Ellie Vigil's Memorial

Prelude

Greeting and Statement of Purpose

Dearly loved family and friends, today we have gathered together to remember and rejoice in the life of our dear Ellie….. I am Pastor Ben Gonzalez and I am one of Ellie’s pastors here at her church, Heritage Christian Fellowship.

I want to thank you for coming and honoring her, and also for all the love and concern you have shown to her family. We are so grateful to God for such a wonderful blessing that He has given us in Ellie. Today may God be glorified as we remember Ellie and thank Him for her. Let us pray together.

Prayer of Invocation

Our Loving and Most Gracious Heavenly Father, O Lord our God we come before you today, for you are our Comfort and our Strength. Dear God we ask you to uphold us and strengthen us today and in the days and weeks to come. We look to you O God for comfort in our grief as Ellie was so very dear to all of us. But Lord we do not grieve as those who have no hope for we know that you have received her unto yourself as you have promised. Lord you do all things right, indeed it was your time for her to be received into your presence and we trust in you. Along with Ellie, we have much confidence that in trusting in Christ Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, we will pass from this temporal earthly life into everlasting life in the eternal presence of the loving God who gave His Son for us.

O Sovereign Lord we ask for your blessing upon our time here today, that you would be very near to us and help us today as we remember Ellie, our sister and friend. We thank you for the many happy days of her life with us. And Lord we thank you that even now she is in your holy presence, and you have wiped every tear from her eyes, you have brought her sickness and her suffering to an end, and she is now beholding the beauty of your glorious face which she sought so faithfully in the life you gave her on this earth. We thank you for this comfort and pray that you will grant us faith to meet her there, where we also will rejoice forever in your goodness and love. Bless our time now together as we seek to remember her.

In the name of her savior and our savior, Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen.

Harmonica Song - MI

Eulogy - CM

Picture Collage

Message - 1 Peter 1:3-9

Riches she did not Heed, Riches she Received

The sweetest memory I will hold of my time with Ellie will always be the time that we met together and sang hymns. At that time, she had grown too weak to sing but that didn’t keep her from mouthing the words and raising her hand in praise. It was while singing the last verses of the hymn Be Thou My Vision that I had this thought, my dear sister is about to be so incredibly rich, she is about to receive her inheritance, to realize her hearts treasure. Not a monetary or material wealth, not a passing treasure, she is about to receive full and complete joy in Christ as she goes to be with Him. She was about to receive the fruit of her suffering, the realization of her hope, the fulfillment of her faith. She was about to receive Christ. The verse of the hymn goes like this, “Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise, Thou mine inheritance, now and always: Thou and Thou only, first in my heart, High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art.”

This was Ellie. She did not heed or pursue the empty praise of men and women. She did pursue temporary riches. Her inheritance, the prize of her heart, her treasure was Christ. She did not long for the riches of this world but clung to the hope of receiving the riches of her glorious salvation - the riches of unhindered, unmediated, complete and perfect joy and fellowship with her Savior. And this is what Ellie wanted me to share with you today in my message. She wanted you all to know the gospel that she believed, and to hear of the salvation she hoped for and that she ultimately realized. It is to that end that I want to turn your attention to a passage of scripture in the book of 1 Peter.

Listen as I read 1 Peter 1:3-9, “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

I want you to walk away today from Ellie’s memorial service knowing this, Ellie, upon perishing from this earth, received an imperishable inheritance from her blessed God for she had a golden faith in Christ Jesus her Lord and Savior. She inherited eternal life for she had faith in her God to save her from death and her sins.

Ellie’s Inheritance from her Blessed God

Peter begins in vs 3, saying, “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” This is a memorial service for Ellie but ultimately it is a time of worship to her God and her Father of her Lord Jesus Christ. Ellie was a woman of worship, always expressing her praise to her God and so these first few words from Peter are so appropriate.

