(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

🎵Piano music plays🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 All right, good morning everybody. Thank you so much for being here and I just wanted to welcome you to our church, our Church of Church Foundation Baptist Church and we're here to remember Ricky Cotton Jr. and once again I just wanted to thank you and extend our condolences to your family. And so we're gonna have a traditional service here and we're gonna sing some songs and we're gonna watch a slideshow and you can remember some memories and we'll have a eulogy where the family and friends can speak. I'm going to preach a short sermon and I'll have a gospel presentation and then there'll be refreshments to follow and then there'll be a graveside service which is going to be at two o'clock and that is at Southwest Cherry Park in Southwest Hensley Road in Troutville, Oregon. So it is about a 25-minute drive with no traffic so we need to keep in mind that I should probably leave here about 1, 1 15-ish if you're planning on going to the graveside service. And just some basic instructions about our church. We do have restrooms that are located around the corner and there's two over there and then there's actually a third one around the corner back there and for if there's children that are upset and crying or whatever we do have a mother-baby room which is right back there and then there's a dad-baby room where you can take your dad can take his child in there. So those rooms have where you can still hear everything and there's a video monitor in there then you can actually watch through that window right there if so needed. So with that being said we're going to start our service with a hymn and it's going to be hymn number 41 by this this is called the Suite by and by and we'll have our song leader come up here and lead us. There should be hymn books close to you and underneath the seats. Song number 41 in your green hymnal suite by and by page number 41. Page 41 in your green hymnal suite by and by. Singing out loud on that first verse. There's a land that is fairer than day and by faith we can see it afar for the father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there in the suite by and by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore in the suite by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore on the second we shall sing on that beautiful shore the melody of songs of the blessed and our spirit shall sorrow no more not a sigh for the blessing of rest in the suite by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore in the suite by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore on the last to our bountiful father above we will offer our tribute a praise for the glorious gift of his love and the blessings that hallow our days in the suite by and by we shall meet on that beautiful shore in the suite by and by we shall meet on that beautiful i just want to open everything up with a word of prayer let's go to the to god and prayers bow our heads together heavenly father we thank you lord so much that there are so many people that have come to remember ricky cotton jr and lord we know that he's with you in your everlasting arms and lord i just pray that you would comfort the family lord they're mourning the sudden death of ricky and just pray lord that you would just help us as church members here to minister to the people that have come here and might not know us or know our church let's pray that lord you would that you would comfort them and keep them and bless them and that you bless the services now in jesus name we pray amen all right we're going to sing one more song before we do the bible reading and then we'll have a picture slideshow after that come on up brandon and sing does jesus care him number 89 all right turn to page 89 we'll sing does jesus care page 89 does jesus care page 89 in on the first does jesus care when my heart is pain too deeply for earth and song as the burdens press and the cares distress and the way grows weary long oh yes he cares i know he cares his heart is touched with my grief when the days are weary the long nights dreary i know my savior cares on the second does jesus care when my way is dark with the nameless dread in fear as the day light fades into deep night shades does he care enough to be near oh yes he cares i know he cares his heart is touched with my grief when the days are weary the long nights dreary me does jesus care when i tried and failed to resist some temptation strong when for my deep grief i find no relief though my tears flow all the night long oh yes he cares i know he cares his heart is touched with my grief me does jesus care and i've said goodbye to the dearest and my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks it is odd to him does he see oh yes he cares i know he cares his heart is touched with my grief me all right if you guys could turn to john chapter 14 if you'd like to follow along and you raise your hand one of the ushers can bring you a bible john chapter 14 will be verses one through six and then we'll go to a second scripture in first corinthians right after that first corinthians 15 so john 14 verse 1 says let not your heart be troubled you believed in god believe also in me and 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 and if i go and prepare a place for you i will come again and receive you unto myself that where i am there ye may also be and whether i go you know and the way you know thomas sayeth unto him lord we know not whether thou goest and how can we know the way jesus sayeth unto him i am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me now we're going to go ahead and turn to first corinthians chapter 15 will be in verse 51 through 57 first corinthians 15 51 through 57 the bible reads in 50 verse 51 behold i show you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory oh death where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is law but thanks be to god which giveth which giveth us the victory through our lord jesus christ all right now we're going to have the picture slideshow well that was a great video and i don't know if i introduced myself but i'm pastor thompson i'm the pastor of this church and we have several members of ricky's family that go here and attend on a regular basis miss sheila of course his mom uh she's i've known her for about eight years now and she is a wonderful church member and um maybe the sheila you knew in the past is a little bit different but uh the sheila i know is a born again saved christian and uh so is uh her family some of her family members that come here miss sierra and ethan and uh you know it's my pleasure to be their pastor and it wouldn't be a baptist funeral without having a sermon and so i'm gonna invite you to follow along with me in first thessalonians chapter number four and i want to preach to you a short sermon that's not going to be super long like usually i preach for about an hour the bible says we're surrounded by a cloud of many witnesses in the book of hebrews and right now i know that ricky's looking down from heaven and i know that ricky's in heaven because i know that he had a clear testimony of salvation and he actually got saved if you look on your program it says born again april 14th 2021 and born again means that you're spiritually into god's family and i'm sure you've heard the term born again christian well ricky professed faith in jesus christ on that date and we have the person actually here visiting with us that actually got to present the gospel to him and uh and he was saved gloriously and so that's how i know that ricky's looking down from heaven upon his family right now and one thing i know about anybody that's saved that's in heaven they want their family members to be saved and also go to heaven but i also want to in the sermon this morning i want to comfort those people who are saved in this room and have professed a belief in jesus christ and i want to give you some comfort from the book of first thessalonians chapter number four and one thing i know ricky's looking at right now is that or one thing i know that he's thinking is that he forgives miss sheila for wearing a cowboy shirt in his presence because it looked to me like he liked the pittsburgh steelers a little bit okay and i'm sorry if i didn't get a chance to shake all the family members hand and meet everybody but uh i hope after the services are over that you would uh or i would get a chance to speak with the family members i i can see some a couple things about ricky in that