Celebration of Life: Cindy Salas-- A Biblical Life
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 11 viewsNotes
Transcript
Intro:
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.
Everyone of us here has a unique responsibility as we celebrate the life of someone who brought life to everyone she met— Cindy Salas.
As we do, I want to title my message, [A Biblical Life]
I feel exceptionally blessed to have the honor to help share in this celebration. Like everyone in here, Cindy influenced my life and helped me become a better person.
I remember the first time I met Dan and Cindy Salas. It was 2012, I was an evangelist, holding a revival in the St. Louis metro. A lady in the church, Joy Laschober, came to me and told me about her friends who are missionaries.
She explained that they want you to come to Costa Rica and they are going to try to come tomorrow night to the service. Dan and Cindy had another appointment, but they slipped in at the end.
They never met me and I never met them, so we agreed to meet at Cracker Barrel in Sullivan before they returned to CR. I prayed God would give me confirmation that I was to go and He did.
But I wondered, what will it be like to spend ten days with them. As we sat at the table, we all were on our best behavior, especially Cindy. She was kind, quiet, and reserved.
Very politely she asked to be excused to use the restroom. When she came back she had this look on her face. Finally she broke out with laughter and told us.
I went to the restroom, washed my hands, and looked behind me and there were these odd things hanging from the wall, and it hit me, I WENT TO THE MEN’S RESTROOM!
He laughter filled the restaurant as she questioned why Cracker Barrel would mix up the restrooms! I caught a glimpse of the REAL Cindy Salas.
My story is unique to me, but it is similar in that most of can remember the moment we got to know Cindy.
The theme of this celebration comes from the book of Philippians. I want us to see how these few scriptures hand-selected by her family, describe the Cindy Salas we all knew and love.
I have three points, [A Biblical Passage], [A Biblical Person], and [A Biblical Place].
1. A Biblical Passage
1. A Biblical Passage
1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Whenever I read a passage of scripture, I start by asking myself two questions, who is the author and who is the audience?
Who wrote this passage and who was supposed to read this passage?
The author is this is the Apostle Paul, one of the greatest missionary forces of the early church.
While in prison, he wrote many churches, but this letter was written to the Philippians.
Sometimes when Paul wrote, he wrote to:
correct a problem
explain doctrine
give sound advice
But the letter to the Philippians is unique in that is a letter of friendship. He does not correct, admonish, or change the Philippians.
So as I read this passage, I kept in mind, Paul did not write them to convince them to:
encourage each other
comfort each other
fellowship with the Spirit
love each other
He wrote knowing they ALREADY were doing what was right. He merely wanted to encourage them to keep doing what they were already doing.
As I read and studied this passage, I thought, how fitting for Cindy. I almost think if God would have told Cindy to read this passage while she was one earth, it would have been from the stand point of:
this describes you Cindy. For decades you’ve done what the Philippians did. So let’s see why these few verses, this biblical passage, describes Cindy Salas.
Whenever we read a biblical passage, understanding the author and the audience, we can then reflect...
2. A Biblical Person
2. A Biblical Person
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
How could it be that a passage is so fitting of Cindy?
Why did her life align with this passage?
Because Cindy was a biblical person. From the time she was born, God began the process of the moment everything would change for her.
From the stories she told me, it was a process of God getting her to where she was when she went to heaven.
Even though she wore a white dress and was the prettiest girl at her confirmation, she wasn’t necessarily always in church. I say necessarily, because she did take the quarter her mom gave her and would walk to church, pass it, go to the store, get a candy bar and soda, and then stop by the church on the way home to get a bulletin.
But God had a plan for her.
In high school, she saw another student, who, in her words, had the thickest eyelashes, it looked like he might have been wearing eye liner or mascara. She looked at him, and told me, immediately I wanted to kiss him— the rest is history for Dan and Cindy’s love story!
When they married, the went back the next week to the church for their Sunday service. She explained they were hoosiers, but they knew they at least needed to go and say thank you.
In that service, God planted the seed of salvation in their hearts! At some point, the seed began to grow, and God began to conform Cindy into His image!
Cindy trusted in God’s word. She lived in such a way that showed, she did not try to change the Bible to suit her lifestyle, she let God change her lifestyle so it would align with the Bible!
So over time, through the work of the Holy Spirit, Cindy became this Biblical Person. But that is not to say God stripped her of her personality, traits, or quirks.
No, those were gifts He gave her that He would use for His glory!
Don’t be selfish—
Cindy did not have time to be selfish, there was always too much to do. That meant she might spend hours cooking for teams or outreaches.
