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Funeral Bumper Vid
Welcome back to Redemption Church in Plano TX! My name is Chris Fluitt. I am glad for everyone in the room and everyone connecting with us online.
Dearly beloved we are here today to lay some things to rest… We are in a new series called Funeral.
Funeral
When you tell someone that you are going to or coming from a funeral, you will always hear someone say “I am sorry,” “Oh no. my condolences, or “I am sorry for your loss.”
Funerals mark some of the saddest moments of our lives, but over the next few weeks we are going to learn the spiritual art of surrendering, receiving peace, and continuing to live.
Today I want to talk to you about the first funeral.
What was the first funeral you remember? Text our anonymous textline – 214-856-0550.
The first funeral I remember was my uncle Lyndon. I was young and the only thing I really remember about my Uncle Lyndon was that he looked like the President Ronald Reagan. My uncle Lyndon had jet black hair and to me favored the guy who was always on TV they called the president. I really thought my uncle was the president.
I’ll never forget the strange experience of walking into a church and everyone was quiet and somber, and realizing there was a strange neat looking box at the front of the room. I can still remember walking past the casket and being surprised that the president was in this shiny box taking a nap.
I didn’t know how to feel when I was told that we wouldn’t be able to see uncle president anymore. I’m not sure I understand how I feel today.
When do you think the first funeral was? Who invented the funeral?
First Funeral
Do you know about the first funeral? Do you know anything about the first funeral in the Bible?
Adam & Eve had sinned and were removed from the Garden of Eden. They had 2 sons: Cain & Able.
Genesis 4:8 (NIV) Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
The first murder was Cain killing his brother in Genesis 4. Only 88 verses into your Bible a young man cowardly lead his unsuspecting brother into a field and ambushed him.
Your Bible never gives us the reaction of Adam & Eve. How did they find out that one of their sons had died at the hands of the other? We do not know. The whole scenario is left to our imagination.
You don’t need much of an imagination to picture Eve. God had told her that she would have pain in child birth… but I imagine that the pain and anguish she felt at the realization of Able’s death was the greatest she ever experienced in her life. Can’t you see her tears and hear her agony as Adam instinctively tries to hold her and keep her from falling to the ground?
What do you do with a dead body? Somehow the first man & woman held the first funeral.
Funerals are strange. We say that we went to someone’s funeral, but funeral’s don’t serve any purpose for the dead. Funerals are for the living, not the dead.
Funerals are for the living, not the dead.
Funerals are an opportunity for the living to honor, remember, and lay to rest, the dead.
When Able died… It was Eve who had a funeral. It was Adam who had a funeral.
Today I want to tell you how to survive your funeral.
How to survive your funeral
How do you survive great loss and disappointment?
Many have not survived the death of a marriage… the laying to rest of career aspirations… as a dream dies many have felt their hearts fail…
How do you survive your funeral? As you see life pass to death and the remains lowered into the grave, many of us die personal deaths within ourselves.
The wise Solomon grew cynical late in his life. Seeing all his disappointments, and experiencing losses & struggles… seeing many good people die… Solomon was brought to say some dark things about life & death…
Ecclesiastes 9:4 (NIV) Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!
Ecclesiastes 9:5 (NIV) For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten.
Ecclesiastes 9:6 (NIV) Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.
You live & you die… and once you die everything about you vanishes; there is no reward… These were the words of a wise man who lost hope.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 (NIV) and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12:8 (NIV) “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless!”
I swear the group, Kansas, used this verse to write the words, “Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind.”
Solomon is saying, in the end all you are just goes somewhere else. The wise king says our flesh goes back to dust and our spirit goes back to God, so what is the point…? Everything is meaningless.
It sounds to me like King Solomon had a sick heart. He added these poetic words in Proverbs.
Proverbs 13:12 (NIV) Hope deferred makes the heart sick…
It seems like he may have not survived his own funeral. He may have lost hope. He had riches, power, women, the palace… but it was all meaningless.
How to survive your funeral
When I went to my uncle president’s funeral, I did not understand what I was seeing.
When Eve looked down upon slain Able, I am not sure she understood that what she was witnessing was possible. No one had ever died before.
How does someone survive this moment? Some of you hearing my voice today have experienced this moment.
You looked your doctor in the eyes, and he told you are sick.
You received the foreclosure letter.
You picked up the phone and heard tragic news.
You had to declare bankruptcy and close your business.
You have attended your own funeral.
Your Bible gives 3 steps for you to survive your funeral today. Just because you have laid someone or something to rest, does not mean you can’t continue to live.
Step One – Don’t be alone
People who are depressed and those who are considering suicide often isolate themselves from others. Their suicide notes are often filled with feelings of loneliness and isolation.
Those who die, leave the land of the living. If you are growing distant from those who live around you, it means you are withdrawing from the land of the living.
Genesis 4:25 (NIV) Adam knew his wife…
Eve lost her son Able. Eve lost her other son Cain, because of his murderous act. Experiencing that loss could have caused her to crawl right into that grave with Abel, BUT EVE STILL HAD ADAM.
Step One – Don’t be alone
You are not alone. Don’t be alone!
Be with loved ones, friends, brothers & sisters as often as possible. You are loved. Do not be alone.