slideshow i can see that he was all smiles you know unless he's like doing a thug life type picture or whatever but uh he seemed like he was a pretty happy guy and he had a smile on his face looks like he loved his family and uh and i know that he's loved by many people in this room and you know it's okay to weep it's okay to cry it's okay to feel sad because this is the day that you would do that and at the graveside service that'll be the time when we commend his life or his body excuse me into the grave and you get to say your final goodbyes to him but it's good for family to get together and and you know i know in a mixed group like this people haven't seen each other in many years and you know what's good to do is to lay aside any any issues you have with each other and just we're here for ricky and to remember him and i hope that that's the spirit that's amongst the family and friends today let me read for you in i'm in the wrong chapter first thessalonians chapter four if you if you want a bible we can have one of the ushers bring you a bible if you just want to read along with me if does anybody want a bible in the in the family anybody well then i'll just uh if you if you don't want one i'll just ask that you listen and so in first thessalonians chapter four the bible says but i would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope for if we believe that jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in jesus will god bring with him for this we say unto you by the word of the lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the lord shall not prevent them which are asleep for the lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of god and the dead in christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the lord wherefore comfort one another with these words let's have a word of prayer heavenly father we thank you lord so much for the life of ricky cotton jr and i just pray lord that uh anybody under the sound of my voice would just stop what they're doing and just pay attention to the word of god for just a little while this morning and lord even the gospel presentation afterward i pray lord that you fill me with your spirit as i preach your word and i pray that that you would lord speak to the people that are here through your word in jesus name we pray amen all right so again we are gathered in honor and memory of ricky cotton jr and he passed away in a way that nobody probably expected and i'm not going to bring up the details about that but it's a very sad thing because life was cut short and um you know it's just it is a terrible thing what happened and just know this that the person whether they're caught or not will will receive a punishment for that and so don't think that just because even if they never catch the person that did what they did that there is a recompense that god is a just judge and he's not going to just allow someone to escape scot-free for something that they did whether it be now or whether it be the life to come god will judge and he's a righteous judge and he judges right every single time and so i didn't really know ricky i didn't i didn't i met him one time and we hung out one time and we shot some guns together and it was a good time he had his nephew ethan with him and we you know that was the only time i got to meet him but one thing i do know is that we prayed for ricky for many years just like we've prayed for many of of ricky's family members for many years and are still praying and one of the things that we were praying about ricky is that he would get saved and guess what he did and so god does answer prayers god does answer the you know he you know and obviously we have free will to do whatever we want we could either choose to be saved or choose not to be saved but that's our choice that is called free will and ricky chose a of his own free will to believe on jesus christ now his life as a christian didn't last very long but you know the funny thing is though is that even though the bodies that are mortal bodies that we have you know those bodies die he's in heaven today and he's with god and so the bible says we will ever be with the lord so it's not eternal life is just that it's eternal life that lasts forever and so you could either have eternal life or eternal death according to what the bible says and uh let's uh i want to you know just by way of introduction just say that in this time that we feel such heartache and pain and loss you know the scripture does offer us comfort it does and encouragement and victory it seems that in writing to the thessalonian believers that paul knew of some church members who had recently lost lost some loved ones and he lost those people lost loved ones and they were concerned about what happened to them and so to those who are hurting and grieving he offers a reason for us to hope number one and i only have two points in the sermon i want to i want to look at the fact that christians should have a different reaction when people pass away that are saved in verse number 13 paul specifically addresses those in the church who have lost friends family or loved ones he tells them that what what the way we should react is different than those that have no hope and what does it mean to have no hope it means those persons that are those people that are not saved and so two things those are two things to keep in mind this morning and you know one of those things is um our our morning is natural it's normal to be bereaved it's normal to be upset when we lose somebody and especially uh in a time of uh you know it's something that's tragic like what happened to ricky you know paul is not saying that we should not be sad when our loved ones die in psalms 116 verse 15 it says precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his saints god does you know it's important to him when one of his saints passed away now i know that probably when you think of saints you think of someone with a halo on their head and you might not think that about ricky okay but it does you know a saint is just someone that's saved that's all it means it doesn't mean that they are like mother teresa and or something like that that they've evolved into some sainthood or something but saints literally just means someone that's saved and and it says precious in the death or excuse me precious in the sight of the lord is the death of his saints and so god looks at it like what do you think of when you think of precious you know precious gold precious silver you know when god has someone that that believes in him he looks at them like they are precious like gold like silver like a precious thing and the lord does his work on earth through his people so it doesn't make sense if their death isn't costly to him because you know and even though we don't understand the reasons why and what happened exactly with ricky we do know that god looked at it as something that was precious because he was taken early you know and people will say at times like these you know they'll blame god for what happened but you know god again once again is a god that allows us to have free will and in a world where there's free will and in a world where there's sin people will do the most horrible things to each other and so is it god's fault that ricky passed on i don't believe it is god's fault because he didn't have that he doesn't choose what everybody does he's not a puppet master that controls everything we do he allows free will and unfortunately you know people choose to do wicked things with that free will but he knows our loss because he experienced it with us when you think of the death of lazarus in the bible if you remember that story he knew that lazarus would would raise from the dead he knew he was going to raise lazarus from the dead and when he saw the sad faces and the people that were crying and weeping over lazarus in that sealed tomb he felt the loss of the loved ones that were standing around and the bible says that jesus wept shortest verse in the whole bible jesus wept and so even though jesus christ is god manifest in the flesh even though he's the creator of the whole heaven and earth and he created mankind you know the the world fell the world fell by adam and eve and satan deceiving them and you know he but that doesn't mean that he doesn't care for us that doesn't mean that he doesn't he can't get down on our level he literally got down on our level and became a man so that he could die and suffer for our sins so that we could be saved and so when he saw those sad faces the bible says that jesus wept and we know that