Untitled Sermon (18)

Opening

John 14:1–6 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 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? 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. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:1–6 ESV

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 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? 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. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Revelation 21:1–4 ESV

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.”

Revelation 21:1–4 ESV

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.”

Psalm

Psalm 23 ESV

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.

Psalm 23 ESV

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.

Another One Bites the Dust

Your wife, your mom, your relative, your friend was one of a kind. When Debbie was planning this service, she was thinking through songs she wanted us to sing tonight. And Debbie kept her sense of humor even to the end and she said, do you think it would be ok if one of the songs was “Another One Bites the Dust?” Everyone who knows Debbie knows that she has this infectious joy that is so rare. Her smile would light up the room and she left that smile behind in her family members because you too light up the room.

Corvette at Bible Study

I remember Melanie was having a weekly women’s Bible study at our house and Debbie was part of that. And I was out that night because I was told to be out on those nights and I come back home and one of the cars is a Corvette. So I am thinking, I wonder which one of these women are driving their husbands’ Corvette. And there so many cars that you don’t know whose it is and you try to figure it out without asking anyone.

The next week, I came home and there is the Corvette in my driveway. And I am thinking, cool I get to see who owns this thing. I walk inside and Debbie Kahler is sitting there and I just cracked up. Debbie Kahler is driving around in a convertible Corvette. How cool is that. I love it! What joy Debbie had and what joy she has now.

Bless His Wife with It

I was admiring her car in her garage the other day and Denis told me the story of how HE bought her the Corvette and brought it home and she totally couldn’t figure out that the car was for her. Usually when a man buys his wife a Corvette he is buying himself a Corvette. But not this time. Not this guy. Not Dennis. Dennis is also one of a kind and he wanted to bless his wife and make her day. Now a lot of people would be embarrassed by a Corvette, or think it was too much for them, or make a fuss out of it, but not Debbie, she put the top down and cruised around town like a boss. And I loved that because I had a mid life crisis early a few years ago and bought a USED convertible Shelby GT500. Now that is not a car that a pastor should own. That is not a car that ANY red blooded alpha male should own. And I remember how much it encouraged me to enjoy my Mustang to see the freedom in Christ that Debbie had to enjoy her Corvette…the way she enjoyed the blessings of life. Even something material like a car. Such joy...

One of Debbie’s favorite verses was I can do all things through him who gives me strength. And we love that verse…but it is the verses before it that put it into greater and richer context.

Philippians 4:12–13 ESV

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Even when Debbie was low…even when she was weak…she was filled with joy. She knew how to be content in all things knowing that Jesus and nothing but Jesus was her strength.

Religious Statements and Fruit of Spirit

It’s easy to make religious statements at a funeral. Yes, Debbie loved Jesus. Yes, Debbie showed the fruit of loving Jesus by bearing the fruit of the spirit in her life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, long suffering, self control…it isn’t the fruits of the spirit, it is the fruit, singular of the spirit that grows as one so you either have all of them or you have none of them and, yes, Debbie had the fruit of the spirit and had the whole package, she was filled with such joy…unspeakable joy…uncommon joy...

so it is easy to make religious statements tonight about her, but what about tomorrow? What about a month from now? A few years from now?

What is truth? Because it is either true that Debbie is in Heaven with Jesus right now in the fullness of joy, joy way beyond any earthly joy, or it is true that we have these great memories of her joy, and she maintained that joy until the end, and she did, but that she came to the end of her existence when she died. So which is it?

General Revelation

These are the times that cause me to soul search and check my faith. I am a pastors kid but my Dad will tell you that I worked hard for my faith. I wrestled with it. And here is what I always go back to. I look at creation, I look at the trees, the mountains, the oceans, the complexity of the human body, and I see that Earth is but a speck in the solar system and the solar system is a speck in the galaxy, and so on, and I say, there has to be a God a deity bigger than anything we can imagine who started all of this. That part is fairly easy to get to. Scripture says that every man knows in his heart there is a God.

Special Revelation

But Jesus is the stumbling block. Who was he? Jesus asked his disciples that question…who do you say that I am? And I go back to the disciples and I see a group of 12 men who all died brutal deaths in different areas of the world, all of them had families, and jobs before they met Jesus, and all of them would have died KNOWING they died for a lie. That simply doesn’t happen. One of them would have recanted. One of their family members would have convinced them to recant. But they didn’t because Jesus was who he said he was.

2 Corinthians 2:2 ESV

For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained?

1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Debbie is in Heaven Because of Jesus Not Because of Her Joy

That was Debbie’s hope. If there was any person on planet Earth who “deserved” to go to Heaven just based on her attitude in life it was Debbie. And by human standards she does deserve it. But not by God’s standards. Debbie isn’t in heaven because she was filled with joy. Not because she was a great wife, mother and friend, but because she trusted in Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Our theme at Reach Church is Nothing But Jesus and Debbie loved that because she got it…she got that without Jesus we really have no hope.

1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

That’s why we can say with the apostle paul at moment’s like these:

Philippians 4:12–13 ESV

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15 ESV

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.