Milton, thank you. I appreciate
that so much. I talked to Didi the other day,
and we were talking about the service, how it would go. And I told her, I said, well,
here's what I want to do. I want to have Milton involved
with this. Really, the best thing to do
is just ask Milton to preach it. That'd be the best thing
to do. But I felt that it was right for me to try to preach
this funeral. I still wanted Milton in it.
And today when we had services there at Kitchens Creek, he got
up and started making comments like that. And I thought that's
what I want right there. I want somebody close to mom
and dad that would get up and say some things that or from
the heart. And I do, I appreciate those
words so very much. I'm so thankful for all of you
that's here. I appreciate the effort that
was made. It means a lot to me and I know
it means a lot to our family. So many of you are family. It's
so good to see all the family again. I want to say a few words
today. out of the book of Acts chapter
11. There's an amazing truth that
is set forth in the scripture that's only understood when the
Spirit of God has been pleased to give what the scripture refers
to as a seeing eye. Proverbs verse 12 of chapter
20 says, the hearing ear and the seeing eye. The Lord hath
made, that is, the Lord has accomplished, the Lord has appointed, the Lord
has bestowed, even both of them. Hearing ear and a seeing eye. Now, it's natural. We have some
natural senses. And hearing and seeing, two of
those natural senses, those gifts that have been given to men and
women in general, But the spiritual sense of hearing, seeing, to
hear the voice of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ said in
John 10, 27, He said, My sheep hear My voice. And I know them. And they follow Me. And you know
somebody would ask you, now what do you mean you hear the voice?
The sheep hear His voice. Explain that to me. I can't explain
that to you. I don't know how to explain that.
I can just tell you that in the Scriptures, in the heart, in
Providence, God's people hear the voice of the Lord. I've never
heard Him with this, but you hear. But whenever the
Lord is pleased to reveal and you see something, or you hear
something, something that magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ, you say
that's the voice of the Lord right there. That's God's voice.
Now today we've come to remember and to pay our respects to a
very special lady. To many of you here, a friend. Some of you here, Aunt Marion. to all of us, granny, but to
four of us, a mother. A mother that loved us, taught
us, cared for us, listened to us. I thought about this. This is
personal here. I'm sure she did it for all y'all
too. A mama that put Band-Aids on when we needed them and often
when we didn't. but just made it feel better, a mama. But just as we were able to see
with natural eyes and behold to hear with natural ears, to
experience the tenderness of her kindness to us and what we
learn Now, I will say this, and my brothers and sisters will
understand what I'm saying. Mama moved up after Dad died
in 06. Mom wanted to move to West Virginia.
That's where I was. I'd been there a few years. And
she wanted to move to West Virginia. So Glenda and I came and got
her, packed up all of her stuff in the car, moved her to West
Virginia. And I had the privilege. to be
able to see her, talk to her, go in there and pick at her,
virtually every day. And I had that joy of, you know,
I'd try to FaceTime her, let her, you know, talk to the kids. But I experienced and just learned to rest, just to rest. Mom and Dad had a lot of stuff
here. Had a lot of things. It came
down to one room in an assisted living facility.
One room. And all the restaurants and all
the aluminum company and all the land out there in Roe Gully
and stuff like that, it came down to one room. And she was so happy. She was
so content. She said, they feed me. They
give me my medicine. These girls bathe me. She said,
I've got everything I want. I got this window right here.