departed believers will be resurrected because that's what the bible teaches and at this church we do believe the bible and you know but being apart from your loved ones does cause natural pain and grief and that's something that's normal it's natural and it's and sometimes mourning can last a long time and sometimes uh you know it's very painful for a long period of time but you know our rejoicing is supernatural paul explains that we are to react differently than those that have no hope as christians as a saved person in here we are to react differently because we know where ricky is and we believe we're that that ricky is saved and he's with god for all eternity and one day if you're saved also you'll get to spend time with ricky once again and even though i don't know ricky now and i didn't really know him that well in life i'll get to know him you know when i when i see him i'll walk up and shake his hand again say hey you know what's going on ricky let me get to know you and that's a great promise from god that it's not we don't a lot of people say that there's just life on this earth and that's it well that's that's pretty miserable you know what's a great promise of god is that we can have everlasting life and one we we were all granted life at some point every every person this room was born and we have the gift of life but what are you doing with that gift and the gift of god is eternal life and so god makes that promise and our rejoicing should be supernatural because you know paul explains to us that we are not to grieve like those that have no hope as believers we have comfort and hope in the future and we know that our departed loved ones who are fellow believers are now with the lord at second corinthians chapter 5 verse 8 says scripture even calls them blessed i heard a voice from heaven saying unto me blessed are the dead which die in the lord from henceforth yea sayeth the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them revelation chapter 14 verse number 13 number two this morning is that we have to understand an important reality let's look back in first thessalonians chapter 14 through verse 17 verse 14 through 17 it says for if we believe that jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in jesus will god bring with him and so the bible teaches that when someone dies and they're saved they're just asleep their bodies asleep it's asleep in the ground and no matter what happens to that body when christ comes back he's going to change those bodies into a body that can never die and those bodies will be resurrected from the dead to to the point where they can never perish again and that's the way he is now because jesus christ died on the cross he was buried and rose again the third day and when he appeared to people he had a new body that could never die and that is the promise of the resurrection it says for if we believe that jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in jesus will god bring with him for this we say unto you by the word of the lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the lord shall not prevent them which are asleep so the people that have died first they're going to raise first they get the first that first initial resurrection and it says for the lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of god and the dead in christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the lord and so the bible teaches very clearly that we will forever be with the lord there is a day that he's coming back and people will say well you know where's the promise of his coming well god wants as many people to be saved as possible we don't know when that time is going to come no man knows the day or the hour when he will return but i i'm telling you this the bible is true and jesus christ is going to come back someday and he's going to claim his uh the people that believe and unfortunately for those that will not believe there's there's not there's not good things coming to those people but i don't want to get too much into that at this point but uh it's a privilege there's a privilege of saints that are deceased when christ returns he will bring the deceased believers with him while we grieve their loss surely they rejoice and anticipate the day that they will be the first to see the resurrected christ for return for his people and um the there's a triumphant return of christ see before christ was killed and crucified and it looked like all hope was lost and he resurrect he was resurrected and appeared to his disciples but the rest of the world didn't see him see it takes faith to you know you have to have faith and and that's the only thing that's going to please god so yeah i can't put god in a test tube for you this morning and prove to you that he's that he's real the bible says that we have to believe by faith for salvation and christ is going to return though like he said and we are told that the lord himself will descend with a shout and with the voice of the archangel with the trump of god and the dead in christ shall rise first when christ comes for the second time will not be in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes announced by a single star to wise men or an angel or to shepherds he will come wrapped in glory and splendor and with an earth-shaking shout of an archangel and with the trumpet of god himself and he will be the first to see these things is the dead in christ so ricky will get to see first he's gonna his body's gonna raise up first you know with all the other believers that have died in christ before and uh right now the bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord so you know there's no such thing as purgatory or baptist here we don't believe in that so and because the bible doesn't say that it doesn't teach it there's heaven or hell and that's all there is so it says um also there's going to be a triumphant reunion after the deceased saints are resurrected to be with christ in his glory then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him to meet in the clouds to meet the lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the lord verse 17 says we'll be reunited with our fellow believers whom we have lost and all together will be united with with christ and all his glory for the rest of eternity so in conclusion today you know we're naturally grieved and that's that's a normal thing but we also have reason for great comfort i encourage you to put a bookmark here in first thessalonians chapter 4 and maybe revisit this it's it's it's a it's a very encouraging passage and when you feel your deepest pain you can read this passage and surely this will engage you to the deepest anticipation of christ's return paul said about these verses wherefore comfort one another with these words these are verses of comfort to say hey when someone dies and they're saved we know that they're with god we know that they're safe we know where we're going you know many years ago i was at a memorial service and it was a little different than this one but i was at a memorial service and it made me wonder like my friend died in a tragic accident and uh he was killed really early in life he was only 20 years old and uh it made me think like what's gonna happen to me when i die and that that's what put me on the path to being saved and so it took some time for me to understand that but sometimes you know even though death is tragic it can also make you look inward and say where am i at where am i gonna go what's gonna happen with me where am i gonna go when i die and that's that's one of the great questions of humanity where'd we come from where are we gonna go when we die and many people in the world want to know that and i'll just say this that the bible does give you that assurance christianity gives you that assurance so as we leave today let's remind each other in our grief that our friend ricky will be one of the first to see the magnificent return of the lord jesus christ and we shall one day see our friend and brother ricky again and we'll meet him up in the clouds so you know if we're alive and we remain we're all going to be together again someday and matthew chapter 5 verse 4 it says blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted and that's one of the beatitudes of christ now miss sheila asked me if i would read a poem and after i read the poem i'm going to give a presentation of the gospel and i just hope that you'll be patient with me i i know that maybe some of you aren't necessarily religious but sheila asked me to do this and you know she's a great church member of mine and i