But why is Peter praising God? Why did Ellie praise God? Because, verse 3, “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” Let’s think about these words. God is praiseworthy, deserving of our worship, because he caused us, He caused us saints, He caused Ellie, and and all of us here who have faith in Christ, to be born again. What does this mean, to be born again? This is one of the main themes of the Bible and to understand what is being said here we must start by answering the question why must we be born again?

The reason is this, each one of us here were born into this world with hearts that did not naturally love God, or praise God, or recognize God for who He is as God. Even though evidences of God’s reality are spread all throughout this world, from the gift of a new baby, to the beautiful New Mexico sunset every night, to the booming thunder and the powerful lightening of a monsoon night. But even though we witness the reality of God in His world, we naturally reject Him, and do not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. Instead we explain away God with the theories and philosophies of men, we exchange the truth about who He is for a lie, and we worship the idols of this world, spending our life pursuing and desiring after fame and money and pleasure and power. The bible uses the metaphor of a stone heart to describe our natural state. We have hearts of stone, hearts that are dead and immovable and set against worshipping and following God. This is the story of my heart, this is the story of Ellie’s heart, this is the story of all of our hearts.

That is, until God, because of His great mercy, caused me, caused Ellie, caused most of you all here to be born again. Listen to how the Apostle Paul describes this same thing in Ephesians 2:1-5, “1 And you (Paul is talking of all of us here) were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.” This is what I just pointed out. Naturally we were dead in our sins, unresponsive to seeking God, flatlined to following Him. That’s the bad news, but here is the good news, “4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!"

God made us alive, He took out Ellie’s heart of stone and our hearts of stone and gave us hearts of flesh that would pump life blood into our souls so that we could hear the call of the Gospel of Christ and respond by repenting of our sins and believing in Christ. For each of us who have experienced this reality it was like being born all over again - being born again.

And this new birth was as Peter says back verse 3, a birth to a living hope. So what is this hope and why is it a living hope? You see, the people who Peter was writing to were Christians in the first century who were being chased and attacked and killed by the Roman government. Peter is writing to such a people to tell them that they have a living hope. They should not be dashed to the ground by the suffering and the tragedy and the loss around them but instead look with faith to a future deliverance, look down at verse 4, “4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,” They could have confidence then, and we can have confidence now, that even though our lives are now marked by sorrow and suffering and death, our future is a life of eternal blessing if we have been born again. To have this hope, to receive this inheritance you must be born again. This is in fact what Jesus Himself taught in John 3:3, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This was Ellie’s present reality, she is in the kingdom of God now, in this moment. She is in the presence of her Lord for she has received her imperishable, undefiled and unfading inheritance.

And there is are two proofs that Peter provides to show us that this reality is certain, that our hope is not in vain. Firstly, the ground for our hope is not founded in anything that we have done. Ellie did not have hope because she was a good woman. We do not have hope because we do good works. But our hope is in Christ, we have been born again to a living hope, verse 3, “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Our hope is in the work of Christ. Think of the first part of this passage. God intervened in our lives by causing us to be born again. But this divine intervention is predicated on God coming to this earth Himself. Jesus Christ, the Son of God left the throne room and glories of heaven to be born a man, to live the life of righteousness that we could never live, to die on the cross in our place, taking God’s judgement and God’s wrath for our sins. He was buried in a tomb but 3 days later, He rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples and to hundreds of eyewitnesses. In raising from the dead, He defeated death and removed it’s sting so that even when we perish from this earth, we do not perish eternally. For those who have believed in Christ, death is merely the vehicle taking us to our eternal home. This is why our hope is living, why it is certain and sure. We can know that we will be raised from the dead, that we will have eternal life, because Christ Himself rose from the grave.

The second proof of this living hope is this, our inheritance is imperishable because we who have been born again are, verse 5, “5 by God’s power, being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We can have hope by looking back to Christ’s example of defeating death and we can have hope by resting in the present reality that we who have faith in Christ are being guarded by God’s power. Literally, He is surrounding us with a shield defending against the attacks of the devil and of this world.

