John "Jack" McCarthy Memorial

Introduction

Welcome to the family and friends of John “Jack” McCarthy who left this earth on June 4, 2021. Today is a time to remember, reflect, grieve, and begin the healing process and to think about your future. There will be some hymns and times to share memories. Let us open with a time of prayer.

Prayer

Hymn: Amazing Grace 391 (1,2,3,6)

Time of Memories

Hymn: How Great Thou Art 10 (1, 3, 4)

Time of Memories

Message

Thank you for your memories of Jack. I never met him, but he has been in our prayers for many months. On Thursday, November 5, 2020 at our weekly prayer meeting we prayed for him as he had been taken to the hospital and then to a nursing home. From that week forward we were praying for him on weekly basis as a church. We were told on December 3 that he had stage four cancer. Right around Christmas time 2020 he was put on hospice and the doctors had said that he would only last a couple of months, but we kept praying. He started to get better and by the end of February he was taken off of hospice. We continued to pray for Jack. He would have many ups and downs as he was moved back into the nursing home. We were told on June 3 that he would be going back on hospice the next week, but the next day he left this earth. Living on earth for 77 years.

Jack was born in Beaver Meadows (just down the road) on March 15, 1944. He would serve his nation in the Air Force after high school before honorably discharged. He would live with his parents until they passed away and then he lived with his brother. Jack had many challenges in his life, but he loved to keep his mind sharp by reading newspapers and doing the crossword puzzles in them. While often very reserved he could tell many stories if you started to talk to him.

You know each one of us has been given a gift today. We were given 86,400 seconds each day. We are given breath and a heart that beats. Yet, one day each one of us will die.

James 4:13–14 NKJV

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

One day I will die, one day you will die. The question I have for you this morning is, where will you be after? The Bible is very clear.

Hebrews 9:27 NKJV

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,

You will either be spending eternity in Heaven with God or eternity separated from God in a horrible place called Hell. Heaven is not where all the good people who did good go when they die and Hell is the place where all the bad people go when they die. Heaven is for those who have accepted a free gift from God and who are forgiven.

You see we all deserve Hell, but God made a way for us to come to Him.

Romans 3:23 NKJV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 NKJV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:8 NKJV

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 14:6 NKJV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Romans 10:8–11 NKJV

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

I cannot save you. Going to church will not save you. Giving money to this church will not save you. It is only through Jesus Christ can you saved, redeemed from your sins.

When your last day on this earth comes and you take your last breath? Where are you spending eternity? You can know today.

Hymn: When We All Get to Heaven 487 (1, 2,3, 4)

Closing Prayer