Untitled Sermon (30)

Call to worship

As we begin today, we will be reading Janice’s favorite passage of Scripture from the Old Testament which comes from .

English Standard Version Psalm 23

The LORD is my dshepherd; I shall not ewant.

2  He makes me lie down in green fpastures.

He leads me beside still waters.1

3  He grestores my soul.

He hleads me in ipaths of righteousness2

for his jname’s sake.

4  Even though I kwalk through the valley of lthe shadow of death,3

I will mfear no evil,

for nyou are with me;

your orod and your staff,

they comfort me.

5  You pprepare a table before me

in qthe presence of my enemies;

you ranoint my head with oil;

my scup overflows.

6  Surely4 goodness and mercy5 shall follow me

all the days of my life,

and I shall tdwell6 in the house of the LORD

uforever.7

Prayer of comfort for Janice’s family.

Read the Obituary.

NT Scripture

English Standard Version Chapter 1

3 fBlessed be the gGod and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and hGod of all comfort, 4 iwho 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. 5 For as we share abundantly in jChrist’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.1

Eulogy Read by Amanda

Introduction for sermon.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for bmany. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For cthe judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought djustification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness ereign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

18 Therefore, as one trespass6 led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness7 leads to justification and life for fall men.

Well as I met with the family trying to get a better understanding of Janice was as a person.

What I found was a woman who although she didn’t have a perfect faith, loved the Lord and was a member of the Pentecostal Church for over 30 years.

Janice was a woman who had a desperate love for her family.

Who throughout the years was driven to give what she could to her children and her family.

A woman who through all of the love that she had for her family, still had a wonderful sense of humor.

So much so that at one point in time she had a male cat named hey girl.

Janice had a desire to make the very best of every situation.

To do what could be done and look forward to the next situation.

For all the details given to me about Janice, the one that stuck out to me the most was that she always kept her chin up, no matter what life threw her way.

And today that is the very same encouragement I want to offer up to you.

I know that the death of Janice is hitting hard for many of you.

In many ways it was unexpected.

Just a short time ago, Janice was doing alright and this was not on the minds of anyone here.

Yet Janice knew that she would one day have to face an adversary that she could not contend with.

An adversary that has plagued mankind for thousands of years.

And that Adversary is death.

Its something that each of us in this room will face at some point in time.

And if you’re anything of a normal person, the question of why has come into your mind many times over.

Paul tells us in Romans that many years ago one simple trespass led all of humanity into this inescapable reality that each of us must face.

But that is not how it was designed to be.

We as people look around in the midst of the grieving process and we know within the depths of our souls that this is not what life is supposed to be like.

Tragedy after tragedy befalling upon a family like this.

This is not how God designed His creation.

But with all things that are made, we as people take what God has designed and twist it into something of our own liking.

And thats what you find taking place in the fall of Adam and Eve.

You find a people created by God to walk among Him.

To share in the joys of His creation.

To live out their days never thinking of a time that will come that would end it all.

See that is how God designed His world and humankind.

He designed it in such a way that we would get to walk alongside of Him for all of eternity without ever being separated from Him.

Without something like death separating us from our beloved family.

Yet this original design didn’t last.

Man thought that he could see a better way and because of that, He sinned against God.

And once He did that, once He disobeyed His Lord, the entire plan of human life changed.

From that point on, Adam and Eve would live with the knowledge that one day, the life that they knew would end.

And it didn’t take very long before the world seen its first drops of blood and the consequences for sin were felt within the hearts of the very first of God’s creation.

To say that it was heartbreaking to the parents of that child is an understatement.

This sin nature that entered into the world since the fall has impacted every family that’s ever existed since.

From that time on, parents would bury their children.

Children would bury their parents.

Death made such an impact upon our human nature that for many of us today, we merely have accepted it as normal.

In many ways people have adopted into their hearts as being a form of escape.

What I want to tell you today is this that you’re feeling isn’t natural.

This isn’t how we were designed by God to be.

We were designed to live out our days knowing generations upon generations of our children and their children.

We were designed to live a life that would extend well beyond 57 years.

But because of the sin nature that entered into the world and even our own sin, most will rarely receive a fraction of what we were created to have.

Yet the story doesn’t end there.

When the Apostle Paul spoke of there being one who came to offer up a victory over this sin nature that has impacted all of humanity.

In the same way that the sin of Adam has impacted all of humanity and left its mark upon all mankind.

God being rich in love looked upon His creation and chose to offer up to them a solution.

A solution that would not only defeat death but it would concur sin.

The Bible tell us that God, though He would have been perfectly just in leaving us alone.

Loved His broken and sinful people in such a way that He chose not to leave them.

He sent His unique Son, born for the purpose of bringing hope back into the hearts and the minds of the people.

And God’s Son would not do this merely so that you would have joy in this life.

Instead He did it to reveal a hope for all of mankind.

He sent His Son to live a perfect and a sinless life on this earth.

To be the new and the better Adam which would set things back in order.

He would live out His life on this earth in obedience to God and at the end of that life.

A life not lived out in such a way that He could die as an old man in His home but instead;

He lived His life in absolute obedience to God and at a young age, He went to this place called calvary.

This cruel place known as the mount of the Skull and upon a cross, Jesus offered Himself up for the forgiveness of sin.

Upon that cruel cross, God revealed His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

But this death of Jesus was no ordinary death.

Instead, Christ upon that cross took upon Himself the punishment that we deserve for our sin.

All the many times that we lived our lives like Adam and we sinned against God.

Yet the story doesn’t end there.

As if it wasn’t enough that the Son of God would die in our place, He proved that He had conquered the grip that sin has had upon all of mankind by rising from the dead three days later.

And here is the promise that we find in all of this.

That God so Loved this sinful world that He sent His only Son to pay for your sin and defeat death so that all who believe upon Him will not perish but will have everlasting life.

That all who believe upon Him shall not perish but will have everlasting life.

In Christ, though we must all face death at some point in our life we can now know that its not the end.

That we have hope.

That we can live the life that God designed for us to begin with where we can spend all of eternity with our loved ones in the presence of Christ.

But, this does require something of us.

It requires that in our belief, we act upon that belief.

That we would confess our sin before the Lord and turn from our sin.

Placing our faith and our trust in Christ as our redeemer.

Beloved I am not here to scare you into making a decision or anything like that.

But I will tell you this, each and every single one of us will one day die.

And each of us have sins that we’ve committed just like Adam.

And those sins can either be paid for by Christ and we can spend an eternity with Him.

Or those sins are paid for by us and we will spend an eternity separated from Him and the life that God originally designed.

Janice knew that.

She knew that she would one day stand before her redeemer

Janice now can see that clearer than ever.

And if she could tell you one thing from where she’s at, this is what it would be.

Don’t wait until tomorrow because none of us are promised tomorrow.

Instead look to Christ today and be saved.

-Closing Prayer-