Brother Jay Collins Funeral

We have come here this morning for a number of reasons…

1. We are here today to pay our honor and our respect to a man of God, our brother, Rev. Jay Collins.  

2. We are here this morning also to show our love and support for Collins’s very precious family. 

Not only have we sensed our own personal feelings of loss over Brother Collins’s passing, but our hearts have been drawn toward them, and will continue to be with them.

3. Finally, we are here this morning to seek and to receive comfort.  We would be less than honest if we said that our hearts have not hurt over this situation. 

We are not too proud to acknowledge that we have come here this morning trusting that God would minister to our hearts, and give us strength as we continue in our walk with Him.

It is our human nature to want to understand everything now, but trust requires that we lean and rely heavily on God even when things seem unclear.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

And when we do that then the results are as Apostle Paul described

Php 4:7 Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

I’m not going to tell you not to cry or not to experience emotions.  Emotions are God-given.  They are a part of who we are. 

Jesus Himself said, "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4)

Tears are the safety-valve that God built into us to help us at times like these.  It’s OK to cry. 

I’m not going to tell you today that you’ll never have questions come to you.  But I will tell you this:  There is something wonderful that you can focus on.  Choose to focus on the things you know… things the Word of God declares.

We declare with Job… Job 19:25

25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.

We declare with Jesus… John 14:2-3

2) In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

We declare with Paul…2 Corinthians 5:6-8

6) We are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

8) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

Philippians 1:21, 23

21) For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

23) For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better…

These are the Words of the Apostle Paul. In verse 20 Apostle Paul declares, that it was his earnest Expectation and Hope, that Christ should be magnified in his Body, whether by Life, or by Death.

But here In this Verse 21 he gives a Reason of his Hope: For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

"If I live, Christ shall be the Scope of my Life, and End of my Living;

It is the Character of every true Christian, and faithful Gospel Minister; that for them to live is Christ.

But, it is their great privilege and happiness, that for them to die shall be gain.

We are going to move beyond the tears.  We are going to move beyond our questions… because the Holy Spirit is here today to comfort and strengthen each and every heart!  And he will continue to be with us as we continue to live for God.

An individual made the following statement: “The measure of a life is not in its duration but in its donation.”

When we think of Brother Collins’s donation… what he contributed… what he invested… we have much to be thankful for!!!

Consider the investments of love and devotion that he made in his marriage with his wonderful wife.

Consider the investments of godliness and nurturing that he made into the lives of his children and grandchildren.

And consider the investments of the Word of God that Brother Collins made into the lives of so many people… not only members of this church, but all of the people, including ministers, that he poured his life into.

Let me say again that “The measure of a life is not in its duration but in its donation!”

Brother Collins’s life reminds me of a preacher that was on the Titanic…

There were a lot of notable, wealthy people on the Titanic in 1912.  But the most notable passenger on the Titanic was someone that most of the world has never heard of before.

He was a man by the name of John Harper.  He was a plain, ordinary Pastor from Scotland.  He had faithfully shepherded his congregation for 15 years.  He was a fairly young minister, only 40 years old.

Moody Memorial Church in Chicago had invited him to come and preach a series of sermons. So he had accepted the invitation and had booked himself on the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

It is told that the night before the Titanic sunk that John Harper was on the deck pleading and begging people to come to Christ.

He had given his life day-in and day-out to see people get into the spiritual lifeboat. 

And that night when the ship hit the iceberg, it woke him up and he started making his way to the lifeboat, and he realized there wasn’t enough room for everyone.

So he started going from deck to deck crying out – “Women and children and the unsaved to the lifeboats.” He said, “Let’s get the non-Christians in first.”

Pastor John was one of those who eventually ended up in the freezing waters. He hung on to a wooden piece of debris floating in the water.

When some of the passengers would come close to John Harper, then John would cried out, “Sir, are you a Christian?”

This one man answered “no.” but the current took him away into the darkness. A few minutes later that same man was brought back into John Harper’s sight, and John asked him again, “Sir, are you saved yet – have you accepted Christ?”

And the man said, “No, I can’t honestly say that I am.”

Apparently that was the last thing John Harper ever said on this earth. He lost his grip on the piece of debris, sunk down into the Atlantic Ocean, and died.

The man that John Harper was pleading with to become a Christian was one of the very few who was pulled out of the icy waters by one of the ships that rushed to the scene.

He testified that he did accept Christ that very night, and he was often asked to speak and give his testimony and he would proudly step up and say, “I’m John Harper’s last convert.”

When I think of this story, I begin to think about Brother Collins while he was sick and fighting Cancer, he continue reaching out to the lost and sowing God’s Word into the saints.

One of the things that caused me to so highly respect him was his great love for souls.  In this sense, Jay Collins was a real hero to me.

Rev 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!"

I have no doubt that Brother Collins has already met people in heaven who have thanked him for leading them to the Lord. 

I have no doubt that others in the future will come up to him in heaven and express their gratitude for him having led them to the Lord.

His work on this earth was of eternal value, and because of that, he will have eternal reward.

This Memorial Service is not really for Him.  He is in Heaven.  This is a time for us who are yet on this earth.

He’s reached the ultimate destination of the universe. 

We say that he has “departed,” but God says that he has “arrived.”

Gen 5:24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”

I understand that the account of Enoch is an unusual one in Scripture because of having the privilege of God giving him an exemption from death.

Certainly the honour given to Enoch is not one which is common to those of the human race, and it was not a privilege given to Brother Collins.

The exemption from death is not what I want us to focus on today but rather the earlier part of that verse where it stated that he had walked faithfully with God, and then was no more on this earth.

I want to close using that verse because in many ways I feel it is a description of the life of Brother Jay Collins.

I think we would all agree that Jay Collins to the best of his ability lived his life walking with God.

Dwight L. Moody said, "Someday you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of Northfield is dead.  Don’t you believe a word of it. 

At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now.  I shall have gone higher, that is all — out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that sin cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned into His glorious body. 

I was born in the flesh in 1837; I was born of the Spirit in 1856.  That which is born of the flesh may die; that which is born of the Spirit will live forever."                                                             

Jay Collins thanks for being a faithful minister.

(the presentation of the flag)