Funeral Service for JC Eastridge
Notes
Transcript
Greeting:
Greeting:
Good morning, my name is Chad Wilham and I am the pastor here at Heritage. Ive had the privilege of being JC’s pastor for just shy of three years. I wish to thank you on behalf of the Eastridge family for being here today to remember and celebrate the life of their beloved husband, father, and grandfather and great-grandfather.
Obituary
Obituary
JC Eastridge, 85, of Winchester, Virginia, died Sunday, November 28, 2021 in the Blue Ridge Hospice Inpatient Care Center, Winchester, Virginia.
Mr. Eastridge was born September 15, 1936 in Shouns, Tennessee, son of the late Otis Ray Eastridge and Grace Marie Lewis Eastridge.
He worked from 1955 – 1995 as a cable splicer for the telephone company.
He served in the Army National Guard and was a member of Heritage Baptist Church.
He married Beverly Cole Eastridge on June 29, 1957 in Triangle, Virginia.
Surviving with his wife are three daughters, Sheree Everhart (Preston) of Charles Town, WV, Lisa Kilmer (Keith) of Winchester, VA, and Shelia Eastridge of Winchester, VA; a brother, Glenn Eastridge of Fredericksburg, VA; seven grandchildren, Heather Cullinane, Holly Heffner, Jessica Lloyd, Jennifer Fletcher, Timothy Eastridge, Tiffany Eastridge, and Nicholas Kilmer; and eleven great-grandchildren.
His brother, Lynn Eastridge preceded him in death.
Scripture Reading:
Scripture Reading:
Though today is a difficult day, the scriptures make this promise to us:
1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah
The Bible also says:
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer:
Prayer:
Dear heavenly Father, we gather here today to remember the precious life of JC Eastridge. We also gather to say goodbye one last time and celebrate the life that he enjoyed here on earth and thank you for each precious moment and memory that we have had with him. Her life has touched so many in so many different ways. We pray that your peace and presence will be upon us during this time and we pray this in the name your Son, Amen.
Song:
Song:
Mansion over the Hilltop- Darlene Taylor
Sermon:
Sermon:
On Tuesday I had the privilege to sit down with the family and listen to them tell me a little about JC. Though I have been JC’s pastor for three years, I never knew what JC was like when he was untouched by dementia.
In fact, my first Sunday here as Pastor December 2, 2018 JC was one of the first people to come up and talk to me before the service. HE introduced himself, told me of his time working at Ft. Knox in the military and his commanding officer helping him to get a job with the phone company in Culpepper. (A story he would repeat to me often over the course of time.) But, then he said that his wife was recovering from surgery in a nursing home in Ft. Royal. To which I said, Id love to meet her and maybe we could go together to pray with her sometime. To which he said “OK, lets go after church.” I was a little taken back, but, being I was the new guy, I didn't want to say no, so I said “OK.” Following the service that day, I followed behind JC in a borrowed Geo Metro down the highway from here to Ft. Royal at about 80 MPH. (I struggled to keep up). I was introduced to Beverly, spent a few minutes with them talking, had prayer and left. I had no idea that JC was already suffering from dementia at that time and really wasn’t supposed to drive that far. I’ve thought back on that day many times this few weeks, with a chuckle. I was so trusting of a man with dementia that I followed him to a place I had never seen in my life. Because of our time spent together that day, JC will always hold a fond place in my heart.
But, while I was talking to Beverly and her daughters, Lisa said to me:
“When I think of Dad, I think of three words: God, Family, Church.”
These are the three words that incapsulate the life of JC Eastridge and they are profound words that describe a life well lived.
It is upon these three words Id like us to reflect today as we remember the life of JC Eastridge.
JC was the quintessential family man.
JC was the quintessential family man.
HE and Beverly met while he was wondering the halls of the high school where he had already graduated from and Beverly was attending. Apparently, Beverly caught his eye because he through something at her in order to get her attention. (Flirtatious) Apparently, she had caught his eye so much that he had a mutual friend of theirs introduce them. JC and Beverly were married in 1957 when he was 20 and she was 18 and spent 64 years together as husband and wife.
When it came to his kids, for the most pat, JC was a bit of a softy.
Lisa told me a story that she kept secret from her mom until the day that JC passed. Apparently, she got in trouble one day and Beverly was growing tired of being the one to discipline. So when JC got home she asked him to take Lisa into the bedroom and give her a spanking. JC dutifully marched Lisa into the bedroom, closed the door, turned around to face Lisa and said “Just pretend that Im spanking you and cry so mom wont know.” So she did, and that was their secret together until this week.
He got up early to take his daughters to events at school and made sure to attend every game and track meet. Something he would continue to do as his grandkids began to play sports as well.
His weekends would be spent taking the kids camping or working in the yard with his daughters and grandkids.
JC’s dedication to his family was evident in his last days at home and in the hospice facility as they were all gathered around him .
Jc was a devoted christian and a church member.
Jc was a devoted christian and a church member.
As a church member JC, for much of his life, was a vital part of the life of which ever church they belonged to. He helped build church buildings on missions trips. Gave sacrificially to meet needs, HE and Beverly would often cook large meals for church events, was baptized in the Shenandoah river and he and Beverly even went on a cruise hosted by Dr. Charles Stanley together. IF JC wasn’t at work or spending time with his family, he was at church, often together with his family.