love her dearly and our whole church family loves her and i want to respect her wishes precious memories is the name of the poem it says we weren't prepared that day when god called you away so many tears we cried longing to keep you at our side how we loved and missed you so and weren't ready to let you go but it gives us comfort to know within the twinkling of our eyes you entered into paradise a place with beauty beyond measure eternal happiness and treasure where you have no more pain and tears no sorry excuse me no sorrow worries and fears although for now we are apart your precious memories live in our heart until god calls us each to heaven's door where we will be reunited forevermore those precious memories now when it comes to the gospel the gospel means the good news i'm sure you've heard people say have you heard the good news well the gospel is good news because you know the bible teaches that we can be saved and we can know for 100 surety that we are but there's about i'm just going to go through five things we must believe in order to be saved okay now try to go through it fairly quickly but i want you to understand and even if you don't get it today you maybe you're just not you know your minds and your heart's not ready to hear this i mean i pray that some of the things that i say to you or all the things i say to you would sink down into your ears and into your heart and that you would trust christ as your savior if it's not today than some other day but it didn't happen to me on the day of my friend's funeral but it happened pretty soon after that about a month later and i was searching for answers and i found him and i'm glad that god you know the bible says if you knock he's going to open the door for you the first thing you have to admit is that you're a sinner and so the bible teaches that all have sinned for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god so none of us is good enough to get to heaven on our own none of us can earn our way to heaven because we've all sinned if you send one sin that makes you a sinner if you've lied one time it makes you a liar right well if you send one time it makes you a sinner and i think everybody in this room would admit that they've probably committed one sin and you know if you're not a liar you probably admit you've committed a lot more sins than just one right so all have sinned to come short of the glory of god and the second thing you have to understand is that there's a penalty for that sin so the penalty for sin the bible says in romans 6 23 is the wages for the wages of sin is death now when the bible talks about death in this way it's not talking about it's not talking about just a physical death it's talking about a spiritual death also and so ultimately death only comes upon those that are um die unsaved the bible says to be you know um for the well it's well it says in revelation 20 verse 14 it says in death and hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death so there's two deaths there's the death of a body and the second death is the death of the soul but that death isn't just you know it blinks and it's over that second death just like eternal life it's eternal death so god made adam to be a living soul and so that soul lives on whether it's in heaven or whether it's in hell verse 15 in romans chat or excuse me revelation chapter 20 says and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire at this church and i think many other churches believe that hell is a literal place the bible says it's in the heart of the earth that's where jesus went for three days and three nights the heart of the earth revelation 21 verse 8 says but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death and so there's a you you saw there's a lot of uh you know you might not be a murderer you might not be a whoremonger or a sorcerer an idolater but everybody could probably admit i hope that you've lied and so if the bible says all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death that means we're all in deep trouble right and so revelation 14 verse 11 says and the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever and they have no rest day or night who worship the beast in his image and whosoever received the mark of his name so there is a penalty for sin and it's being you know punished forever and that's not something you know obviously i have to get the bad news to you first that we're all sinners and we all deserve to go to hell whether you admit that or not it doesn't matter you know you can believe that uh you know that guns won't kill you but they will you can believe things whatever you believe that's opposite of reality it doesn't matter reality is still reality and so it says for without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie and when it says a lie that's just one right so the bible teaches that you know one sin is enough to get anybody into hell but you know obviously i'm not here to just tell you hey everybody's going to hell and you know have a good day that's not a good day the good news is that jesus christ number three you have to believe in jesus christ along for salvation that might not be good news for you because you might not believe in him right now but it's good news for millions of people that have lived on this planet and it says in romans 5 8 but god commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners christ died for us so even though we're sinners even though we deserve to go to hell even though god is angry with the wicked every day christ did die for us and first john chapter 2 verse 2 it says and he is the propitiation that means the appeasement of god's wrath he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world so the bible clearly teaches that jesus died for the sins of the whole world and so the whole world isn't in this room right now but every single person is in this world and so every single person in this world christ died for you on the cross he he lived a perfect life that we can't live he did everything right he cleaned his his room when his parents told him to do it every single time you know imagine a world where everybody did that but anyway christ paid for all of our sins from the time that you were that you did the first thing your first infraction to the time you die the day you die he paid for all those sins okay and he's the propitiation for those things which means the appeasement of god hebrew chapter 4 verse 15 says for we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin so christ the bible teaches that he did not sin and so he was tempted in all points like we are we're tempted every day to do things wrong aren't we and you know if you just be honest with yourself for a second and you looked in the mirror when you woke up in the morning and you're like i'm going to do everything right today i guarantee you that you cannot do that you can't do it you can't think every thought purely you can't do everything perfectly right but jesus did that every day he was on this earth but we can't do that and that's why we need a savior we can't save ourselves we can't be good enough we've all you know i can't die for your sins because i have sins of my own someone had to pay the price it was jesus christ and the bible says he was tempted like we are he feels our infirmities that's why he could be at the funeral of lazarus and say and and it says jesus wept because he feels what we feel he made us he knows everything about us he knows us better than we know ourselves first corinthians chapter 15 verse 3 says for i delivered unto you first of all that which i also received how that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures the bible teaches that christ died according to what the bible said was going to happen it prophesied in the old testament of a messiah that was going to come and pay for our sins for us and so you know anybody that thinks that they can get to heaven on their own that you're fooling yourself because you weren't perfect and you're not good enough but somebody was good enough for you so that you could get in anyway and so it's like if you're in if you're in front of a judge and you have like a hundred thousand dollar fine nobody in this room could probably pay that it's like as if jesus stepped in and said you know what i got i got you i paid for it any sin that you've done he paid for it so he got he got your back right and it says in john 3 16 it's the most famous verse in the whole bible people wear it underneath their eyes you know at football games and they make all signs you know everybody i'm sure