She wasn’t selfish with her husband. She knew God’s hand was on Dan’s life. Therefore, she helped Dan, going with him or holding down the fort at home.
I asked her once, when Dan goes away for a few weeks or month to get a medical outreach ready, do you get scared being here by yourself?
She said, SCARED. I’m south St. Louis baby. I hear them in the coffee fields talking about they are going to break in our house. So I go to the veranda, grab my Smith and Wesson, shoot it in the air a couple of times and holler— I CAN HEAR YOU OUT THERE, IF YOU TRY ANYTHING, THERE IS MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!
Don’t try to impress others—
Cindy never put on heirs, she was who she was. She was honest and forthright. While Dan was leading the man who broke into their home to the Lord, helping get in a prison Bible school, and showing him Jesus, Cindy was doing her part.
She knew the lady who helped the man break into the house. So every time she passed by on the way to the market, she would slow down the vehicle, look out the window, and (motions), just to let her know she knew the whole story.
Cindy never tried to impress, but she did do everything with a spirit of excellence. Giving God her best.
Be humble—
She could bring us back down to reality really quick. If anyone began to get prideful or haughty, I can hear her— stop it now, we will NOT be glory robbers.
She realized everything they had was not theres, but it belonged to God. What a biblical mindset!
Look out for others interests—
We all know about Cindy’s knack for getting a bargain at a yard sale or Dollar Tree. But that was more than a hobby. She literally put other’s interests above her own.
That might instead of spending her money on herself, she would buy an outfit for a pastor’s wife, new sheets for their home, or kitchen supplies for a new home for a pastor.
I have watched her use our passport to get a better deal in David Panama, so we could make sure an interpreter’s children all had new bicycles.
She would stretch the dollar, not because she was tight, but because she wanted to steward God’s money to meet as many needs as possible!
How did she become such a biblical person?
She knew the person of the Bible! She knew Jesus. He was not a religious figure hanging on a wall in a church.
He walked with her
He talked with her
He empowered her
He used her
He helped her
He led and blessed her!
Her biblical life includes the fact that she was a biblical person. But now, she is no longer with us. What comes of a biblical person when they die? They go to...
3. A Biblical Place
3. A Biblical Place
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
There is a real place where the child of God goes when their life on earth is over. The moment Cindy came to this earth on May 26, 1956, God knew that June 6, 2021 would come.
While it caught us off guard, God was not surprised. In fact, He led Cindy through her entire life getting her to that moment when she would be absent in the body and IMMEDIATELY present with the Lord.
She is not in an intermediate state, waiting to meet Jesus. No, she is in a biblical place called HEAVEN!
Heaven is a real place, hell is a real place. She spent almost thirty years working tirelessly alongside Dan to empty hell and fill heaven!
God used her traits, her personality, her gifts, her experiences, and her talents to build the Kingdom of God.
We know what she did on earth, but what is she doing now?
What is it like for her to be in the biblical place?
First, we must discover why she is there. Cindy is NOT in heaven because:
She brought joy
she was unselfish
she was not impress others
she took care of others
NO, that is what she did on earth. She is in heaven for one reason and one reason only. She had the mind of Christ.
The moment Cindy repented of her sins and submitted her past, present, and future to God, she had this hope, there is a biblical place where she will spend eternity!
What did she do when she got there?
I like to think she walked past all of the her and Dan’s ministry influenced. Those from STL, Indiana, Alabama, and around the US.
She went past the Ticos and Ticas, Nicaraguans, Panamanians, on others from Central America.
She walked past those loved ones who had gone on before her.
And went before the Person of of the Bible, who has prepared a place for her. Because she knew:
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Therefore, she did not bow out of cohesion or consternation. No, she did it in love, pouring out her praise to the ONE who changed her life. TO the ONE who enabled her to change the lives of literally thousands!
And in that place of pure holiness, she is now in the presence of God, standing on holy ground, worshipping the Almighty who forever changed her life!
Close:
Who would have thought, a little blond haired girl from South St. Louis, would get to stand before the King of kings, and the Lord of lords.
Today is a celebration of life, but the celebration is so much more sweeter because Cindy had a Biblical life.
We read the biblical passage that described her as a biblical person, and now she is in this biblical place.
Could Cindy come back for a moment, I don’t think she would. But she gave her life wanting others to know, there is a place prepared for us.
So today, as we celebrate her life, we must evaluate our lives. When our time on earth is over, will we end up in the bIblical place called heaven?
Will there be a biblical passage that will describe us as a biblical person?
Will people be able to say, they lived a biblical life?
If the answer is now, I want to introduce you to the ONLY person worthy and able to make that a possibility.