Jack Bowen Funeral
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“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
“When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.
“And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place;
and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went.
“Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.
“And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’
“They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’
“When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.
“When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius.
“When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner,
saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’
“But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?
‘Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.
‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’
“So the last shall be first, and the first last.”
As Many of you know Jack waited to the very last minute to put on Christ. According to this parable his reward is the same as anyone else’s. And some might say that is not fair. But you know what? None of us deserve heaven? None of us deserve the free gift of eternal life through the death burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I would say if you are here this morning and you are tempted to wait as long as you can before you give your life to Christ; please reconsider! Being in Christ is the greatest blessing you could ever receive. Gal. 3:27
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
for he who has died is freed from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
blessings:
freed from sin
hope of eternal life
never alone, never leave you or forsake you
brothers and sisters in christ to help in this journey we call life
strength and help from the Lord Himself
an inheritance which will not perish or fade away
heaven to be in God’s presence for all eternity
Jesus tells you this morning from Matt. 4:17
From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—
The reason being: Life is short and eternity is long
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.
Who understands the power of Your anger And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?
So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
None of us know how much time we have left. We don’t know what the circumstances of our death might be. Maybe sudden, unexpected, so repent today.
TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION
HOPE - When I think of Mrs. Mary and Belinda I think of two extraordinary women who remind me of the persistent widow
I know just like that widow Mary cried out Day & Night & the Lord heard that cry and gave Jack just enough time to make his life right with God. I pray that gives you hope. That maybe you have a love one in your life that needs the Lord. Pray as if their life depended on it and pray in hope. As stubborn as some may be there is always hope when we are with the Lord
I f youa re not in Christ, please don’t wait another day to get your life right with God
Today is the Day of Salvation! live your life in Hope!
Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jack has put off the perishable and has put on the imperishable - never to die again
death has lost its sing - death is just the next step to eternity
Jack has the last laugh when it comes to death because he has the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
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 not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one another with these words.
The bible describes death as sleep
jack is going to be first in line
We will shall always be with the Lord
therefore comfort one another with these words
May God’s Word give you comfort in the days and weeks to come