once i start to read the scripture you're going to know it for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and i'll read this to people when i'm out sharing the gospel with people and i'll read this verse and people still don't understand but it says that he gave his only begotten son that's a gift isn't it that whosoever that means anybody doesn't it doesn't whosoever mean anybody whosoever believeth doesn't say whosoever goes to church whosoever puts money in the offering plate whosoever is religious whosoever walks an old lady across the street with her groceries it doesn't say any of that whosoever is a good person doesn't say that says whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life what does everlasting life mean it means a life that never ends that's a promise from god it's a life that never ends and and is it so for some people believing that is hard but you know god didn't make it hard to be saved he made it easy because all everybody has faith in this room you're all sitting in chairs did you have faith that when you sat in that chair that it was going to hold you up you did we have faith in all kinds of things you have faith that your car is going to get you to the grocery store i mean just just think about the things that takes faith to do so faith isn't hard but see depending on someone else to get us into heaven for for some people that's hard because pride gets in the way pride of well i'm who are you to judge me you know that's the kind but it's god it's not me it's god that's judging and so and we judge every day people say hey judge not but here's the thing about that is that you judge how far away the car next car is in front of you you judge people for judging you you know i mean people are filled with judgment they just don't like it when when it's god's word judging them and so some people you know just can't handle that but the bible teaches it's very easy to be saved all you have to do is put all your faith in jesus and he gives you the gift of everlasting life i'll get into that in just a second john 336 says he that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life that means you have it once you believe you have it and he that believeth not the sun shall not see life but the wrath of god abideth on him there's two types of people in this world those that believe and those that believe not christians aren't better than everybody else that's that's you know people say well you're supposed to be a christian yeah hey listen everybody's a sinner the only difference between someone saved and not saved is someone had faith in jesus and someone else didn't that's what it says john 14 6 says jesus saith unto him i am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me jesus is also exclusive he doesn't say i'm a way i'm a truth i'm a life no he says i'm the way the truth and the life and he says no man cometh unto the father but by me that's an exclusive club people don't like that either well what are you saying that these other religions are wrong yeah that's exactly what i'm saying because that's the truth so if i didn't believe that then i wouldn't be believing the bible this in acts 16 30 it says and brought them out and said sirs what must i do to be saved this question is only asked once in the bible what must i do to be saved and they said believe on the lord jesus christ and thou shalt be saved at thy house it didn't say you know all those other things be a good person but that's what people believe most of the time when i ask someone do you know for sure that you're going to heaven when they die they say yes they know what they and i say well how do you know that for sure and they say the number one answer that i always get because i'm a good person but that's just not possible we can do good things we're capable of doing good i know i know everybody in this room is capable of doing good they're capable of forgiveness but not everybody in this room is perfect and that's what it takes we fall short of the glory of god number four you must believe salvation is a free gift and that it's eternal it's not something you can lose it is a gift and you can say well i could give a gift back or i could just you know i could give the gift back or i could lose it no this is not that type of gift this is a gift that's free and it's eternal so how do you lose something that's eternal you can't roman 6 23 where i kind of started out the second scripture says for the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord so it's a gift and this is something that people have a hard time grasping to if i gave you this microphone and said this microphone is yours for free but you got to go wash my car is that a gift it's not a gift because it's something that you're doing to get the microphone right if i said hey you know i'm gonna give you this as a free gift it's only a dollar is that a gift it's not a gift because i'm asking you for a dollar even though i paid more than a dollar for this it's still it's a good deal but it's not a free gift or if i said hey i'm gonna give you this free microphone it's yours for free but you have to sing every time we're in church with this microphone or i'm going to take it away from you is that a gift it's not it's strings attached see there's not strings attached to a gift a gift is either free or it's not a gift anything you have to work for is you're not getting that for free there's a lot of men in this room or and ladies too that have worked for money you know you don't work nobody wants to work for free right so work you know when you work you expect something in exchange for that so but with salvation it's a gift and the gift of God is eternal life and it's through Jesus Christ our Lord Ephesians chapter 2 verse number 8 says for by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves that is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast i just want to unpackage this verse a couple verses for you real quick grace means something you don't deserve everybody in this room has probably paid rent before right who's paid rent before in this room yeah and and when you pay when you have to pay rent do you always have to pay on the first or you're kicked out automatically or do you have what's called a grace period a couple days or maybe five days where you don't have to pay rent that's called a grace period i'm sure everybody's seen that in their rental clause at some point you get a grace period well grace is something you know you don't we don't deserve to stay there for five days for free without paying rent but they just do it out of the kindness of their heart God forgives us by his grace even though we deserve to go to hell even though we've sinned he saves us through faith believing faith trust belief it's not just you know belief in a fact it's you have faith in that thing you have faith that that that that Christ is going to save you and he's going to take you to heaven when you die it's everlasting life and it says and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God so once again here's another verse that says it's the gift of God it's not of yourselves you can't do enough work to to earn it on your own it's not a balancing of justice hey i did more good than i did bad it's faith alone or it's nothing that's what the bible teaches it's not of works lest any man should boast you can't be good enough to get it and you know it says less any man should boast because you could there's people out there that would say i'm good enough i'm going to heaven but then isn't that you boasting isn't that you saying well hey i'm good enough to get to heaven God doesn't want that because he sent Christ to pay for our sins he sent Christ to be the propitiation for our sins and so he's not going to let you just get in any way you want it's his way or the highway john 10 27 says my sheep hear my voice and i know them and they follow me and i give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand my father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand so that that concept of eternal life it's like they will never perish you're never going to die and neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand and i could just i could do a demonstration i'm not going to do it but one of the the children here if i grab one of these little children by the hand and they try to get away from me do you think they're going to be able to escape from my hand i mean you see how big i am right they're not going to be able to escape that's what the bible is saying here is that they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand