Monty Wilson Memorial Service
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June 11, 2021
June 11, 2021
Prayer
Prayer
Almighty God, You are the great God, Creator of everything and we bow our hearts to acknowledge Your greatness and faithfulness. We give You thanks for life b/c You are the giver of life to all. We also thank You for Your Son Jesus Christ since He abolished death on the cross and brought life and immortality to light, so that in our frailty we might learn to walk by faith and not by sight.
We come together now and ask you to give courage to trust You and your purposes that we might obtain the blessings of Your grace, the comfort of Your peace, and the patience of eternal hope.
I would ask you O God that Your gracious gift of eternal life would become a reality for all who are here today. We commit our time to You and in Jesus name I ask that you would bless each of us, Amen.
Obituary
Obituary
Monty Jay Wilson, 74 of Hamilton passed away Saturday, May 15, 2021 at his home in Hamilton with his family by his side.
He was born May 7th, 1947 in Hamilton and was the son of the late Thomas Hendrickson and George and Shirley (Mom) Wilson. He was preceded in death by his brothers, George Terry Wilson and Jerry Hendrickson.
After graduation, Monty went into the Marine Corps and served in the Vietnam War. He was proud of his unit and honored to serve his country.
Upon returning home from the war, he met and married Lisa Vallance. The couple resided in California and Hamilton, they later divorced. He met Kathy DiNapoli and they were married in Long Island, NY where they lived most of his life.
Monty was a member of the American Legion. His passion was car racing when he was young. While living in New York he loved to go sailing, he missed it when he moved back to Montana. He soon replaced sailing with Classic Cars and Car Shows. He loved to buy and sell them. Another passion was traveling, Monty had a job as a photographer for a car magazine, so he got to see a lot of country.
Monty always made a point to go back to California and see his lifelong friend, Bob Berry. In late fall, he would load up his motor home and spend the winter in Lake Havasu. He made lots of friends there and he would talk about them all, but especially Andy. Monty was very social and a people person. He will be missed so much, especially by his family and friends.
Monty is survived by his children, Chad Wilson, April Rothschild, Kim Martinez and Eric Wilson; his sisters, Sandra (Don) Dunbar, Valarie (David) Thrailkill, Arlis (Doug) Hendrickson, Lynn Hendrickson, Lamoine Hendrickson, Christa Baguas and Laurie (late Terry) Hendrickson; brothers, R.T. (Stephanie) Hendrickson, Shane (Shelly) Hendrickson, Wade (Lisa) Hendrickson and Cheyene Hendrickson; five grandchildren; numerous nieces and nephews.
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. “When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. “And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. “Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ “They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ “When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. “When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. “When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ “But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? ‘Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ “So the last shall be first, and the first last.”
Song
Song
Meditation
Meditation
Two men could not have been more different who were around the LJC the final hours of His earthly life.
There was Judas Iscariot. Been one of the 12 disciples for 3 years. He preached, evangelized, even given great powers to cast out demons and cure diseases. He was entrusted with the money box. None of the 11 thought he was anything but a model disciple until he betrayed the LJC, and eventually ended his life by suicide and entered into eternal damnation.
Then there was a thief on the cross. He lived his life a a career criminal and justly sentenced to die one of the most horrifying, slow forms of capital punishment—dying on a cross. He was a robber, part of a gang that knew nothing else than living a life of crime and violence. He was crucified with his partner and even as Jesus was carrying his cross to the place of crucifixion, they were taunting and reviling Him along with the crowd (Mt 27:44). But then this thief saw Jesus who saw that:
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
At the last moment before his death—the hardened thief confessed his sin (Lk 23:41) and uttered a simple prayer of faith in JC:
And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”
And Christ responded
And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
Two different men, with 2 different lives and 2 different eternal destinies. Some would say how unjust it is that a man who lived a religious life doing mostly good things except for 1 act of betrayal would spend eternity in hell, while a man who did nothing good all his life and had 1 moment of repentance and faith would spend eternity in paradise (heaven).
