Well, the Lord has reached in
with His congregation and taken another one of His children home. And we are glad for Tommy. I
can honestly say I rejoice for Tommy. I know by his testimony,
his faithfulness, the gospel he believed, he's with the Lord. As the Lord said to that thief
on the cross today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. I can't even conceive that, in
paradise. Tommy was 77 years old. It says here in the bulletin
he passed away at his residence on Tuesday. I like to think of
it as he changed residence on Tuesday. That's exactly what
he did. He changed residence. He left
this world, this place of sin, and he went to glory to be with
the Lord. Now, he's preceded in death by
his wife, Jane Padgett, his parents, Frank and Danny Hollis Padgett,
and a daughter, Tammy Padgett Robinson. He survived by his
daughters Lynn Whitman, Kendra Pope, and Andrea Sansom, and
12 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. I knew Tommy for about four years. I came here about four years
ago as a pastor. And I learned that Tommy was a faithful husband, a faithful
father, provided for his family, provided well for his family.
He didn't just provide food and a house, but he provided love.
Well, I tell you what, if that's missing, the rest of it doesn't
really matter, does it? If that's missing. But he provided that. I cannot express to you how important
faithfulness is. It is written in the Word of
God, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful."
And Tommy was faithful. He was faithful to the Gospel.
He was here when he was not sick, he was here. He came to hear
the Gospel. He supported the ministry here
for years, long before I came here. He supported the ministry
here, he supported the Gospel. And he set forth a good witness
of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to all who knew him. He was a
good witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he never complained
to me of his sickness. He never complained to me. And he never complained when
he took care of his wife, Jane, in her latter days when she was
sick. He never complained. I never
heard him complain at all. And I know that he and his wife
Jane took their children to hear the gospel regularly. That's
the best thing a parent can do for their children. Take them
to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing to be compared
to that. Nothing. And it's an honor to conduct
his funeral as it was his wife Jane's funeral. And I am confident
of this, I will see Him again." Now the message I want to bring
this morning, or this afternoon, is this, death day better than
birthday. Death day better than birthday. Listen to Ecclesiastes chapter
7. The wisest man that ever lived
wrote this. Now I know that Jesus Christ,
someone's going to think is the wisest. Jesus Christ is the wisdom
of God. He's the embodiment of wisdom.
He is Solomon's wisdom. He's the one who gave Solomon
the wisdom that he had. Jesus Christ was not just a wise
man. He is wisdom. He's the embodiment
of it. But Solomon wrote this in Ecclesiastes
7, 1 through 3. A good name, a good name is better
than precious, expensive, rare ointment because a good name
is rare. It's rare. What is a good name? You know what a good name is?
Now are we the sons of God. That's a good name. To be called a son of God. And our brother was a son and
is a son of God. A good name is better than precious
ointment. And the day of death, the day of death than the day
of one's birth. It's better. He's talking about
things that are better. The day of death is better than the day
of one's birth. It's better to go to the house
of mourning than to go to the house of feasting where everybody's
laughing and having fun. But the house of mourning, He
says, the living will lay it to heart. Every person here who
has been given life by the Lord Jesus Christ, you lay this to
heart. You know this is your turn. Sooner or later, this is
going to be your turn. and you know you're going to go and you're
going to meet the Lord. The living will lay this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter. You know, it's only in sorrow
when we stop and think, isn't it? It's really only in sorrow
when we really put things in their perspective, in their proper
place. Sorrow, he says, is better than
laughter, for by the sadness of the countess the heart is
made better, because the heart is engaged in truth, in what's
right, what's going on, reality. But I want to talk about this
day of death being better than the day of one's birth. How can
that be? How can it be that the day of
my death... Now listen, I want you to get
this first. Solomon is talking about believers here. He's talking
about believers. This doesn't apply to everyone.
This applies to the believer, those who believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. So how does this work? What's he talking about? Because
we don't normally think of it like this. Let me give you a
few things here for a few minutes. The day of one's birth is the
beginning of a journey. It could be a long journey. It was 77 years for Tommy. It was a 77-year journey. The
Scripture speaks of it as a race in Hebrews. To run with patience
the race that is set before us. And it's called a race because
it's really short. Life, as long as you can live
to be 100, it doesn't matter how long you live, it's short.