so if nobody can pluck you out of God's hand that means you can't pluck yourself out of God's hand because you're a man or a woman or whatever you can't do it once he has you you're secure you're safe you're saved and it says no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand and first john 5 10 you know says he that believeth on the son of God hath to witness in himself he that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his son so God's going to tell us what this record is and there's people that call God a liar they say well i'm saved but i think you could lose your salvation i think you could you could lose the gift you could give it back but what's the bible said you're not you're not believing the record and why do i know that because in verse 11 it says and this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his son he that hath the son of son hath life and he that hath not the son of God hath not life and so it's the bible is very clear the record is that God's given us eternal life so and that's not something you can lose because it's eternal it logically does not make sense if something lasts forever you know you can't say well you know i lost it doesn't make sense because it's something that lasts forever right titus 1 2 says in hope of eternal life which God who that cannot lie promised before the world began so God isn't even capable of lying he's not we're not the same as him God is not a man that he should be a sinner or that he should repent God is perfect righteous just and holy always makes the right decision always makes the right judgment is good and we can't understand that because we're not it's hard for us to fathom that so the last thing here is in romans chapter 10 verse 9 you must call upon the name of the Lord to be saved romans 10 9 says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved it doesn't say you might be it says you shall be so if you believe in your heart you confess with your mouth thou shalt be saved it's a promise for what the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation and verse 13 says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved if you call upon him you know if you're calling upon a God that you've never seen before in your life nobody hears seen God nobody hears seen Jesus but if you believe in him by faith and you call upon him that means you do believe in him doesn't it and so if you call upon him he will save you it's a promise and instantly he gives you that gift that's eternal life a gift that you can never lose and so that's a that's a pretty good deal all you have to do is have faith isn't that a lot easier than i have to do all this religious stuff isn't that easier than i have to go to church every week isn't that easier than i have to give tithes in the offering plate isn't that easier than i have to do a whole bunch of good stuff in order to get there and hope that at the last day the good outweighs the bad isn't that a lot easier and you're like well i want to do things the hard way well that's prideful it's prideful and there is no other way it's either all jesus or it's nothing and you might not agree with that you might not believe that but that is what the bible teaches and the bible teaches that if you believe in jesus you'll have everlasting life and you'll never lose it and you know what ricky believed that ricky believed that i have a testimony of ricky's faith he did believe that you know what he's looking down and he wants you to be saved too you know why because he wants you to be there with him anybody that's saved wants their family members saved too so that's why i took the time to go over that with you now if you believe that truth i'm going to just lead a prayer at the end and obviously you can follow along with that prayer you can pray that prayer in your heart you can pray it out loud if you want to if you believe in jesus and you want to trust them as your savior today right now then you can do that maybe you just want to wait for a little while and and see whether i'm what i'm saying is true that's okay too but i'm going to lead a prayer and if you pray that prayer and you believe in your heart you will be saved okay it's not the prayer necessarily that saves you it's the fact that you have faith in jesus and that you're trusting in him alone for your salvation so i'm going to have everybody bow our heads together and i'm just going to pray and if you want to be saved go ahead and pray with me dear heavenly father dear jesus i trust you lord i believe in you and i'm asking you to save me please take me to heaven when i die please grant me the gift of everlasting life i'm only trusting in you jesus not my good works and i believe that it's eternal and that you'll do it because i've asked lord please save me now lord please save me now in jesus name i pray amen if you believed in christ the bible says you are saved and never let anybody take that away from you your faith has made you whole and i want to turn it over now to the family i know this is going to be hard for some of you and if if you stand up here and blubber that's okay we're not going to make fun of you but i want to take a time where the family can get up here and i'm actually if you want me to i'll turn the microphone on i'm not giving it to you i'm just letting you use it for a little while i'm going to let you use it if you would prefer to speak where you're at that's fine if you want to come up here you're welcome to and just uh if you just want to share a memory about ricky or you just want to say something and that's what i just would ask that you kind of keep it g-rated you know we are in a church and uh i don't know y'all so i don't know but uh i just want to make sure that we just keep it you know family friendly and you know if you want to come up and say something about ricky you're more than welcome to if you raise your hand then i'll just uh i'll bring the microphone to you otherwise you can just walk up and speak okay all right um i'm gonna go ahead and is there anybody that wants to come up and say something first okay come on up hello my name is ken i'm rick's stepdad when i first met his mom he was like three months old and uh i i just uh i wasn't sure about having a three-month-old kid especially that wasn't mine but as time went on i found myself starting to love this kid and then it just started loving him more and more and more and um he came to me when he needed when he needed things and i he always was there but i didn't see him for a while because as you get older you kind of you tend to you know kind of you know he's got his own things he's doing but then his sister his sister called me about i don't know about a year ago and told me dad we're gonna come stay with you he said okay i go yeah he can come he goes he's gonna stay a week or two i think he's gonna come out here to oregon and uh i said okay so he came to stay with me and you know i told him you know that's fine and he came and we talked and everything was good then one one night he mentioned he goes well you know i went and seen my dad i go really he goes yeah he goes i went out to texas seen my dad and uh you know it was nice i had a good time out there well i don't know why but it hurt inside me when he said that my dad you know because i felt like i'm your dad you know and we had a few words and uh he ended up leaving and uh when he left he told me no dad i really do love you and i just thought yeah yeah yeah yeah but then he came out here and uh i just felt bad and alone you know that this was gonna happen guys i wouldn't let him go you know so he loves you so much i know that but just one little note don't ever think that that man can't love you because i'm living proof i love that kid like like it i know now the reason it hurts so bad is because i thought when he told me that is because i i realized how much i love that kid you know but uh about him knowing i would have never let him go you know lisa you guys are unseparable when you guys were younger and i know that it means a lot for you to be here and everybody else uh rick's dad is here sir i loved your son like he was my own and uh i feel for your loss oh i really do um anybody else's family i loved that kid man i loved that kid and i know it just hurt when he told me that hey i seen my dad i shouldn't have took it the way i did but you know i just that kid was he was he was a good kid man and i loved him and i told i tried to tell him look ricky you need to come out here to oregon because that's where you need to come because he wasn't doing too good in