Just look out at it. She'd watch the cars go by. And
I thought, it's all coming down to that. And she'd never know
what I learned. just watching her be content. Well, again, just as I was able
to see her and hear her, natural eyes, natural ears, and even
then experience the tenderness, tell me how she felt. There was something that I was
able to see that far exceeded anything that I could see with
my natural eye. I saw what the scripture refers
to as the grace of God, the accomplishment
according to the Lord's good pleasure, God's grace. We talk about God's grace. In
the book of Acts chapter 11, I'm going to make a read this
passage of scripture and then make a few comments out of the
scriptures that lead up to it. There was a man named Barnabas
and he went to a place called Antioch and here's what verse
23 says, who when he came and had seen the grace of God was
glad and exhorted them all with purpose of heart that they'd
cleave unto the Lord. How did he get to that point
right there? What led up to him coming to
this place called Antioch? Well, verse 19 says that they
were scattered. What had happened, there was
a man named Stephen. And a man that set forth the
glorious truth of God's grace, God's mercy to undeserving sinners. And some Jews that heard him,
it made them mad. And he was exhorting the Lord
of Glory. And they got so mad at him that
they came on him and gnashed on him with their teeth. Took
him out, stoned him. Stoned him. And while he was
being stoned, he said this, I see the Son of Man standing. He said, Lord, lay not this charge
to their account. From that stoning right there,
there was a persecution of the Christians. And it says in verse
19, from that persecution. Now, they which were scattered
abroad upon the persecution, or because of the persecution,
that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Pharncy, And Cyprus,
Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.
And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when
they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching
the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was
with them. And a great number believed and turned unto the
Lord. Then tidings of these things
came into the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and they
sent forth Barnabas. that he should go as far as Antioch. Now, these that were being persecuted,
they were being persecuted as a direct result of what had happened
to Stephen. So they were being scattered.
And the very thing that the Jews were trying to stop, they wanted
them to quit preaching is what they wanted them to do. Just
be quiet. And the very thing that they
wanted to stop, they were promoting. They didn't realize it. They're
running these people out of town and all they're doing is where
they're going, they're continuing to preach. They kept preaching
the truth as it was in the Lord Jesus Christ. And some of these
that were being scattered, they came to this city Antioch. And
he preached to the Grecians there. Now they had been preaching just
to the Jews only for a while. Then they started preaching to
some of the Greeks there, some of the Gentiles, and an amazing
thing happened. Verse 21 that we just read, the
hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and
turned unto the Lord. Obviously the Lord had been pleased.
before the foundation of the world to show mercy to those
who believed and turned unto the Lord, for salvation is of
the Lord. Salvation is by the grace of
God, not by works of righteousness that we've done, but according
to His mercy. According to His grace, He saved
us. So when the Lord was pleased
to bless His Word, that's the key. Here's what we do, we preach
the gospel. God's going to have to bless
it. I don't have any ability or power
to convert anybody. But they were doing what the
Lord had called them to do and the Lord blessed it. And people
believed and knew that the Greeks, the Gentiles, they were preaching
to just Jews. But then the Greeks started believing. And that news got back to Jerusalem. God saved some Gentiles. And
I'm glad for that. Ain't nobody in this congregation
today but Gentiles. I mean, you may be an Orthodox
Jew, and I just don't know it, and if you are, well, I'm sorry,
but I'd say by and large, everybody in this congregation is Gentiles.
God was pleased to save some Gentiles. And it got back. And the tidings of these things
came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem. And that's why
they sent Barnabas. Go check this out. Go and check
out what we're hearing in his soul. And so he did. He went. And when he came to
Antioch, The Scripture says, and that's that verse I read,
when he came and had seen the grace of God, he saw the grace
of God, he was glad, and exhorted them all with purpose of heart
that they cleave unto the Lord. He saw the evidence of God's
work in hell deserving sinners. They didn't trust themselves. They trusted Christ. They didn't
trust in their works, in their ability. They didn't see themselves
as worthy. They saw themselves as vessels,
objects of God's mercy. unable to do anything for themselves.
That's seeing the grace of God. For by grace is a man saved,
a woman saved. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourself. It's the gift of God. He saw
some men and women know by divine revelation that the result of
their conversion was according to God's will. God's purpose. And he saw that renewing and
regenerating and illuminating grace abound in them. They were sheep that loved Christ
and the message of God's sovereign grace. Worshipped God in the
spirit and had no confidence whatsoever in their flesh. The Lord was pleased. Many years
ago. I don't know how long ago. But Granny, again, we all called her Granny.