My dad's about to turn 90 and he told me, he said, it seems
like it's just been a dream to me. It just goes by so quickly. But it's a journey. And on this
journey, you know, we have some enjoyable times. But the Lord
said this in Isaiah, when you go through the waters and when
you go through the fire, There's water and fire to go through.
That's a tough journey. Those are tough things to go
through for a believer. But we go through these things
on this journey. And this journey ends, now listen,
the journey of this life ends right here. Everybody pay attention. All you young people pay attention.
Right here's where it ends. We will be back here. I promise
you we'll be back here again. But it doesn't end at the grave. This life ends. It's over. But
life doesn't end. It goes beyond this. We'll see
here in a little bit here the life that our brother is enjoying
right now. He's alive. I'm telling you,
I'm as confident as I stand here that my brother is alive and
well. And rejoicing with all those around the Lord Jesus Christ. So how is it the day of one's
death better than the day of one's birth? Well, first of all,
our conception, I mean, we've got to go back to our conception,
begins in sin. Listen to what David said in
Psalm 51.5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me. The seed by which I was conceived
was a sinful seed. It was passed on to me. That's
how I became a sinner. My dad passed it on to me, his
dad, and all the way back to Adam. It's been passed since
Adam, and it's passed on to us. Everyone starts life out in sin. We do not become sinners at a
certain age. We are born sinners. We are born
sinners. And then it begins in darkness,
spiritual darkness. No one comes into this life knowing
God. No one. No one comes into this
life seeking after the Lord. No one comes into this life interested
in knowing God. No one. If I have an interest
in knowing Christ, as Tommy had an interest in knowing Christ,
God gave it to him. God gave it to him. But we come
into this world in spiritual darkness. The Scripture said
in Psalm 58.3, "...the wicked are estranged from the womb,
they go astray, as soon as they be born, speaking lies." Who's
he talking about? Everyone that does not believe
on and love and follow after the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who he's talking about in that Psalm. That's who he's talking
about. And this is every one of us by nature. Before God saved
me, this was me. This was me. I agree with God.
This was me. And then it's the beginning of
sickness. Tommy had leukemia for years. I don't know how many
years, but it was a lot of years, wasn't it? He had to deal with
that for years. And all of you now, you deal
with sickness. You know, with this thing of
COVID going around, look what we're dealing with. That's his
life. That is this life. It's the beginning
of sickness, and then it's the beginning of labor. Labor. You know, sin puts labor in work. That's the only thing that puts
labor in work, is sin. Wasn't for that, it'd be enjoyable. When Adam fell, when he sinned
against God, God said, by the sweat of your brow, you'll eat
your bread. Sin put labor in work. And then
it's the beginning of trouble. Trouble. In Job 14.1, man that
is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. Full of
trouble. It's a tough journey. Life is
a tough journey. I have done this many times.
And I have buried people that died from a sickness. It's just
trouble. Trouble, trouble, trouble. We
have happy days. We do that. We have good days.
But I tell you, there's always trouble following it. You have
a good day, and you have a bad day. My mother, she's older. And every time I call her, she's
up almost 90. Every time I call her, I said,
hey, fill in the day. She said, well, I've had better
days. That's what she says to me almost
every time, I've had better days. And I always tell her, I said,
well, every day's your best day. And I realized that. I realize
now at my age, I realize every day is my best day. Every day
is. But I don't know what tomorrow's
gonna bring. And then it's the beginning of temptations. You
know, from a child, it's just one temptation after another.
Why do you think that you see all these ads on television?
It's nothing but temptation. They go after your children,
they go after you. It's just one after another. And then all our days, listen,
all our days are leading up to this day. All our days are leading
up to this day. It says in Hebrews 9.27, it is
appointed unto men, wants to die, and after this, judgment. This day was appointed of God. You know, the Scripture says
it's a time to be born and a time to die. There's a time for every
person that comes into this world. God has a timetable. And it's
according to His time when they come into this world, and it's
according to His time when they leave it. I came into this world back in
October 1955. Now, I don't know when I'm going
to leave it, but God does, and that gives me great comfort.
