Funeral 20070312 Kathern Moore

I)       Funeral of Kathern Wanita Turner Moore, March 12, 2007.

A)    2 songs

B)    welcome:  purpose, thanks,

C)    obituary

D)    prayer

E)     2 songs

F)     message

G)    closing prayer

H)    viewing

I)       recessional and exit.

II)    Paul and Epaphroditus Phil. 2:25-30, 4:18.

A)    My goal is to honor Kathern, comfort you from the Word of God, and glorify God.  Not to tell about her – but her God.

B)    READ – notice V27, end, Paul immensely dreaded his death.

1)      application not obvious until you consider who Paul was and what he knew.  What he believed.

C)    The plan of salvation:

1)      God’s appointed man to the gentiles – trained in both.

2)      That all sinned, wages of sin is death, but free gift of God is eternal life for those who believe and confess.

3)      Not by works but by faith – a surrender of our life.

D)    The signs of salvation:

1)      True belief resulted in fruits:  a peaceful disposition, decreasing sin, peace, joy and good works.

2)      Paul knew Epaphras was a believer:  V25 – my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, minister – servant, V26 – concern for others, V29 worthy to be received with joy and honor, v30 – nearly died for the cause of Christ.  An obvious believer and follower of Jesus Christ.

E)     The end result of salvation

1)      In prison – possibly to be executed, he said himself that it was better for him to go to be with the Lord than to stay, absent from the body meant present with the Lord.

2)      He writes about eternal life with Jesus and the other believers – resurrection to new and imperishable bodies like Christ, reigning with Him, receiving rewards.

F)     Summary:  He knew how someone is saved, he knew Epaphroditus was saved, he knew that his friend would be better off with the Lord and that he would see him again!

III) Why then should Paul be so sad?

A)    Why can’t we get used to death.

B)    It could be said that he would have missed him though apart only temporarily – but Paul uses a very strong phrase.  “sorrow upon sorrow.” – it seems to be a bigger deal than that.  He said it was a great mercy that he was spared.

C)    If we look closely at Paul’s writings, we find an answer:

D)    Romans 5:12: “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

E)     This refers back to Genesis 2:17 – in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.  God did not want Adam to sin, (God does not want any of us to sin but He allows us the choice because he would rather have a creation that chose to love Him than was forced to love him.)

F)     Point:  God did not make us for death!  We simply weren’t built for it, so we can never get used to it.

1)      But this is why he made a plan for salvation – to send Christ to die for us – to sort out from mankind those that would love God more than sin –

2)      Kathern was one of those people.

IV) I say all this to comfort you – your grief is unavoidable, normal, and even necessary.  Don’t let someone tell you to get over it – you will in time.  If Paul, who had all the knowledge and answers was sad at the mere thought of his friend passing, we can expect the same.  Even Jesus wept at the passing of his friend Lazarus knowing he was about to raise him from the dead!

V)    So grieve – let yourself go through the process and help one another do the same.

VI) Use this grief to sort things out with God and one another.

VII)          Understand it will be painful, allow to face, talk about Kathern, help one another, Don’t say everything will be okay, don’t avoid the subject, don’t avoid each other, don’t let each other go.

VIII)       If you have questions – turn to the God that Kathern trusted, he has promised to give more to those that come by faith.