Funeral of Kelly Stidham

Welcome ......Prayer

Kayla will sing

Message

Today is not the day we thought come, we held out hope for better things, for a chance for extended days.... Better days for Kelly to live and enjoy life.

If I were to ask you the question what is life? We might receive a number of different answers....

If I were to ask you the question what is life? We might receive a number of different answers....

Life we might think is between the point we take our first breath to the time of our last. And that might be a good physical representation. But I think it is not complete...

Life I believe is truly in the Lord our God, why would I say that.. the Bible teaches us that He, God knew us from the foundations of this world. The Bible teaches us that in .

And Kelly had life… He had life both physically and Spiritually.

And Jesus would teach us that the greatest expression of life is the life we have in Jesus.

Revelation 13:8 ESV

8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Ephesians 1:4 ESV

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

I think life is the greatest truth of the word is much larger than we realize. Spiritually we are in His thoughts always, even before our physical entrance into this world.

We are born into this world, a world full of sorrow, disappointments and yes, also joy, love and happiness.

And Jesus would teach us that the greatest expression of life is the life we have in Jesus.

Jesus told us in , .... the theif (devil) comes to kill, steal and destroy, but I have come that you might have life and have it to the fullest...

Jesus is the source of life

This truth is the reason we gather today with hope, hope for a better day.

I look back today and can tell you a lot about Kelly’s life.... He grew up in a good home, he had parents and a brother that loved him. He has a mother that did her absolute best to take care of him, advocate for him when he was sick and encourage him daily.

What could I tell you about his life…

Many of you know, you grew up with him, maybe went to school with him...

He was a good student at Powell Valley, but he and Matt could be mischievous at times… Gail said the other day, there were times the phone would ring, it would be the school and she would say… which one you got in the office.... Its funny to us, but boys will be boys is the old saying...

Kelly was a great athlete… he ran track, played football and wrestled at Powell Valley, he was intelligent, having earned three degrees from Mountain Empire Com College. His passion was environmental issues, he believed in taking care of the land we lived.

I look back today and can tell you a lot about Kelly’s life.... He grew up in a good home, he had parents and a brother that loved him. He has a mother that did her absolute best to take care of him, advocate for him when he was sick and encourage him daily.

He was a forester for Pine Mountain lumber and Mountain Forest Products.

He was a life time member of the NRA, and avid hunter and fisherman. He loved being outside in God’s wonderful creation. He loved life… And Kelly loved helping others where he could, he helped me many times, the last just over a year ago, He really wasn’t even able but he showed up to help Matt pour a concrete patio behind our house and Kelly got down on his hands and knees and worked it flat with Matt.

He helped clean our church, many many days I saw him down there helping his mother clean and do things around the church. He was ready to pitch in even when he didn’t feel like it.

Kelly many of you may know was an organ donor, he felt very strongly about that… He wanted to make sure, that when death came his way, if he could he wanted to give back to others… And he has…

Many, many people will benefit the blessing of Kelly’s decision to be an organ donor. The Bible teaches us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as our self… Without a doubt, I could say that he loved his neighbor…

He loved Lynn and his boys, without a doubt he loved you all, you boys where his pride and joy… don’t you ever forge that..

And all of these things are the very best things of his life… Was Kelly perfect. No...

But none of us are my friends, But the best thing I can tell you is that Kelly was a Christian.

He told me a few years back of his Salvation… He said on night he knew he was headed down the wrong road, he turned around and came to the preachers house and knocked on his door. You don’t know me very well, but I need to be saved....

That night he gave his heart to Jesus.

You see my friends that is the best thing in all the world. Knowing Jesus.

Remember what I told you at the beginning of this service, Jesus said

John 10:10 ESV

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

The greatest expression of life is found in Jesus.

Nothing else in this world can compare....

The night before Jesus crucifixion, Jesus was with his disciples in the upper room and he knew death was coming, and He knew it would come to them as well one day. They didn’t have to be worried...

Listen to what Jesus says to them...

John 14:1–6 ESV

1 “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.

Things will change very fast in life, Jesus knew the disciples world was about to be turned upside down. This family, not even Kelly thought his life would change so drastically as it did the other night...

We, even I held out hope. Kelly would make it and get a transplant and would have a new day ahead of him...

But we never know.... God’s ways are not our ways.... in fact Job said mans days are few and full of trouble.

But no matter Jesus tells his disciples … As you have believed in God through it all, believe also in me… Don’t give up in the hope I have promised you.

Life’s challenges make us question, it makes us fearful, it hurts us.... Jesus said keep on believing...

As my old pastor would say… here is where it gets gooder and gooder...

In my Fathers house are many mansions or rooms, ....If it were not true, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.

You see up to this point, God’s plan was not complete, it was not ready.... Jesus came to die so that we might have life. Jesus came to this world to live as we do, to be made like us that He might be our sacrifice for sin.

Sin is that ugly word we dont like to talk about,.. oh but we better talk about it. Leave it un dealt with and a person will split hell wide open. And there is not need in it, Jesus came to take care of our sin problem.

Just as the first Adam brought death, so the second Adam, Jesus brought life.

He gave his life as a ransom for sin, paying the price to forgive us with his own blood. He made that sacrifice at the temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And when God the righteous judge, saw that sacrifice He declared sins forgiven, for all those who put their faith and trust in Jesus.

Jesus finished the Father’s house, the Father’s plans for the world. He made the mansion complete so that we would have the hope of a future.. A future with Jesus.

Kelly knew Jesus… This past Saturday morning his heart stopped… we don’t like to hear that, to talk about that… but for Kelly it was the best. He has suffered the last few years, trying, waiting ....

But at the moment his heart stopped, here, His life began there. Paul reminds us to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Kelly stepped into heaven. And that is where he is… well, healthy and whole.

This ole body, this shell it wore out, it gave out. It sleeps, we will lay it to rest. But one day, the eastern sky will break open, Jesus will come with the host of heaven and yes with Kelly too, and his old body, it will raise… so will Jeff and Preachers… It will rise on that morning and all will be complete on that day.

What do we do till them.

Jesus said it… life is tough… Believe in God, believe also in me.

You see Jesus is the answer, the only answer about life after death. He is life. He has prepared a place for us, he ha told us the way so we know how to get there...

John 14:1–6 ESV

1 “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.

Now some of us are like Thomas, in , we say we do not know that way. But Jesus is the way.

John 14:5–6 ESV

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.

Jesus tells us … I am the way, the truth and the life. want to get to Heaven, there is no way except by me.

Kelly knew the way, had asked Jesus into his heart. Nothing else matters today. That we can hold our hearts on....

Jesus tells us John 14:6

You Jesus is everything… Jesus tells us in the gospel of John “I AM”

Bread of life, water of life, the true door, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the true vine and the way , truth and the life.

Kelly would tell me to ask, do you know him today.

Song

Ephesians 3:1 ESV

1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—

Ephesians 4:1 ESV

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,