At Home At Rest AT HOME — AT REST B8-10-5F Rev. 6:9-11 OBITUARY RECORD: II. WE HAVE LITTLE HERE, BUT THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT: A. Joseph Milo Joiner: June 2,1920 – Aug. 8, 1985 A. Lazarus (the beggar in Luke 16) had nothing B. Survived by: 1. Full of sores 1. Wife – Mildred Perrilloux Joiner 2. Desiring to be fed with the crumbs which 2. Daughter – Betty Jean Jenkins fell from the rich man’s table 3. Son – Rufus Blow, Jr. 3. BUT WHEN HE DIED – he “was carried by the 4. Six grandchildren & 7 great-grandchildren angels into Abraham’s bosom” C. Preceeded in death by one brother – Hollis J. B. Heb. 11 gives a list of faithful people and D. Member of the Bedico Church of God declares, “These all died in faith, not having E. Member of the American Legion Post #47, Ponch received the promises, but having seen them F. Interment at Morse Cemetery, Bedico afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were INTRODUCTION: strangers and pilgrims on the earth” A. “Joe” was a fine man 1. Loving and kind husband III. DEATH IS NOT A VICTOR: 2. Caring parent and grandparent A. We see a lifeless body in a casket 3. Conscientious of duties to his country B. The disciples saw Jesus in the same way 4. A faithful churchman C. But remember: THE GRAVE WAS IN A GARDEN! B. But he was plagued for many years with sickness 1. The crucifixion brought pain & tears C. Among his last words was his message for his 2. The resurrection brought joy family that if he was not able to talk, they were to know that he was “going home to rest” IV. HEAVEN IS A PLACE OF REST (for Joe & all that go) D. I believe he did just that! A. Rev. 21:3, God with His people B. V. 4, God will wipe away all tears I. A HOME IS PREPARED FOR US IN HEAVEN C. No more death, sorrow, crying, pain A. 2 Cor. 5:1, “If our earthly house of this D. V. 5, All things are made new tabernacle were disolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” B. Jn. 14:2, “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” C. Jn. 17:24, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me.” D. Ps. 17:15, “As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness”
Every true prayer has its background and its foreground. The foreground of prayer is the intense, immediate desire for a certain blessing which seems to be absolutely necessary for the soul to have; the background of prayer is the quiet, earnest desire that the will of God, whatever it may be, should be done. What a picture is the perfect prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane! In front burns the strong desire to escape death and to live; but behind there stands, calm and strong, the craving of the whole life for the doing of the will of God... Leave out the foreground, let there be no expression of the will of him who prays, and there is left a pure submission which is almost fatalism. Leave out the background, let there be no acceptance of the will of God, and the prayer is only an expression of self-will, a petulant claiming of the uncorrected choice of him who prays. Only when the two are there together, the special desire resting on the universal submission, the universal submission opening into the special desire is the picture perfect and the prayer complete.
Phillips Brooks