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Art Kraft memorial

Welcome and Prayer

Folks, I am thankful to have the honor of helping lead our time today as we honor Art Kraft. I loved hearing his family talk about how he was a great guy. His laughter. His wit. His corny dad jokes and puns. Through out our time, we are going to see and hear examples of all that Art valued. In our time today, we will have an opportunity for you to share memories of Art. Sometimes you have a memory that is ready to go and sometimes you need some time to prepare. As you hear about Art today, may a memory come to you that can be shared. We will see pictures and sing songs that reflect what he loved. Most of all, my hope is that today you hear something that spurs you to say “I wish I could have known him more”.

Art loved the lord and so today we want to begin our time by opening up with prayer. Let us pray...

Pray:

POSSIBLE READING OF HIS LIFESTORY HERE (SHORT OBITUARY).

Scripture Reading -

Lamentations 3:22-26 , 31-33

Lamentations 3:22–26 NIV

22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Lamentations 3:31–33 NIV

31 For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. 32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. 33 For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.

Song: Amazing Grace

My Life Story Ready by Terry Kraft

Yet Not I but Christ in Me

Sharing Time (announcement mics)

Message of Hope

We have reflected on the life of Art Kraft and sought to honor his life and his memory. Through out our time today, his life has brought to our mind good memories and times of laughter and warmth because Art, as many have said, a great guy.

If his life brings to mind many pleasant thoughts, his death also confronts us with some harsh realities. THere are many times in life where Faith is essential but none more than on a day like today where death is faced.

In the few moments that we have, I would like to leave you and I with four reminders from the word of God regarding why faith in Him is so essential just as Art has pointed out today. These reminders, these truths are intended to bring comfort, hope and joy even on a day like today. They are offered to all but experienced by those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ.

The first reminder regarding faith is that

1. Faith Faces Death Squarely

Hebrews chapter 11 has often been referred to as the "Hall of Faith". It is a summary of the faith of many of the characters described in the Old Testament. While we find the word "faith" many times in this chapter, there is another word which is found alongside of faith--it is death.

Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Noah, Sarah, Joseph, Rahab....these legends of faith all had one thing in common.... While every one of these members of the "Hall of Faith" had faith, every one of them passed away without receiving the promises which they believed and acted upon in their lives.

We see, then, that biblical faith is that faith which faces death squarely, indeed, which looks beyond death. If people can say, "Where there's life, there's hope", the man or woman of faith can say, "Where there is death, there is hope", for faith is the basis for hope beyond death. Faith doesn’t shy away from this but faces it squarely.

2. Faith Takes Death Seriously

Faith does not deal with death by minimizing it, it deals with sin as a most serious matter.

In Roman’s we see that the wages of sin....it is death. Death is serious because it is a certainty for all people. Death is to be taken seriously because, as God says, "It is appointed unto men once to die as it says in (Hebrews 9:27).

Death is an irreversible step into eternity, an eternity which is one of eternal bliss in the presence of God for those that have put their faith and hope in the saving power of Jesus Christ. (cf. Luke 16:19-31) I love how it is referenced in Psalm 49:15

Psalm 49:15 NIV

15 But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.

The seriousness of death is indicated by our Lord's response to it. One of the few times that we are told the Lord Jesus wept was at the grave of Lazarus, a man whom He was shortly to call forth from the grave.

Jesus took His own death seriously as well, as can be seen from His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Death must be taken seriously, for it is the unavoidable consequence of sin.

3. Faith Enables the Christian to be Comforted, even to Worship God, When a Loved One Has Died

In the first chapter of the Book of Job, we are told of the tragic death of Job's children (Job 1:18-22). Job was a man of faith. He did not merely accept the news of his children's death, he fell to the ground in worship. What was it that enabled Job to worship, when all of his children died tragically, and (from a human point of view) prematurely?

Job's faith was evidenced in three ways. Job had faith in the power of God. Job believed in God's sovereignty, in the fact that God was in control.

He said, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD" (1:20). Job knew that his children were not his, ultimately, but God's. He knew that just as God had given his children life, God had also taken it away.

But further, Job had faith not only in the power of God (in His sovereignty, in His control), but in His person. Job's faith was rooted in the character of God. God was both powerful and good. Job, we are told, "did not sin nor did he blame God" (1:22). He did not see God as being in any way "at fault", as doing wrong in the death of His children. He was a God whom Job trusted. Thus he worshipped him, even in this time of tragedy.

There is one final dimension to Job's faith, as I understand this text. It is that Job was willing to trust God in his grieving even though he did not understand it. Job knew that God was good, and that God had taken his children in death. Job did not know why. Faith finds comfort in the power, in the goodness, and in the purposes of God, even though we do not understand them at the moment.

As we face the loss of Art, there are many questions to ask, there are many things we do not, at this moment in time, understand. But if we, by faith, have come to know God as our Savior, then we do know that He is in control, that He is good, and that His wisdom and grace in the passing of Art. And in this, that same God who is full of power and magesty draws near to you and I. Psalm 147:3

Psalm 147:3 NIV

3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Joshua 1:9 NIV

9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

4. Faith Views Death Through the Person and Work of Jesus Christ

Part of the reason why death is so difficult for men is because they fear death. We were not created to handle it. It does not compute.

The writer to the Hebrews speaks of the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ was in order that He "might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives" (Hebrews 2:15). Without our hope in Christ, we should rightly fear death. Many spend their lives avoiding the inevitable out of fear.

Christians no longer fear death because of their faith in Jesus Christ. He came to die in the sinner's place, to bear the penalty of death. He not only suffered God's wrath, He was raised from the dead, so that death no longer reigns over the Christian. Death is a defeated foe. Death holds no fear for those who have faith in Christ.

Paul looked at death as a deliverance, as a promotion (Philippians 1:19-26). These triumphant words of the apostle Paul, recorded in the 8th chapter of the Book of Romans, reveal faith's perspective of death:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 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 (Romans 8:31-39).

Today as you gather to celebrate a good man in Art Kraft, I would ask that you consider putting your hope in Christ. Having faith in God who offers hope in a relationship with Him and life everlasting.

let us pray.

It is Well