

Introduction

Would you turn with me to John 11:17-27.

We have gathered today because someone we love has died. That word — died — is a hard word, and I will not soften it, because our text will not soften it either. Lazarus was not sleeping in some poetic sense. He was not "passed on" in the way we say gently to comfort ourselves. Verse 17 tells us plainly: by the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. In the thinking of that culture, four days removed any doubt. This was not a coma. This was not a near miss. This was death, total and undeniable.

I begin here on purpose. Because if we are going to find real comfort today — not a greeting-card comfort, but the kind that can actually hold the weight of a grave — it has to be a comfort that looks death squarely in the face and is not afraid of it. And that is exactly what Jesus does in this passage. He does not explain death away. He does not tell Martha not to feel what she feels. He walks straight into the grief, and there, at the grave, He says the most staggering sentence in the Bible: "I am the resurrection and the life."

Let's walk through this text together, because I want you to see not just what it says, but who is saying it.

John 11:17–27 ESV

17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

I. The Honesty of Grief (vv. 17–19)

(17&19) “Now when Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days...and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother."

Notice first that this scene is thick with real grief. Family and friends and neighbors have gathered — much like you have gathered here today — to sit with two sisters in their sorrow. There is nothing rushed about it. Nothing tidy. It is the honest, unhurried business of mourning someone you love.

And here is something worth saying plainly, because some of you have been told, even by well-meaning Christians, that tears are somehow a failure of faith. They are not. A few verses after our text, we're told that Jesus Himself, standing at that same tomb, wept (v. 35). The Lord of resurrection, who already knew He was about to raise Lazarus in a matter of minutes, still wept at the wreckage sin and death had made of His friend. If the Author of life wept at a grave, then your tears today are not a lack of faith. They are the right response to a real enemy — the last enemy, Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians 15:26 — and Jesus does not shame you for grieving him.

II. The Insufficiency of Correct Doctrine Alone (vv. 20–24)

(20-22) So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.'"

Martha runs out to meet Jesus. Her opening words are part confession, part complaint: if You had been here. There's real faith in that sentence — she believes Jesus could have prevented this — but there's also the ache of "why weren't You?" I suspect many of you have prayed some version of that prayer over this past few weeks. It is not sin to voice it. Martha voices it to Jesus's face, and He does not rebuke her for it.

Then Jesus says something that sounds, at first, like a simple word of comfort: (23) Your brother will rise again." And Martha answers with entirely correct theology: (24) I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."

Beloved, that is not a wrong answer. It's the right answer. The bodily resurrection of the dead on the last day is a settled truth of Scripture, from Daniel 12:2 all the way through the New Testament, and it is a truth this church — and our confessional heritage — holds without apology.

But watch what's happening to Martha. She holds this truth — and it does not seem to be touching her grief at all. She states it almost at arm's length, as a fact about someday, out there, at the last day. And here is something I want each of you to hear clearly today: it is possible to believe the right things about the resurrection and still stand weeping at a grave, unreached, uncomforted. Correct doctrine, held as a distant fact, is not yet the same thing as comfort. Martha has passed her theology exam. She is still crushed.

If that describes some of you today — if you know all the right things Christians are supposed to believe about heaven and resurrection, and yet none of it seems to be reaching the actual pain in your chest right now — you are in good company. You are standing exactly where Martha stood. And Jesus is about to do for her what only He can do for you: turn a doctrine into a Person.

III. The Person Who Is the Resurrection and the Life (vv. 25–26)

Here is the center of our text, and the center of the Christian hope. Jesus said to her:

(25-26) I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

Look carefully at what Jesus does not say. He does not say, "I can give you the resurrection." He does not say, "I have resurrection power." He says, "I am the resurrection." This is the fifth of seven remarkable "I am" statements in John's Gospel, and each one deliberately echoes the name God gave Himself at the burning bush — "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3:14). When Jesus says "I am," He is not merely comforting Martha. He is identifying Himself as God, standing at a graveside, claiming to be the very source of life over which death has no ultimate claim.