The enemy, who wants to steal your life, will always try to isolate you. Don’t let him do that. Don’t be alone.
Adam & Eve survived their funeral together. “Adam knew his wife.” We know that this was more than just having knowledge of each other. They were not surface level, they were intimate. They were bare and vulnerable before one other.
Find someone to talk to. Come get prayer in this altar. Go past the surface level with others.
Be a part of a connect group, or a support group.
Call someone and say those difficult words… “I am not doing well. Can we talk?”
Find a Bible based counselor.
BUT whatever you do. DON’T BE ALONE.
Step One – Don’t be alone
Step Two – Live again
“Again” is such a powerful word. The word again is in your Bible again, and again, and again! It appears 1,504 times in scripture.
Genesis 4:25 (NIV) Adam knew his wife again…
When you have been hurt, your biggest fear is that you will be hurt again. You have probably heard these words – “I can’t go through that again.”
The truth is that it is completely possible to experience a pain again. But you can also feel peace again, joy again, laughter again, life again.
Eve felt life kick inside her again.
Eve felt the pains of child birth again.
Eve heard the cry of a baby boy again.
Eve held that gift in your arms again.
Until you decide to try again, you will never survive your funeral.
Step One – Don’t be alone
Step Two – Live again
Step Three – Receive Divine Compensation
Eve, in a single day lost 2 sons. You could say she had a double funeral for she lost both Cain & Able. But at some point faith rose up within Eve.
Remember that this was the same Eve who doubted the truth of God, and believed a serpent instead. This is the Eve that seemed faithless in the Garden of Eden. I want to show you how faith will resurrect you from your own funeral.
Genesis 4:25 (NIV) Adam knew his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”
She gave birth, and she named him. By faith she chose the name Seth.
The name Seth means “compensation.”
Faith declares that there is no loss so great that God can’t compensate you into full gain.
I am not belittling the loss. The loss is great. It is tragic, the losses you can experience… but God’s divine compensation is greater than all loss. God’s power to compensate is greater than any loss.
God’s power to compensate is greater than any loss.
Whatever loss you are experiencing today, God can help you overcome.
Your life is a large story filled with loss after loss… but in the end you will see God overcome every loss.
The Bible is one large story filled with loss after loss… but in the end we see God overcome every loss.
Eve experienced great loss, but God’s ability to compensate was greater. Because God gave her compensation through Seth, her gain was greater than her loss. Seth fulfilled the promise of a savior who would defeat the enemy and redeem mankind. The compensation of God would overcome Able’s death… Eve, you are going to see Able again! The compensation of God has the power to overcome Cain’s sin… Listen Eve, God’s power gave Cain the opportunity to repent and live again. The compensation of God has the power to lift your husband, Eve, out of a grave, and to lift you Eve out of a grave, as well.
God’s power to compensate is greater than any loss.
The thief, the devil, has done a lot of killing, stealing, and destroying… The devil has caused a lot of loss.
John 10:10 (NIV) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Look at the promise of the compensator. He has come to bring you a life to the full, overcoming every loss.
Eve was a woman of faith. At that grave Eve released her son in the tomb, but she held onto the promise of God.
God promised her that her seed would defeat the enemy. God told Eve that hope would come from her seed.
She survived his funeral because she reached back and took hold of the promises of God.
I know you either have experienced loss, you are experiencing loss, or you will experience loss. But I am here today to tell you to hold on to the promises of God. Every one of His promises is true. All His promises compensate beyond your loss.
There are over 5,467 promises in God’s word. Every one of them is true.
- He is trustworthy.
- He is unchanging
- He has the power to fulfill all His promises
- He is faithful
- He is good
- He gives life
- He gives the life of His son for you
- He gives you the spirit
- He will always forgive you
- He will never leave you
- He says your latter will be greater than the former
- He says you will be blessed
- He gives victory
- He gives a crown
- He says no grave can hold your body down
- He gives joy in the morning
- He turns grave clothes into party clothes… He turn morning into dancing
- He is coming back. He will take you to His side.
- He will allow you to sit with Him in His throne!
God compensates better than my ability to lose. You know what you call someone who wins more than they lose? You call them a winner! Through Jesus Christ you are a winner!
Philippians 4:19 (NIV) And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
Your needs… This is everything you lack and everything that is loss to you. Compare you need to..
His Riches… His riches are greater. His wealth overflows your poverty. His healing defeats all sickness. His life overcomes all death.
Look up from that funeral scene and look up to a God of promises! Every promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Thank you, Jesus.
You are not alone.
You can live again.
You can receive compensation from God that can overcome all loss.
Because He lives I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives all fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future.
Life is worth the living just because He lives.
musician
Realizing God’s compensation will cause you to re-evaluate what gain is.
Philippians 3:7 (NIV) But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
Philippians 3:8 (NIV) What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
What I used to count as gain I now count as loss. Without Jesus it is all loss.
Without Jesus the words of King Solomon are true… everything is meaningless without Jesus. There is no reward with Jesus. We will only lose without the Lord of the resurrection.
…but if you HAVE CHRIST that is true gain. Do you have Christ today?
Can you say the words of that song, life is worth the living just because He lives?
What losses are you facing? It is time to live!