That's kind of funny because in West Virginia, they'd hear
me calling her Granny when she went to that little, you know,
home that she was in, assisted living, and she was my mama. You know, I called her Granny.
Everybody at the church called her Granny. Everybody called
her Granny. She was Granny to everybody. But Granny, she was born in South
Louisiana, Ploshaville. Ploshaville, Louisiana. And came
up out of basically the swamps of South Louisiana. By the grace of God, the Lord
was pleased to reveal himself to her. And from that, I mean,
she believed God. And she moved, when she moved
to West Virginia, the thing I saw was she continued The scripture
says that concerning God's people, they're kept by the power of
God through faith, ready to be revealed in the last time. And
it was my privilege to see her, not to take away anything from
y'all. I know y'all weren't there every day, but to be able to
see her and see her continuing, and she'd be the first one to
tell you. She said, wasn't anything I did, but to behold the grace
of God, to take and pluck one out of the dregs of bondage of
sin, to take a bran plucked out of the fire, and to behold the grace of God,
was a joy to me. To be able to see her and to
visit with her and fellowship in the Lord. I can tell you I
had as much fun picking at my mama as I ever had with any of
you. And I picked on a lot of you.
And I enjoyed it. I really did. I loved you. I
loved you. And I picked on her as much as I picked on anybody.
She picked back. She was good at it. But in all of the of the
lighter times. There were still those precious
moments, those precious times of being able to fellowship with
her. To be able to enjoy in speaking with her concerning the things
of the Lord. And not talking about, not talking
about things that we were proud of, that we had done, but talking
about The sustaining grace of God, thanking God that we were
what we were by God's grace, by God's mercy. To see the grace
of God. Barnabas came to Antioch and
the scripture says that when he came, the scripture says he
was glad. He was glad. John said, 3 John 1, 4, I have
no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. I would think this thought would
go through my mind as mom began to get weaker and weaker. I would
think to myself how my heart rejoices. It rejoices being able
to hear her express the graciousness and her thankfulness that the
Lord would save her in spite of her. Made me glad. Made me
able to come to this moment right here and to rejoice. And I thank God to be able to
know. In my heart, Milton, I believe
this. She gave a good confession of
faith in Christ Those of you that know me, really
know me. If I didn't mean it, Gabe, I wouldn't say it. As much
as I love her, I wouldn't say it. If I didn't believe it. But I have a good hope. He saw
the grace of God. And he was glad. Oh, and thankful. Thankful when God's pleased to
take a sinner. a sinner. And as sweet as she
was, I'm telling you, all of you have expressed your love
for her and thankfulness for her. Listen, I thank God for
her too. But I was so thankful that the Lord would take her.
I knew this day was coming. I kept watching it and I kept
seeing it. Talked to the hospice nurses and they'd tell me and
all this kind of stuff. I'd try to let Paul Howard Deedy
know and keep them posted. I knew it was coming. But still,
in my heart, I was glad. I was glad because
I know that her end is going to be just like my end. There's
coming a time that I'll be me. I'll be there. I was thankful. He came, had
seen the grace of God, and He was glad. And He exhorted them
all with purpose of heart. Set your heart to this. Set your
heart. Let this be your purpose. The desire of your heart. Purpose
of heart. They would cleave unto the Lord. In Genesis chapter 32. It was just cleaving. It came
to my mind when I was thinking about this service this morning. Genesis 32, verse 24-25. There was a man named Jacob.
And Jacob, by the grace of God, was left alone. Here's what it
said, "...and Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man..."
