Taken People Leave Bread Crumbs (Cathy Burch's Funeral)
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Text:
And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Subject: Taken People Leave Bread Crumbs.
Introduction:
Growing up watching tv, I don’t remember exactly what show it was that I was watching. But I remember watching a show in which an individual was kidnapped, they were taken. When their love ones came back from the woods hunting or doing whatever it was that they were doing, they noticed the place in disarray and their love one was missing.
They started panicking trying to figure out what happen to their love one, but the love one was smart. The love one had some bread on them and when they were taken, they started dropping breadcrumbs so that their loved ones could FOLLOW THEM to where they had been taken.
Family, friends, saints of God, I present to you this day that Cathy has been taken but she left bread crumbs, to show you how to get to where she is!
“Taken People Leave Bread Crumbs.”
I. The Struggle for Life.
I don’t know what Cathy was thinking prior to her passing. I believe she knew she was passing. She was aware of her surroundings. At one point, she was unresponsive, but we thank God that in her final moments she was able to respond and communicate in someway with her family.
It reminds me of the dilemma that put states in Phil 1:23-24
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
Although we were praying that God what touch and heal her body, God in his infinite wisdom took her. While this family who is left behind, her friends, her church family mourns her passing, we simultaneously come to the realization that she is resting in The LORD. And if she is (it’s not a question of whether she is or isn’t, we are confident that Cathy is resting in the LORD), if she is resting in the LORD, then it is as Paul said “far better” for her.
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Another scripture says:
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Just tell someone......it may hurt right now......but she’s far better than us.
Paul and the scriptures talk about the intermediate stage. This is where a lot of people get confused about. There is a stage between death and resurrection called “rest”. It is the stage where the spirit returns back to God and the body returns back to the dust.
It is the stage where Paul says to be absent from the body, and to be present with the LORD.
It is the stage where Jesus told the thief dying on the cross beside him, after he mocked Him and ridiculed Him, yet at the final moments of his life believed in Jesus, and Jesus tells him “This day, thou shall be with me in paradise.”
Cathy’s shell, is sitting here.....but she is really in paradise with the LORD.
“She’s far better”
II. The Struggle In Life.
If you would allow me, to be honest and transparent, death of a love one is not something fun to experience. It hurts us, it is devastating to us because a part of us, someone that we love and cherish is taken from us.
But if I could engage in a bit of spiritual rhetorical I would say YET, at the same time........for the believer.......death is an escape for us:
Again the scriptures declare:
The Bible declares that Jesus prior to his death began to share with his disciples how he must suffer many things.
Jesus suffered.
Cathy......she suffered.
We are going to suffer.
But through everything she went through, she maintained her faith and her walk with the LORD.
That is a lesson for us to learn. That is a bread-crumb that she left behind. That when life gets hard and difficult, when things don’t turn out the way that you want, when you lose things that are important to you like bodily function or anything else.
MAINTAIN YOUR FAITH AND YOUR INTEGRITY!
Cathy at the end of her life was like Job:
In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
THAT’S A BREADCRUMB!
Conclusion:
But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
In this portion of scripture, David did something that God was not pleased with. He took another man’s wife, got her pregnant, and then tried to cover it up by having Bathsheba’s husband put on the front line of battle and killed.
God told David through Nathan the prophet the child won’t live.
David, fasted and wept for the child to leave, believing the God would have mercy. But the child still died.
Family, you didn’t do anything wrong.....it was just her time to go. We all have an appointed time.
David said “But now he is dead”........we say “Now she is dead”, no more prayers offered up for her, no more fasting offered up for her, she has passed the threshold.
David’s advisers was a little confused about David’s behavior. Just like some of yall are confused this morning about our behavior. The child died, and what does David do? He doesn’t stay there on the ground, he doesn’t go into a state of depression, doesn’t lose his appetite, HE GETS UP FROM THE GROUND, WASHES THE TEARS FROM HIS FACE, ANOINTS HIMSELF WHICH MEANS HE DOES HIS HAIR AND THE ANOINTING OIL HAD A FRAGRANCE THAT MADE YOU SMELL GOOD. CHANGES HIS CLOTHES........GOES TO THE TABERNACLE.......AND WORSHIPS THE LORD!!!
Yall don’t hear me, HE GETS UP, WASHES HIS FACE, ANOINTS HIMSELF, CHANGES HIS CLOTHES, GOES TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD AND WORSHIPED THE LORD!! Then sits down and eats his food.
The servants look at David and say “what’s going on in here”. That’s what some of you are trying to figure out. Let me tell you what’s going on.
David said:
And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
We can’t bring her back.......but we can go to her!!!! SHE LEFT BREADCRUMBS by the example that she left you family. Follow the breadcrumbs!!!
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
That’s the bread Cathy had.......she had Jesus in her life!!! If you want to go where Cathy is.....you’ve got to FOLLOW JESUS!!!
But brother preacher, I still don’t understand.......how in the world can you all shout and rejoice in a time like this. It should be a time of mourning and sadness.
You know why we can rejoice?
BECAUSE CATHY LEFT ANOTHER BREADCRUMB! IF YOU WATCHED HER, SHE REJOICED NO MATTER WHAT, SHE NEVER GAVE UP ON GOD, SHE STILL REMAINED FAITHFUL! AND WHEN SHE COULD BE HERE SHE WAS HERE!
AND YOU NEED TO FOLLOW HER EXAMPLE AND LOVE GOD, SERVE GOD, BELIEVE GOD, AND PRAISE GOD NO MATTER WHAT IS THROWN YOUR WAY!!!
FINALLY,
WE CAN REJOICE BECAUSE PAUL SAYS in this classic scripture:
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye 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.