6.3.43a 9.15.2021 Sermon for Funeral of Keith Crackel 2 Corinthians 4.16-18

Start

Entice: The body visibly ages but when breath departs, we who are left behind find ourselves breathless. Our faces get wrinkles, our voices grow "seasoned" We walk slower and call it "experience". We Reflect upon our past and call it “wisdom.”

Engage: And then one day it is our last day and the time which God has apportioned to us is gone. Grief is hard. It can be exhausting. It seems so final. Yet for those who are in Jesus; there is hope beyond the seeming permanence of death and the despair of the grave.

Expand: Today we affirm with our brother Keith the hope of resurrection and saving grace in Jesus. We shed tears of celebration as well as tears of grief.

I would share this text with you and direct you to the empowering hope that it communicates.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 ESV

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Explore: Beyond the grief there is glory.

Explain: Paul reminds us of

The Promise of Glory.

• This promise revives

• This promise renews.

The Preparation for Glory.

• The afflictions of this life are temporary

• The glory is eternal.

Permanence of Glory.

The visible vanishes.

The invisible is eternal.

Shut Down:

• Each of us, regardless of our current age are moving toward the same inevitable conclusion. Each of also must prepare for what lies beyond. Beyond your grief is God’s Glory. We celebrate that glory even as we grieve because of the promise, because of the process of preparation, because of its permanence.

• May our morning become dancing, our weeping become laughter, our sorrow become sweet, and our fearfulness fearless.

• Let us bow in prayer together.