This man was the Lord of Glory himself. This was the Lord of
Glory. This is the Lord Jesus. "...and
there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the
hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out
of joint as he wrestled with him. And he, that is the Lord,
said, Let me go. For the day breaketh, and he
said..." Here's what Jacob said. I will not let thee go, except
thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is
thy name? And he said, Jacob. Jacob means supplanter, trickster,
hoxter, hoxter, deceiver. What's your name? Jacob. Every believer will agree with
this. What's your name? What's your
name by birth? Trickster, huckster, deceiver. What's your name? Jacob answered
him and said, My name is Jacob. And he, that is the Lord, said,
Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. No, your name
is not Jacob anymore. My eyes, your name is a prince
with God. Your name is Israel. For as a
prince hast thou power with God and with men hast prevailed. Jacob wrestled with this man,
and the Lord, who had Jacob, the Lord had Jacob. Jacob just
thought he was holding on, and it was the Lord holding on to
him. The Lord said, let me go. Jacob said, I can't let you go. I can't let you go. That's the grace of God. You
find a man and a woman, that sees himself in trouble. I'm
talking about trouble, spiritual trouble. If God leaves me to
myself, I'm going to hell. If God leaves me to have to answer
before God for my guilt, for myself, I'm not going to make
it. Let me go. I ain't letting you go, not unless
you bless me. I remember years ago, I'd have
my kids. They'd be growing up, Gabe, Sarah, Hannah, Becca. I'd
grab their arms, you know. I had them about right here.
I had them. I had a hold of them. I'd swing them. I'd say, you
better hang on. You better hang on. You let go. You better hang
on. Those little old fingers just
grabbed me and didn't have nothing. They thought they were hanging
on. I had them. They thought they had me. That's
what the Lord told Jacob, let me go. Jacob said, I can't. I cannot let you go. That's the grace of God. Last passage. Paul the Apostle
was on a ship. He was a prisoner of Rome. And
they were going to this destination somewhere. And there was a hurricane
that came through, a real strong storm, Urocladon, they named
it. And it just threw that ship all
over the place. The day broke, that ship was
coming and headed into the beach. And that ship just stuck right
in the beach head. And that wind was whipping that
ship around. It broke that ship. And although scripture says that
whenever that ship broke, it said the soldiers that were watching
them, they counseled, they were going to kill the prisoners unless
any of them should swim out and escape. But the centurion, willing
to save Paul, kept them from their purpose. There was one
man that God had put a restraint on, one of those Roman soldiers,
the centurion. He had a hundred soldiers under
him. He was the officer in charge. And he commanded that they should
swim. He said, no, he did this for Paul's sake. And he commanded
them that they should swim, cast themselves first into the sea
and get to the land, he said in verse 44, and the rest, some
on boards, some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to
pass that they escaped all safe to the land. I was going over my notes today
and I thought to myself, that centurion told them, he said,
if you can swim, jump in the water and swim. If you can't
swim, I'd find a board or something to grab on to. That's what he
said. And rest on some boards, some on broken pieces of the
ship. And I began to think on that picture right there. You
know those that jump in the water and start swimming, trusting
in their strength. Maybe they can make it, maybe
they don't. But if there was a board out there, something
that was floating, that's what he said. You find something,
take that pieces. In my mind, I see the crucified
Christ broken. This is my body which is broken
for you. And there's that ship, it broke. And there was those
broken pieces, picture of the Lord Jesus. And the only hope
some of them had, they couldn't swim. You're gonna find them
aboard. If I could get a hold of that
board right there, hold on to it. And I thought to myself,
those that couldn't swim, they're in the midst of that storm, that
rocking ocean just all over the place, water splashing. Somebody
give them a suggestion. Let go. Let go of that board. Come on, you can make it, just
let it go. Not on your life. Not on your life. They're going
to cleave to that board. I'm going to hang on to that
board. That board's floating. I ain't letting go. Barnabas exhorted them. He saw the grace of God. And
he was glad. And he exhorted them all, with
purpose of heart, cleave unto the Lord. I'm here today to set forth the glory of God first and the
remembrance of our mother, your friend, granny. I thank God for permitting me
to know her. I thank the Lord for that. I
thank God for his grace to her. Thank God for his grace to me.
I thank God that we've been able to come together and remember
her. Thankful for what I learned by
watching her. Be patient, be kind, be gracious. Always be gracious. I pray that
the Lord bless these words to our heart for His glory and our
good. Amen.