CoL Sean Pilecki

As we are gathered here this morning to memorialize Sean Pilecki, one question we are all faced with is why. Why Sean, and why now? I have searched the Bible for an answer to that question, but I haven’t found one. We can look to the book of Job and find that when Job lost everything and had opportunity to ask God Why, God replied, but there was no answer to why. So is that it? Does God do what He wills and leave us to pick up the pieces? The first part is true, God does do what He wills, however He will not leave us and is right here with us during these times through His Son Jesus. It is written in Psalm 23 “A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 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. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” God doesn’t sound far off, but He is close. God Himself is close by, but not only spiritually, but physically as well. 2 Corinthians 1:3–7 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” God works through His People as well. Family, Friends, you are not alone, you have this church family to walk along side you to comfort you. Church, With the comfort you have recieved through Jesus Christ, come along side this family in the same way the passage in 2 Corinthians lays out for us.

As God doesn’t leave us, but guides us and uses His People to comfort us there is one more comfort that we take, knowing that in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior this, the grave, isn’t the end, but the beginning; the beginning of eternally dwelling with the Lord and eternal comfort. How is this comforting now? The Bible is clear that a personal relationship with Jesus isn’t going to give you a carefree and easy life. What it does do then? It gives us access to the Father. Jesus say’s “My yoke is easy and the burden light.” meaning that there isn’t anything that we need to clean up, or make better, or do before we can have a relationship with Him. 1 John 1:9 Says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Jesus does that. We are not promised easy or no hardships, but what we are promised is when those times come, and they will, we are in the midst of one now, when these times come, we can have access to the Father and to His Church for comfort.

There is also yet another way we take comfort. Today we don’t “grieve like those who have no hope.” we have hope. what is this hope? The best description of this hope is found in Revelation 21 and 22. Revelation 21:1–5 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”” Then Continues from Verses 22-27, “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” This is also why it is important to have a Jesus as Lord in your life, you don’t get here without Jesus. Those who have Jesus as Lord has their names written in the Lamb’s book of Life. Revelation 22:1–5 continues, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” This is the Christian hope, Lets Pray.

Father God, Lord of Heaven and Earth, we come before you this day, a day of grief and sadness, to be comforted by you. Be with us today, Lord, and guide us as we have to navigate this life now in the absence of Sean. Be with the Family and Friends and also this church body to work through it to show the your love through Jesus Christ and in His name we pray, Amen.