vegas you know i didn't i didn't see him for a while because he was he was out doing his own thing but um i tried to tell him he had this firebird he didn't want to leave his firebird i told him look at ricky i'll fix your firebird and then as soon as i get it running real good and everything you come back and get it and you go back and try to bargain you know but for some reason when he he told me he came to see you and i seen my dad i don't know why but it just i took it the wrong way and it hurt you know we kind of had a few words but man i loved your son so much i really did and that i known i would have never let him go no sorry some of you don't know me i'm sheila's brother and i was ricky's uncle and it changed me to say that i missed a lot of all y'all's lives because of the way i lived and uh i want to say for all you that still have a chance stay away from drugs and alcohol they'll ruin your life and i know ricky had his battles with it too i was there when he was born uh not when he was born actually when he was born but when he was little um me and me and my wife malady and ricky ricky and sheila we all lived together when uh when he was a baby um kenny you're just as much as his dad as ricky is you know um for you for those of you i didn't meet uh i love ricky with all my heart he's got blood he's got my blood in him too and i'm sorry i'm so sorry for all the years that i missed with ricky and with the rest of you serena and sierra uh i mean uh my sister's got other kids too that i've never even met you know um families get separated through states you know life choices what have you and uh i just want all you to know that i love ricky with all my heart and i love each and every one of you and i'm truly sorry for the years that i missed just in peace sometimes tragedy brings you guys all back together i just want to let this whole family know how much rick loved everybody he would take the shirt off of his back for anybody and everybody he loved his son more than anything in the entire world and i'm so grateful that you guys are all here and i'm grateful everybody can put our stuff aside and come up and just love each other just love each other at the end of the day that's what this is about so when you walk away from here today i hope that you call that person you haven't talked to in a really long time and just love each other unconditionally forever and ever because you don't know how short life is and i hope that aaron you know you're so loved you're so loved by the people in this room and you're gonna be okay you know i want to say thank you to everybody here for you know you guys when whoever set up the go fund me i want to say thank you very much for that i mean you guys have shown the support and without this without you none of this would have been possible so i want to say thank you to everybody who helped do this and put it together thank you and me and my family we thank you i don't do well with public speaking at the best of times um my name is serina i'm one of ricky's sisters and i really did have the best big brother growing up because he was always there for me just like he was there for everybody and he had nothing but love in his heart for everybody and everything i can't remember one bad thing ricky would ever say about anybody because he wouldn't and i know i've been so angry about this because i think just why my brother but i know my brother and i know that he would have taken that over anybody else because he was the most selfless person ever and i think i miss him more than anything he was the best dad for aaron and i know he loves you he's so proud of you because you were all he all he ever talked about was just how proud he was of you he was the best uncle he was there for me when my daughter was born and he named her off of a show one tree hill and he just he was just the most just genuine just kind loving person and there's not one person that he didn't meet that he wouldn't have made them feel good and impact their lives i'm just gonna miss them like i know so many people are but it's hard to accept but we really do carry him with us wherever we go until we can see him again and i can't wait for the day that i see him again because i won't be scared for what happens to me i know i'll see my brother and that's all i want right now but i just want to thank everybody for putting everything together the time the money the energy to help either for our family and the support of you all has really carried us all through this and i can't thank you enough and even though my brother maybe didn't know some of you guys personally he would have just given you the biggest hug and made me feel like he was your brother and i just i really thank you all i'm gonna go um i don't really know what to say i'm his son as you might know and um he was the best dad i could ever ask he taught me everything i know he taught me to be the man i am and i was so proud of him and i wish i just called him one more time i know he's grateful all of you are here and i couldn't be more grateful he was truly the best person ever you were everything and more that ricky i know i just want to thank everybody for coming you all know i'm ricky's mom i want to take my church family you guys are so wonderful my family i love you guys so much everybody um ricky made me a mom he was a light all the time even when he was down he made people feel better and had nothing but nice wonderful things to say about people i don't recall him ever really ever saying talking down about anybody it didn't even matter who it was somebody could have wronged him and he would even just say well you know circumstances and things happen and he adored his sisters he was such a big brother to you guys sometimes overbearing in a way i know but he was just such a protector and he wanted to make sure that his sisters were were okay you know and aaron your dad just adored you he everything was about aaron everything and he came up to oregon to get his life together he got a job he got saved first and he came up to oregon and i just want to thank uh miss bobby my friend over there in the salmon colored shirt who led my son to the lord and that means everything to me everything and i know his loved ones here he's wanting you all to get saved and be with him someday and it's so easy to be saved like pastor was saying what the bible says it's like taking a drink of water it's like walking through a door just ask him to save you believe in your heart and then you will see him again you will see him again all of you will see him again you just have to call upon the name of the lord and believe in your heart that he died for you it was buried and rose again and it's everlasting life simple it's a gift gift that you can never lose it will last forever and you know this is kind of like the time where you contemplate where we go when we die right i just hope and pray and i've been praying for years for all of you to call upon the name of lord and be saved and now that we know that ricky's in heaven i know that's all he wants that's all he wants is for all of you to be in heaven with him someday okay and uh again i just want to thank everybody for coming and uh let's not forget that ricky loved to make people laugh he was that was his favorite thing to do he always had the jokes he always i mean he came to serena's wedding okay he came to serena's wedding in a prison jumpsuit he he thought that was the funniest thing and you know we all did too and you know we all did too um my husband and i joked that i could have worn one here here i know yes yes um but that's ricky ricky was he was an uplifter and you all that know him know that he was always wanting everybody to smile to laugh to be happy and uh again i just want to thank everybody for coming and um please be saved i'm i'm gonna try to keep it pg i promise i promise so rick and i were probably inseparable for over a decade people probably thought we were gonna get married and have a nice life he wasn't my type he just wasn't my type um two of my best friends from high school and junior high got married it was like a picture perfect world and they had my little baby a who gosh i had him every almost every day for the first three four years of your life with your mom and dad i got to share a lot of your early times growing up and me and rick went down a separate ways after a while but i do remember running into him at work and you know just talking to him and his love for aaron never changed he loved you so much you were the most prideful proud thing that he you were his little trophy that he would