It is crucial that you understand that all people are unworthy of God’s favor. No one deserves God’s favor or salvation since all are guilty sinners deserving eternal condemnation in hell.
It is also important to understand that God maintains the right to show mercy and compassion on whomever He chooses (Ex 33:19; Rom 9:15).
And if God were to implement unmitigated justice each of us would have died long ago (Rom 6:23).
The parable of the landowner Jesus taught is about “How Grace Works.”
The landowner hires workers to work in his vineyard and they agree to work a day’s wage for a full day’s work. The workday was 12 hours beginning at 6am. By that hour, the workers had already been chosen and employed and began the work.
3 hours (9am)later the landowner hired more workers and he told them he would pay them “whatever is right” without settling on a specific amount.
He did the same thing on the 6th hour (noon) and 9th hour (3pm). As the workday was nearly over at the 11th hour (5pm) the landowner hires 1 more group of workers to work in the vineyard for 1 hr.
At 6pm he instructed his foreman to gather the workers and pay them their wage. This is an OT requirement.
“You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; so that he will not cry against you to the Lord and it become sin in you.
So he pays the last group first and gives them each 1 denarius (equivalent to 1 day’s wage). Those who were hired earlier thought then they might receive more since the first group received wages for the full day. But when they received the same they grumbled and claimed that the landowner was not treating them with fairness. These had become envious of the landowner’s generosity with the last group of hired hands.
The landowner explained that he has done no wrong as they each agreed to do the work for the wage.
Jesus concludes the parable with this proverb “the last shall be first and the first last.” This is a proverb of equality. Everybody gets the same.
This is a story of God’s sovereign, saving grace. No one deserves it. Those to whom it is given all receive same benefits (whether one comes to Christ as an adolescent and lives a long, fruitful life of service to God; or if 1 comes on his deathbed). Both receive not a carefully calculated portion of God’s goodness but the full portion of forgiveness, reconciliation, peace, joy, happiness and eternal life.
For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
The one who has been saved for years/decades has his needs met:
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
And the one who comes to Christ late in life receives the same.
You might wonder why I mention this spiritual reality. Monty, late in his earthly life came to put his trust in LJC. Having done so does not give him a smaller portion of the grace of God but he received the full portion that belongs to anyone who trusts in Jesus.
And the point is this: Monty put his trust in Christ. No one gets the chance to do that after death. You must surrender to Christ, repent of your sin and believe in Jesus Christ—Now! And if there is 1 thing life has taught all of you—man does not know his time. you have no idea how long your earthly life will last (2wks ago a young man died at the age of 24 in our community in a tragic accident). This is not supposed to happen, but it could and you must be prepared having put your trust in the Lord Jesus b/c He is the only way to life everlasting.
It is important for you to understand this and that even now Monty is praising his Savior even as we’re gathered today.
Committal
Committal
Montys ashes are before us and we know this…this is not Monty. the earthly body is an outer shell. The Word of God instructs us that the body of a believer laid in its resting place is only the beginning of what will, in God’s timing, be an actual resurrection in an immortal body that will never again taste death. This is the blessed hope that belongs to all who believe on the LJC.
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
As much as it pleases the sovereign and almighty God to take from this world Monty’s soul, and in hope of that future day of resurrection and reunion we commit these ashes to the final resting place—from ashes to ashes, from dust to dust.
After the prayer: military honors will be presented by US Marine Corps and the Corvallis American Legion.
Shall we pray?
Our Father—today we come to you b/c you are gracious and compassionate. You know the broken hearts of those gathered here today, and You alone heal those hearts and bind the wounds of those who are in sorrow. I would ask you to give the peace and comfort of your loving care to Monty’s family and friends. Give them patience to trust you as they learn to adjust to the changes and the losses of this mortal life. Sustain them by your grace that each one may live in hope of everlasting life which comes alone thru the LJC. we pray in His name, Amen.