Pam Roberts Funeral 4/24/2021

Order of Service

Welcome - Pastor Eric Mann Prayer - EM Eulogy - Rev. Michael Eatmon Song- I Can Only Imagine - Recording Message - Pastor Eric Mann Lords Prayer - Together Military Honors - Honor Guard Final Prayer - Pastor Eric Mann

Welcome - Pastor Eric Mann

Thank you for being here this afternoon to celebrate the life of Pamela Stokes Roberts and remember the impact she made on the lives of so many while she was here. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of Pam’s death, and even though it’s been a year, we still want to celebrate her life and give friends and family a time to remember her and express our our gratefulness for having known her and our sadness that she is no longer with us. Nevertheless, we know that Pam would want us to focus on the celebration part of this process more than on the sadness part, and so I encourage you this afternoon to bring to mind the times Pam brought a smile to your face or a warm emotion to your heart.

Please join me as we go before the Lord in Prayer.

Prayer - EM

Dear Lord, we come before you today to remember the life of our beloved Pam. Even though she has been enjoying the blessings of heaven for over a year now, we ask that you would comfort and encourage those of us who are left behind and who love and miss her. We also want to thank you for the blessing that it was to know and be known by Pam. We thank you for her energy and intensity; we thank you for her kind and generous heart; we thank you for her willingness to help others, and for the example she set for many of us of how to enjoy life. Lord, we recognize that today is more a time for us to find comfort and closure, and so I ask that your Spirit would be with us this afternoon and that He would comfort, encourage, and express the love you have for us this day. We pray these things in the name of Jesus, Amen.

At this time, I would like to ask Pam’s nephew, Michael Eatmon to come and share with us.

Eulogy - Michael Eatmon

Song- I Can Only Imagine - Recording

Message - Pastor Eric Mann

I met Pam Roberts when I became the pastor at First Baptist Church of Creedmoor in August of 2019. She was one of the volunteers who faithfully helped every week in our Food Mission. I will always remember her seemingly boundless energy and her determination to help others regardless of whatever struggle she was going through herself. I was surprised when I first learned she was battling cancer, her attitude and the energy levels she displayed never gave away the battle that was raging in her body. I don’t remember her ever complaining about having a bad day or a bad week, and it often took me asking her how she was doing before she admitted that anything difficult was going on.

I had the privilege of baptising her a couple of months before she passed away, and I know she had a new depth in her faith and relationship with God through that process. I am grateful for the time God allowed me to share with Pam, and for the encouragement that she was to me as her pastor and as her friend. As much as I wish she was still around to talk my ear off and tell me stories, I am glad that she has been basking in the love and joy that comes by being in the presence of God for this past year.

Portions of Psalm 84 say the following:

Psalm 84:1–4 NIV

1 How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

Psalm 84:10–12 NIV

10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

The Psalmist wrote about his longing for the courts of God. He had not experienced the reality of what that would be like, but he yearned for it and anticipated it. In the last two verses of this Psalm, the writer basically gets to the heart of the Gospel. He tells us that those who are in God’s presence are there because of a blameless life. But if we are honest with ourselves, we must all admit that none of us is blameless. At some point or another, each one of us has done something wrong, in fact, our lives are full of actions and thoughts that God could find blame in us for. How can a person, then, enter the kingdom of God? The last verse gives us a hint. “Blessed is the one who trusts in [God].” It’s about faith.

For hundreds of years the Jews waited for the coming of God’s promised Savior, and when Jesus came, He made it clear that faith in Him was the way to God the father and to eternal life. The Apostle Paul wrote in his theological masterpiece to the Roman church that...

Romans 4:5 NLT

5 But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.

Throughout the New Testament this truth is repeated again and again, that it is faith, not any of our good works, that saves us. Time and time again, I have heard people claim that they have confidence that their good works are enough to get them into heaven. They have the mentality that if a person’s works are put on a scale with their sins on one side, and their good works on the other, then they’ve done enough to tilt the scales in their favor. Unfortunately, they’ve got the wrong idea of how sin and good works relate to each other. Early on in my time at First Baptist, I shared an illustration to help people understand why the idea of a scale with good and bad on opposite sides is the wrong way of thinking about sin. I call it my “Poop Soup” illustration. Some people may not have liked it, but I’m pretty sure Pam didn’t mind it.

Share POOP SOUP...

Pam understood that there was nothing she could do that would help her chances of getting into heaven. Nothing except putting her faith in Jesus, which then resulted in Jesus forgiving her and making her righteous in the eyes of God. She understood that faith was more than just saying a prayer or being baptized, but that it was something that changed her actions, her priorities in life and who she was.

For the past year, Pam has been truly blessed. A year ago she entered heaven’s gates and was able to see her Savior and her God face-to-face. If one day in the courts of God is better than a thousand elsewhere, then one year in God’s presence is better than a thousand years here. I’m sure that if she had a chance, she would talk our ears off in her 100 mile per hour speech rate and she would bounce around from story to story about all the amazing things she’s been experiencing in heaven this past year. But more than anything, I think what she would want to tell us is that Heaven is real, and that there is really only one way to enter God’s kingdom: Faith in Jesus Christ. She would want everyone she loved and cared about in this world to make that decision to put their faith in Jesus, let Him change your life, and direct your steps from this time forward. She would tell you that any struggles and hardships that come with following Jesus are more than worth it because the reward of heaven is so much more amazing than anything we suffer. She would encourage you to seek God as much as you can while you are here on earth, because it translates into greater joy and reward in heaven when you get there. She would encourage us to not just pray the Lord’s prayer, but to pray continually with the same heart and priorities that are expressed in that prayer. As we recite the Lord’s prayer right now, think of what the words mean, and later on think of other ways you can pray that are in line with the Lord’s prayer. Let’s pray together now...

Lords Prayer - Together

Amen… I would like to ask the Honor Guard to come forward at this time.

Military Honors - Honor Guard

Final Prayer - Pastor Eric Mann

Forasmuch as it has pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear sister here departed, we therefore commit her body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our earthly body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, through which he is able to subdue all things to himself. Amen.

Thank you for being with us this afternoon. May God bless you and may you go in God’s comfort and peace.