You’re Preaching Your Own Funeral

Seasons of loss bring reflection and contemplation in the solitary moments of your own grief. It boils all the complexities of life down to the very rudiments of our existence. To pass through this valley without it is to waste a very precious time of learning and growth.

As I attended the funeral of my dear father this week, I heard these words spoken about my dad…

• Faithful – To his God. To his wife. To his family, to his church
• Consistent – He was always the same, no matter where he was or who he was with.
• Servant – He served Christ and others. He always put others before himself.
• Loyal – He never betrayed a trust, a promise or a friend.
• Hard worker – He gave his best to whatever he was working on. It grieved him to be a part of anything that wasn’t done in excellence.
• Committed – He was not a quitter. He was there for the long haul. His walk with Christ, his marriage his roles as father, Papa, brother, uncle and friend.
• Learner – This is one word I’m adding about my dad. He was humble enough to keep learning. He loved to listen to preaching and would share new truths that he learned from God’s Word.

He was preaching his own funeral all his 90 years. No one had to sit down and come up with “nice things to say.” It was easy to simply tell about his life.

As I reflect on the events of the last several days – a funeral and visitation of friends and family and all the words I heard spoken, I realize with a greater zeal that I am also preaching my funeral TODAY and every day I live. What could others say about…

• The way I treat /love my husband?
• My love for my family?
• My love for the Body of Christ?
• The way I respond to the lost around me?
• My commitment to serve Christ?
• My love for God’s Word?
• How I respond to trials?

My motive for doing any of these things is to be the love of Christ.

For the love of Christ controls us
2 Corninthians 5:14

Paul was saying that “the love that Christ shown to him and to all men was acting as a constraining power, directing every act of every spiritual state to the good of others, restraining him from every self-seeking purpose.”

Am I so controlled by the love of Christ that I’m only seeking His favor? Or am I seeking to please men?
Am I seeking Christ on a daily basis? Or does my time reveal that I seek for temporal things more fervantly?
Is my love for Christ evident in my speech? Or do I use His name in vain, talk too much or about things contrary to that which would honor Christ?
Am I truly living with eternity in view? Or am I living as though I will not give account for the way I live my daily life?
Does my life show that my greatest purpose in life is to make much of Christ? Or have I put myself or some other person on the throne of my heart?

As a child of God, we should be living our daily life so that it will glorify the Lord in every way, motivated by the love of Christ. We all know we aren’t perfect, but that’s not what God requires. He only asks that we are faithful. That faithfulness will make it easy at the end of our life for whatever pastor stands to preach our funeral to do so with joy.

How about you, friend? How would you answer the questions above? You don’t have to wait until a time of sorrow to contemplate these questions. It’s wise to consider them now and ask the Lord to reveal the truth to your own heart, as He has my own. One day our life will end. Let’s live a life of preaching, “faithfulness.”

Refresh your zeal for living a life of purpose and faithfulness.

If you’d like to see the funeral service, I invite you to go here and watch.