Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
You may be seated. Good afternoon to you. Thank you for being here and supporting this family. We're here to celebrate the life of Mary Sue Wright. Mary Sue lived 86 years and 278 days upon the earth. I try and count days because the Bible tells us that God numbers our days upon the earth. Nobody leaves this earth one day sooner nor one day later than what God has determined. Time is an interesting component of our existence. We're bound by time, our schedules are ordered by time, and yet eternity is a different matter. The Bible tells us that a day as to the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. So from eternity's perspective, a thousand years is as a day. There's a beautiful portrait up here of Doug and Mary Sue. And Doug has gone on ahead of Mary Sue about 10 years and they are reunited. And from eternity's perspective, from Douglas's perspective, about two minutes has passed since he's departed and left his wife here on this earth.
Now it's been 10 years as we mark time or more, but from eternity's perspective, just a couple of minutes. That's encouraging, isn't it? We've also gathered here to look to the Lord and to seek his comfort that he brings to us. And that comfort is ministered to us through others who've walked this similar path before.
We know what it is to experience earthly separation. Even as believers, there's a sorrow, there's an emptiness there. And yet we sorrow not as those who have no hope. Our hope is in the Lord, the giver and sustainer of life. So we're looking to him today to come to us and minister his peace and his comfort. His comfort will come to us through the scriptures, through the preaching. But as we've come together, we've come together to stand with this family, to encourage this family.
So will you join me as we look to the Lord. Our Father and our God, we thank you that you've revealed yourself in the scriptures as the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. We do thank you for the life of Mary Sue Wright, that she is in your very presence.
We have every confidence to believe that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. You worked in her heart and made her a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And she exemplified that in her life. And we thank you for that. We thank you for the grace of salvation.
Father, you know every heart that's gathered in this place today, who've known her and loved her. And we ask our God that you would cause your spirit to minister to the need of every heart as you know those needs to be. Lord, we are looking to you. We're not looking within, because as we look within, we don't find too much hope.
We agree with Paul who said, I know that is within me dwells no good thing. So our hope is sourced in you. And we ask our God that you would come to us as we celebrate the life of Mary Sue Wright. And we hear the scriptures read, and we hear the scriptures preached from, and we sing together. And I pray that as we engage our hearts and those activities that you would come to us and you would minister your peace and your comfort. Lord, we acknowledge that earthly separations are hard.
There's nothing easy about this. And yet we're told that it is appointed unto man once to die. And after this, the judgment. We ask our Father now to draw near to us, hear us through the merits of your dear Son, and meet our needs as you know them to be. And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name.
Amen. Take a hymnal in front of you there. We're going to sing together three stanzas of amazing grace. Stanzas one, stanzas three, and stanzas six. And when you get to stanza six, when we've been there 10,000 years, there have been times where I've sat where you've sat, and we've sung that hymn together.
In my mind, 10,000 years, there's no difference in God's view whether we say 10,000 years or 10 million years. And I've often sung when we've been there 10 million years. Bright shining is the sun. So let's stand and sing as I lead us in our singing. Amazing grace, oh, sing the sound, and sing our praise and join me in. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was found, but now I see. Let me make my choices change, I have already found. This grace has formed me, sing the song, and praise will keep me home.
We've been there 10,000 years, bright shining has the sun. We hope and sing to see God's grace, and when we first began. You may be seated. At this time, Charlene is going to come and share a poem with us. Yes, this is a poem, if you can't hear me, let me know.
This is a poem I ran across 11 years ago, and it's taken from a 19th century sermon, and it's not titled. I am standing upon the seashore, a chef at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She's an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud, just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, there she's gone.
Gone where? Gone from my side, that is all. She's just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side. And she is just as able to bear the load of living freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, there she's gone. There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, here she comes. And that is dying.
Thank you. Oh, Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars.
I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art.
And when I think that God, his son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin. When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. I hope you made a connection between the hymn that we sang and the solo you just heard. We sang Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
Well, how's that possible? A great God, right? A great God. Only God can dispense grace.
Only God can save a sinner. And I'm thankful that Douglas and Mary Sue were members of this church and were brought into membership and professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and exemplified that they knew him. And that makes it a whole lot easier for the pastors and for those of you that knew her to know that she is with the Lord. At this time we want to turn to the scriptures and read a couple of passages. I want to begin with a passage that God has given to us for a number of reasons, but at the end of this passage it says, Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
So what I'm about to read to you is given to us for the purpose of bringing comfort to us. This is 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13. Paul's writing to the church at Thessalonica and he says, 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. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. Let me pause and just say a word that the Bible speaks of death for a believer that they are asleep in Jesus. That is very, very helpful for us, helps us understand why death is necessary. When we are weary and we're tired and we are fatigued, what do we do in this life?