My hands is not in the hands of anyone else but God's. Every
time I leave here and I go back home, I drive back to Ashland,
Kentucky, 400 miles, so many of you, the congregation says,
drive safely, be careful. I'm so glad that I'm not relying
on me being careful, or me driving safely, or the other guy driving
safely and being careful. My life is in the hands of God.
Scripture said, David said, my times are in your hands. My times
are in your hands. This is how life starts. I can't
even, I've just scratched the surface. I just scratched it. But how is a day of death better
than the day of birth? Well, first of all, and as I
said, this is speaking of a child of God. He's speaking here of
a child of God. It's the end of sin. I was conceived in sin. Now it's
over. It's over. Even the presence
of sin is gone. Even the presence of it is gone. We don't know what that's like.
But we know this. Tommy knows what it's like now.
I know he knows what it's like now. The presence of sin is gone. And then it's the end of my rebellion. My rebellion. You know, Scripture says, man
at his best states altogether vanity. There's sin in everything
I do. Even as a believer, there's sin
in everything I do. David said, when I would do good,
evil is present with me. That which I would not, I do.
That which I do, I don't do it. That's over. That's over. And then it's the end of all
sorrow and all sickness. No weeping, no crying, no pain,
no more. But I think best of all is this.
It is the day when faith gives way to sight. The just shall
live by faith. But the hour we close our eyes,
and the scripture doesn't call it death, it calls it sleep.
The Lord always spoke of it as sleep. But the day we close our
eyes in what we call death, we wake
up to reality. Faith gives way to sight. Hope gives way to reality. And then I thought of this. I
thought of this. And then I was thinking about
our brother. This day, or Tuesday, the day
he left, is the first time that Tommy worshipped the Lord Jesus
Christ as he is to be worshipped. I mean as he is to be worshipped.
We've never done that. We've never been able to give
unto the Lord the glory due unto his name as we ought to. We've
never loved God as we ought to. We've never loved our neighbor
as we ought to. But the day he entered glory,
he did. He did. It's the first time he's able
to worship the Lord Jesus Christ without sin, without sadness,
without sorrow, interrupting his mind. You're sitting there now, think
of the things that's interrupting your mind. I mean, I know, I've
sat there and you have to grab your thoughts and come back.
Your mind starts to wander. That's over with. That's over
with. And this day, this day is better
than all his best days on this earth. I'm talking about the
days, all the days he was here worshipped with this church family. I'm talking about all the days
he sought the Lord in prayer, all the days he read the Scriptures.
All those days can't be compared to this day. And then it's the end of the
presence of Satan. He's not allowed there. He's
not allowed there. And then death is the end of dying. Death is the end, for a believer
now, for a believer, death is the end of dying. You're looking
at a dying man. I'm preaching to dying men and
women. Death for the believer is the
end of that. He has eternal youth. I mean, you're talking about
in this day and time, we're always trying to find some kind of drug,
some kind of medicine that will reverse aging or keep us from
aging. I mean, they come up with all
kinds of cream. You put it on and it stops wrinkles
and aging. I haven't seen it stop it yet. But this reversed aging. This
reversed aging. This is eternal youth. Eternal
youth, never to age no more. Never to know what that's about. This day is harvest day. The
Lord is coming to His garden. He's coming to His garden and
taking one of His lilies home. That's what He's done. And then
it is the end of the battle. Our brother has been taken off
the battlefield. He's taken off. This is the battlefield.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities
and powers. We don't wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers. But now, that's over. That's over. The race, I said
it started out as a race. The race is over. It's done. Now, you who believe, you get
it. You get it. I know you do. Solomon said in verse 8 of that
same chapter, he said, Better is the end of
a thing than the beginning of it. Better is the end of this life
for a believer than the beginning of it was. Let us pray. Our Father, thank
you, Father, for the opportunity of knowing Tommy Paget. Thank you for his fellowship.
Thank you for his encouragement that he gave me over the last
four years. Bless the family with comfort.
Lord, you said thy grace is sufficient, and we know it's so. We pray
you'd bless, comfort, And most of all, Father, we pray
that the name of Jesus Christ will be magnified above all. In His name we pray, and amen.