Ellie’s Example of Golden Faith

Dear friends, at this time think of Ellie’s example. She was made alive again by God, she was filled with a living hope that she would, like her savior, Jesus, experience resurrection and eternal life. And up to her last day, her faith in Christ to save her to eternal life was guarded from waiving or failing in the face of pain and weakness and cancer by her merciful and powerful God. It’s for this reason that she praised and worshipped God, even at a time where she didn’t have enough strength to use her voice. And when her strength failed, when her last breath was spent, she received the imperishable inheritance from her blessed God.

And this is exactly what Peter describes in the next few verses. Look at verse 6, “6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Our suffering, our trials are not in vain or for our punishment but they are for the purification and refinement of our faith. Like gold, who’s dross is burned away by fire, Ellie’s imperfections were burned away by her trials. Her sickness was not sent by God to penalize her, but instead to prepare her for glory. Her faith and confidence in God was not consumed by her cancer, but instead her faith and her love and her hope and her anticipation for future joy was strengthened by her suffering.

Lastly think of our these final words from Peter marked our dear sister, “8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” She had not yet seen Christ, yet she was filled with love for Him. She was unwavering in her belief in Him. And she was overcome with a glorious joy inexpressible at the hope of her impending salvation.

Conclusion - Her one request

Oh dear saints, let us all follow in the example of our dear sister, the example of unwavering faith and inexpressible joy in Christ through suffering. May her faith in our Lord strengthen our own faith. May her persistent joy and unfailing hope spur us on to seek that same joy in our Savior. May we, like our dear sister, finish well as we obtain our inheritance from our blessed God through a golden faith in Christ Jesus.

Furthermore, dear saints, as the apostle Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, we are here to grieve the loss of our dear sister, but we are not grieving as those who do without hope. She was born again to a living hope and so are we. Dear brothers and sisters, cling to that hope in our grieving.

I want to conclude by sharing Ellie’s one request to you her family. 3 weeks before Ellie passed into glory, us five pastors at Ellie’s church went to pray over our sister. At the end of this visit, we asked Ellie how we could be praying for her. And our dear sister, suffering from weakness and fatigue and the side-effects of her medication that kept the pain at bay, our dear sister had one request…that God would use her and her remaining time with us to bring her family members to belief in Christ. She had one pressing desire, dear friends and family and that was that you would believe. That you would hear this message of the gospel and that you would be born again and filled with the same hope, the same faith, the same joy that she had. So then dear friend, cry out to God today. Ask him to cause you to be born again. Believe in Christ, that He has died for your sins and that He has defeated the sting of your death by rising from the dead Himself. Repent of your sins, turn from seeking riches and the praise of those around you and instead follow after your dear Ellie as she followed after Christ. So that one day, you can join her in doing what she loved most, praising her great God with a joy inexpressible.

Pastoral Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, we now thank you for the life of our beloved Ellie , and for the special gift she is to each one of us. We are so deeply grateful to you for placing her into our lives. We are so blessed to know her and to love her, and to be loved by her, dear God. We thank you for her loving life, and for the tremendous encouragement she was to all of us who know her to stay on the right path and honor you with our life. Oh Lord, we also thank you for her strong faith, and the example of simple trust and obedience to you that she was. Surely she was content and happy to trust you for peace and joy, no matter what circumstances came her way.We thank you that she has now realized her great hope that she will live forever in your presence, because of what Christ has done for her in His life and in His death.

In His great name we pray, AMEN.

In Christ Alone - CB

Tributes - Open Mic

At this time we would like to open up the microphone to anyone who would like to come up for a couple of minutes to tell a fond story about Ellie and  her love for the Lord

Harmonica Song - MI

Benediction

I am sure that Ellie would understand that were are sad because she has left us. But she would not want us to be overcome with grief because we know that she is in the presence of God, with no more suffering or pain, and she will be there forever. And she would want us to have the same confidence of eternal life that she has, by trusting in Christ and receiving His as Lord and Savior. Let it be her invitation to you to come and to meet her in Heaven and see the beauty of her Lord, forever!

This concludes our service today. There will be a reception for everyone to attend immediately following downstairs in the fellowship hall. May the Lord richly bless you!