carry around and he loved you so much and i'm sure your aunts were probably happy when you were born because a lot of a lot of rick probably came off of them and they were probably able to have a boyfriend or something now in their lives that doesn't always say he was more afraid of ricky than my dad yeah he he loved you and i mean i spent lots of years with ricky and ken and and you girls prior to tiffany and he loved you guys so much just as a family and he did always try to make everybody laugh he called me every morning to wake me up are we going to school today yeah i'll see you there um but like i said i remember running into him you know years down the road after we didn't talk for a few years and i just asked him how he was doing and i asked him about aaron and and tiff as well and he was happy he was happy that he knew that you guys didn't work out you know and he was happy for you and steve and you probably couldn't ask for a better guy to to be here for ask for a better guy to to be here for you other than your dad i mean your dad was a great guy and these two guys are really alike and i think that's why i love steve so much just like your dad they were great people great guys and they cared about everybody else more than themselves and put everybody first and that's what rick did he cared for everybody else and put everybody first and i love him for that and i miss the years that we missed out on but i know there will be another time when my mom told me that um ricky was gonna first move down here i was so excited because when i when i used to know him well because i don't i spent a lot of time with him when he moved down here i don't really remember the time i spent with him when i was in vegas or when i visited him that much but i i always knew that he always wanted the best for me and everybody he he couldn't be more grateful for anybody here and um when he when he first came down here it was like i was i was so happy to see him because i knew that coming down here would help him so much and just looking at him it helped me living with him he would do anything for anybody he helped me he got me stuff for school we played basketball together we we always hung out together he helped me with stuff he he always he always talked about seeing you erin he always wanted to see you he was such a loving and funny person we would always go to the hot tub make he would always make jokes no matter what kind of situation it was he would make everybody smile and he was he was just a cheerful guy he couldn't there was nothing i could say that was bad about him that he would do to anybody like like i forgot who said it i can't really think right now but even people who wronged him he would still have you know something good to say about him just he can only find the best he could only be the best he's the best uncle i could ever ask for because he was such a role model for me he was such a he just wanted the best for everybody for me he tried he tried to do the best for me tried to make me the best i can be is there anybody else give you a few seconds here well thanks everybody for sharing and uh once again i'd like to appreciate everybody for coming and please make sure that you offer your condolences to the family and we really do appreciate miss sheila and her family miss sierra and ethan our church members here and we're happy to do it we're happy to uh to provide the services for ricky so i'm going to have brannon come up and we're going to sing one more hymn before we go and then i'll close in prayer and just remember the refreshments are to follow but we don't have a lot of time for the graveside service i i think that if we got to be there on time right i know that nobody else is on time for that yeah yeah we we like to to joke and say that we're always late baptist church so we almost named our church that but we we do need to be there on time and and look the graveside service isn't going to be long so it's just going to be uh i'm going to it's going to be a lot faster than what my preaching was okay so um but it'll be a short time and then obviously you can say your final goodbyes but after the song i'm going to come up and pray and then we're going to have refreshments and then you know it probably took like i said 25 minute drive with no traffic i don't know what the traffic situation is right now but make sure that you plug in the coordinates on your gps or phone or whatever however you're going to get there and uh there's a driveway i guess it's not really a road that you turned out once you get to that address right there's a driveway okay okay so as a driver is it a dirt road or a paved road okay so okay who's planning on going to the graveside service could you just give me a raise of hands okay i figured most of the family would be there and then okay all right so i just don't want to start without everybody being there so like if you're running late or you can't find it please like do you have they have all the way of contacting you michela okay all right well brandon come on up and sing a song we'll sing a song one last song together and then i'll come up and pray and we'll have our refreshments all right if you like to sing along with us turn to page 396 we'll sing our last song before we pray out page 396 in your green hymnal we're gonna sing so little time so little time sing it out on that first verse so little time the harvest will be over are we being done report our word to jesus lord of harvest and hope he'll smile in that he'll say well done me oh then to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some sinner in how many times i should have strongly pleaded how often did i feel too strictly worn the spirit moved oh had i pled for jesus the grain is fallen lost ones not reborn warm today we reap warmness our golden harvest today is given us lost souls to win oh then to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some sinner in despite the heat the ceaseless toil the hardship the broken heart or those we cannot win misunderstood because we're all peculiar still no regrets we'll have but for our sin today we read or miss our golden harvest today is given us lost souls to win oh then to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some sinner in a day of pleasure or a feast of friendship a house or car or garments fair or fame we'll all be trashed when souls are brought to heaven and then how sad to face the slackers play today we'll read or miss our golden harvest today is given us lost souls to win oh then to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some sinner in on the last ones the harvest wide with reapers few is wasting and many souls will die and never know the love of christ the joy of sins forgiven oh let us weep in love and pray and go oh today we reap or miss our golden harvest today is given us lost souls to win oh then to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some sinner in all right well we're going to close the services in a word of prayer dear heavenly father lord we thank you so much for your blessings and your mercy and your grace lord we ask that you would comfort the hearts of the family that are here lord help them to lord to just grieve and uh and to get past this and lord but never forget ricky lord we know that he's with you in heaven and i just pray that you would bless each and every person that came here and maybe there's someone here that doesn't know you lord i pray that they would make that decision before it's too late eternally and uh let's pray that you'd bless the food and the fellowship to fall in the graveside service in jesus name we pray amen and ye now therefore have sorrow but i will see you again and your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man taketh from you glorious is what a day no more sickness one who died for me his grace and leads me through the promised land takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land is but i would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep you sorrow not even as others which have no hope it is well with my soul it is well with my soul so is with my soul so is is with my soul so with my soul so so so no light in the darkness to see so look for me however will go strangely dear in the lungs of his glory and his words so turn your eyes upon the land of the free and the home of the brave and the home of the brave. The light in the darkness to see, there's a light for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of love will grow strangely dear in the light of his glory and grace. In the lungs of his glory and grace.