He lived out the verse that says
4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
But, being a devoted church member isn’t what makes one a christian but a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and we know that JC had that personal relationship as he placed his faith in Christ alone for the salvation of his soul many years ago.
As we gather here this morning to remember the dear and precious life of JC Eastridge I know that many of you are dealing with mixed emotions. On the one hand, there are emotions of great sadness.
But on the other hand, there is great joy knowing that because of the relationship that JC had with the Lord Jesus Christ that he has already been in His presence.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
The relationship that JC had with the Lord Jesus Christ is a relationship that carried with it some wonderful promises.
1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
1.) Those with faith in Christ don’t have to fear death.
1.) Those with faith in Christ don’t have to fear death.
“Let not your heart be troubled.”
Fear comes when we don’t know what will happen to us when we pass from this world, but, for the believer we don’t have to fear because we know what will happen. We know that Christ has conquered death through the power of His own resurrection.
17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. 18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
For the believer in Christ, death does not mark only an ending of life here but also a beginning of life forever in the presence of Christ.
1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
JC in his final days would often say “I want to go home.” Even when he was at home with Beverly. I can’t help but think perhaps his soul was longing for heaven and today we know that JC is home with the Lord.
I don’t think JC was afraid, I think he was ready to be with the Lord.
2.) Jesus prepares a place for believers in Heaven.
2.) Jesus prepares a place for believers in Heaven.
“I go to prepare a place.”
4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Heaven is a place with no more sorrow or crying.
Heaven is a place where the hurts and disappointment of this world have no more sting.
Where the frustrations of life are replaced with unspeakable joys.
Where the pains of life are not permitted and the failures of life control us no longer.
A place with no more pain.
Heaven has no handicap parking places.
There are not pharmacies and prescriptions to fill.
Heaven doesn’t have hospitals, nursing homes, or rehabilitation centers. The days of aches and pains for JC are over, the dementia has ceased, all his pain has ended.
A place of Great beauty.
Allow me give you a small glimpse of what JC is looking at right now:
18 The construction of its wall was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. 22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. 1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.
3.) The Third Promise found in John 14 is that He Personally Receives Us.
3.) The Third Promise found in John 14 is that He Personally Receives Us.
The moment that JC took his last breath on earth, Jesus was there to welcome him. The first face he saw in heaven was the Lord Jesus. He was there with his arms stretched wide to receive JC and welcome him to his new mansion that his favorite hymn so beautifully sings about that Christ has prepared for all those who belong to Him.
4.) There is only one way to enter Heaven.
4.) There is only one way to enter Heaven.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
JC understood this. Before dementia took its toll, He understood that without a relationship with the Savior there was no hope of heaven.
He understood that Christ came to take away the sins of the world and that included his.
He believed in the greatest promise given to all found in three simple verses:
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
I know if JC cold speak to us today, his desire would be that each one of you have the same relationship he had with the Savior and many of you do.
However, there might be some of you this morning that have never given thought to your eternal future, but this morning you are asking yourself where would I go if I were to leave this world?
And I would like to take just a moment to share with you some scriptures that explain the promise that JC had because I’m confident he would want me to.
The first one we have already heard "Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me."
There is no other way to enter heaven it’s only through a personal relationship with Jesus.
It doesn’t have to do with religion
It doesn’t have to do with being a good person.
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Wouldn’t it be great to know that you will spend eternity in heaven well the scriptures say that we can know and that’s through a relationship with Christ.
The scriptures tell us that the only way to have a relationship with Christ is to place your faith in him today as JC did many years ago.
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Prayer
Prayer
Dear heavenly Father we once again thank you for the life of JC Eastridge. We thank you for all the lives that he has touched and the memories that he has left. And now Father, we ask that you comfort the many family members and friends that have gathered here and help us to always remember the frailty of life. For it’s in your Sons precious name we pray, Amen.
Graveside:
Graveside:
When JC closed his eyes in death he opened them in heaven in the presence of her savior.
For the scriptures tell us in :
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
Today JC is absent from his body yes but his soul is at home with the Lord and as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we can look forward to a time when soul and body will be reunited in Heaven for ever in perfection.
13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. 15 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 by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
We know that JC is home with the Lord because he had a testimony of placing her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a young person. The end of our journey through life on earth if you are a Christian is to be with God forever. When we come to Christ in faith, confessing our sin and asking His forgiveness we are made members of the household of God, and our destiny is made secure through faith.
And, because of this, today is not a permanent goodbye, for we know you will see JC again soon if the Lord is your savior like he was hers.
If you are not a believer in Christ, like JC was, do not put off that decision for one more minute. Trust Christ today.
So you can here the words of our Lord say “Well, done and welcome home to live in the presence of your Lord.”
Closing Prayer:
Closing Prayer:
Lord,
We turn to you today as our source of hope and strength. You are the giver of eternal life in the name of your son Jesus. Father, you know the grief that is in this room today. I pray you would give JC’s family and friends the comfort they need today and in the days ahead. Soothe their pain from this day forward as they continue life without Maxine. We commit him to you today. Amen.