We retire and we get sleep, six, eight hours of sleep. And the purpose for that is that when we rise again, our energy, our strength is renewed. Our sister went asleep in Jesus a few days ago and she awoke in heaven more invigorated, more alive, stronger than she's been her whole life. Wonderful to be asleep in Jesus. Paul goes on, he says, 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 proceed those who are asleep.
For the Lord himself would 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. 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. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. And then a familiar passage, Ecclesiastes chapter three. To everyone, or excuse me, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted. On the back of your program is Psalm 23. It's for you to take this program with you and have the scriptures there to read, to go to and read and meditate upon, but let me read them in your hearing. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.
My cup runs over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let me just say before I share some thoughts with you today, if you did not get a program, we ran a little short.
There will be some at the Usher station when we leave. Three things stand out to me when I think of the home stretch of Mary Sue Wright's journey in this life. To our amazement, her strong heart continued to beat way beyond what ICU doctors and the folks at hospice predicted. The second thing was her sense of humor. When her heart monitor would make its beep, beep, beep sound, Mary Sue would respond with her own beep, beep, beep, and then she'd grin. I told her, I think you got the thing memorized, Mary Sue. Later, she responded with a beep, beep.
I brought that to her attention, and she just laughed as though she was testing to see if I noticed the switch. The third and most important thing that stood out to me was her calmness and her trust that God was in control. Her sweet spirit did not go unnoticed by those who cared for her. I would look into her eyes and what you saw there was contentment and peace and confidence in the Lord. This leads me to say that to varying degrees, death holds some dread for a majority of people, but for those who are placing their entire trust in who Jesus is and what he accomplished, you look much differently than those who know nothing of his grace. Christians can dread the unknown path of their own death.
Like others, they can have the concern of leaving family behind, but they also know by faith the confident expectation that all that God has promised will soon be theirs. As with all Christians, that expectation includes saying Christ, but for Mary Sue, it also includes being reunited with Douglas and other loved ones who trusted in Christ as their Savior. And beloved, I can think of no better way to honor the Lord and Mary Sue than to have her memorial service make much of the gospel that gave her this quiet, confident, contented peace.
In John 14, Jesus is speaking to his disciples before the events leading to his crucifixion. And I truly believe that what I'm about to share was evident in the life of Mary Sue Wright. So as we go through this, keep in mind, I do believe that all of these things were evident in her life because of her relationship with Christ.
And that leads me to the first thing. Jesus offers a personal relationship. He said, You believe in God, believe also in me. Believe in me refers to personal relational trust.
When you trust someone, you're willing to put into their care that which you value most. And there's nothing more valuable than your eternal soul. Jesus said, What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
Or what will the man give in exchange for his soul? You drop down to verse six, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Romans 10, nine and 10 put it this way. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with a heart, one believes unto righteousness and with a mouth confession is made unto salvation. You know, we are warned in the Bible. It says, Be not deceived, brethren.
He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. Each of us needs to look at our lives and ask the question, Do I really truly know Christ in my heart or just my head? Judas had a head knowledge. Judas had a head knowledge. Is that all you have or do you have a heart knowledge?
Now we expand that out. Confessing the Lord Jesus involves personal conviction that he's God the Son, who took upon himself the likeness of men, who lived a perfect life, who died a substitutionary death to atone for the sins of all who believe in him. That word believing in your heart or the phrase believing in your heart means that God raised him from the dead. And as to embrace the very core of your being, that Christ was victorious over sin and death.
Beloved, when he arose from the grave, it was as though God was giving his stamp of approval upon what Jesus accomplished. There's three things that we need to understand. Yes, your mind is involved. Your mind understands the gospel of Christ's perfect life, sacrificial death and victorious resurrection. You understand that.
But it goes beyond that. Your emotions embrace the truthfulness of those facts with personal sorrow over sin and joy over God's mercy and grace. I know in my own life I'm challenged periodically to think of Christ in Gethsemane, in the emotional agony that he suffered to the point that the Bible says he'd sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. It does me good to remember the physical agony that Jesus Christ went through in Gavitha, where the Bible says in Isaiah that they could not even recognize him. They were astonished at his visage, his appearance. For people who were used to seeing others crucified, it's a shocking statement when they said they were astonished at his appearance, his physical agony in Gavitha. But I think most importantly, it does me good to think of Christ's spiritual agony on Calvary.
Where do you get that? Can you imagine God the Son, God the eternal Son, crying out to God the Father, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Your will submits to Christ and trust in him alone for salvation, and that results in keeping his commandments out of love for his sacrifice on your behalf. Let me ask you a question. Who could deny that Mary Sue Wright had a personal relationship with Jesus?
I don't think anybody. Not only does he offer a personal relationship, but Jesus speaks of a place that he's preparing. In verse 2, he says to his disciples, I go to prepare a place for you, and beloved, we cannot imagine what that place will be like. Paul wrote in First Corinthians 2 9, I has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. For Christians, the best is yet to come.