And notice the tense. Martha said resurrection is a future event — "on the last day." Jesus corrects the tense without correcting the doctrine. He does not say "I will give the resurrection someday." He says "I am the resurrection," present tense, right now, standing in front of you. For everyone united to Christ by faith, resurrection life is not merely a future appointment on the calendar. It is a present possession, because it is bound up in a Person you already belong to. The last day will unveil what is already true of you in Him.

Then Jesus makes two promises, and I want you to notice they are not the same promise repeated twice. They answer two different fears.

"Though he die, yet shall he live." This is a promise to the body. Yes — our loved one has died. That is real; we do not deny it. But death is not the final word over that body. It will rise. The grave is not a permanent address; it is, as the old saints used to say, simply a bed the body rests in until Christ calls it up.

"Everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die." This is a promise to the soul. In the Greek, this is about as strong a denial as the language allows — literally, "shall not, no never, die forever." This is not talking about the body; it's talking about the believer's living fellowship with God. That fellowship, once begun by faith in Christ, is never for one single moment interrupted by physical death. There is no gap. No silence. No soul asleep in some shadowy waiting room, cut off from the Lord. The moment a believer's last breath leaves this body, that same moment their soul is at home with the Lord — "away from the body and at home with the Lord," Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:8.

Do you see the whole comfort here, held together? The body sleeps, but only for a time, and it will rise. The soul — the person you loved, their affection for Christ, their knowledge of Him, their fellowship with Him — never slept for a single instant. If our loved one belonged to Christ, then even as we stand here grieving, they are more alive, more awake, more in the presence of their Savior than they have ever been in this life. Their body waits in hope. Their soul does not wait at all.

IV. The Personal, Non-Negotiable Question (v. 27)

Jesus will not let Martha rest in a truth held at arm's length. He presses her, and He presses every one of us here today, with a question that cannot be answered by nodding at correct theology: (26b) Do you believe this?"

Not, "do you believe in the resurrection as an idea." Not, "were you raised in a church that taught you the right doctrine." Do you believe this — do you believe in Me?

Martha answers: (27) “Yes, Lord; I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world." In the Greek, the verb tense she uses means, essentially, "I have believed, and I stand in that belief even now." Not a momentary feeling. A settled, ongoing trust. And notice how full her confession is — the Christ, the promised One; the Son of God, very God; the One coming into the world, the fulfillment of every hope God's people had carried for centuries. This is the same confession Peter makes when Jesus asks him, "Who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 16:16). Martha — often remembered only as the sister who was "distracted with much serving" — here makes one of the highest confessions of Christ in all four Gospels, at the very moment her heart is most broken.

That is where real comfort is found. Not in believing a doctrine about resurrection in general, but in trusting the particular Person who claims, with the authority of God Himself, to be the resurrection and the life.

Conclusion and Application

So what do we do with this today, standing where we stand?

We believe the Annamarie, like Martha, did say at some point in her life, "I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God" and therefore, both halves of Jesus's promise belong to her right now. Her body sleeps, and it will rise, whole and glorified, on the day Christ returns. And her soul — the very person you knew and loved — has not slept for one moment. She is with the Lord. Death did not touch what mattered most.

And for the rest of us, still standing on this side of the grave, this text will not let us leave with only information. It leaves us with a question. Jesus is not asking whether you can recite the right doctrine of the resurrection. Many people can. He is asking what He asked Martha: do you believe in Me? Have you entrusted yourself — not just your opinions about heaven, but your actual soul — to the One who alone has the authority to say "I am the resurrection and the life"?

A funeral has a strange way of putting that question to us all. Every casket is, in the end, an appointment we too will keep, unless the Lord returns first. The only real comfort at that appointment will not be a philosophy or a feeling. It will be a Person — the same One who stood at Lazarus's tomb, who wept, who spoke, and who is coming again to do for every believer exactly what He is about to do for His friend Lazarus in the verses that follow this text: call him out, alive.

Do you believe this? Have you repented of your sins and placed your trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation? If so, you will see Annamarie again, if not, you will not. Place your trust in Christ today, the one who said,

John 11:25–26 ESV

25 …“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Let's pray.

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9. Song: “How Great Thou Art”

10. Closing Prayer & Benediction: ( Pastor Dick Bickings)

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.