Mary Sue Wright is now experiencing joy unspeakable and full of glory in the presence of her Savior. In verse 3, Jesus promises a reunion. He says, I will come again and receive you to myself. Pastor K has alluded to that. We do not know the day nor the hour of his return, but beloved, those who linger in coming to Christ are flirting with eternal disaster.
You're not promised tomorrow. Jesus then reveals the proof of a saving relationship. How do you know you're saved? He said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Verse 21, he says, he who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. You must know his commandments in order to keep them.
Years ago, when Mary Sue worked in our Awana program, our children's program, she consistently stood out for memorizing scripture. And our love for Christ is reflected in loving our neighbors as ourselves, as he's commanded. In verses 16 and 17, Jesus speaks of the enabling presence of the Holy Spirit.
He says, and I will pray the Father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever. The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. It was evident to all who knew Mary Sue that the spirit of truth dwelled within her.
And again, folks, I think just looking into her eyes in those final moments of consciousness before she drifted off to sleep, looking into her eyes, you saw the fact that she had the presence of God, the Holy Spirit with her. And then lastly, Jesus bestows a peace that the world cannot know. He told his disciples, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives I to you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. When we have peace with God through Christ and faith in him, we're given the abiding peace of God. Charlene and Marissa and Jonathan, I truly believe, I truly believe that your sweet mom had the peace with God through Christ. And that peace of God was reflected in her countenance as she approached the door to eternity.
No fear, just faith. The author of Hebrews 13 5 states that the reason for this grace is found in the promise of God's presence. The Amplified Bible tends to get into the meaning of the words and give it a little more depth. The Amplified Bible states, God has said, I will never under any circumstances desert you, nor give you up, nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless, nor will I forsake or let you down or relax my hold on you, assuredly not. He said that not for his benefit, for the benefit of his children.
He has promised in no way to ever desert us. There's a sobering side to this sharing of the gospel. No one will have a part in the place that Christ is preparing without the personal relationship that he's offering.
Nor will they enjoy the reunion that he's promised all who demonstrate their love for him. For those who trust in Christ, there's the enabling presence of the Holy Spirit and the peace to see them through the trials and tears of life. In closing, I'm sure that Mary Sue would want all of those she loved to heed the message of this poem. Please understand that merely learning the facts about Jesus in your head, like Judas did, will result in condemnation. True believers love his word in their hearts, seek to live his word in their habits, and as we have seen with Mary Sue write, they love and live the word in a way that will show up in their history.
When you reflect upon Mary Sue and her life over the years, you will think of times that she reminded you that she indeed is a Christian. I want you to listen carefully to this poem as we close. In God's eternal plan, there lies the time when time shall cease, when that which is shall always be his judgment, his release. No time for that which might have been, no time to seek Christ's face for those who spurn the gospel call and shun God's means of grace. Boast not that you may come someday to kneel before the cross, that you may yield your rebel will, avoiding Anas' loss. The breath that you presume will voice repentant faith in him may never come, and you will die in trespass and in sin. This is the day to flee by faith through Christ, who has atoned for scarlet sins of all who trust in his shed blood alone.
It is at the cross, they are justified with rasp, dread, wages paid, that you redeemed and reconciled will find your debt is paid. No more estranged as enemy, but now God's child by choice, saved by his wondrous grace through faith, love drew you to his voice. You may invest with gratitude the time that God may give, and know true peace and purpose if you look to Christ and live. Beloved, those who trust in Christ as Savior will be reunited with Mary Sue Wright. Shall we pray together? Father, we thank you that you are indeed the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, and we thank you that you have told us he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
We commend this family to you and ask that you would draw near to them, that you would minister to them your peace, your comfort, that you would remind them of the fond memories they have of their mother as she has left this world. Lord, we are amazed about the spiritual reality that escapes our physical eyes. She left this world richer than the wealthiest multi-billionaire who lives on this earth today because she is rich toward God. And you've promised an inheritance reserved in heaven for her that's incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away.
And we wonder how that can be. And it is because your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty may be made rich. So we thank you for enriching our sister, that she was rich in Christ, and that you have received her in heavenly glory. But in the meantime, our Father, we are still on this earth, and we ask our Father that you would have mercy on this family, that you would minister your comfort to them, and that the gospel of grace would come to them in saving power for any who do not know you. Father, in the days and weeks and months that remain, we pray that you will cause this family to reflect warmly upon what has been said today about their mother.
Mary Sue was who she was because of the grace of God. That you came to her in her early years, and she was transformed by the grace of our Savior. You made her a child of yours, and she walked with you through this earthly sojourn, and she was received into your glory a few days ago. Father, thank you for the gospel of free grace. Thank you for our sister and for the confidence we have that she is with you. We commend this family to you and ask you to minister to their needs as you know them to be, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. . .
