Ken Stahl Memorial
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If I could give you a hint in preparation for your own funeral (which we all will have some day), please get a Bible that your family can find and underline what is important to you and put bookmarks where those verses can be found.
Kenny’s Bible has brought unimaginable comfort to his children and their spouses this week, and the passages he underlined practically wrote his own eulogy.
Let me show you some of what we found:
Kenny grasped God’s Mercy to Sinners
Kenny grasped God’s Mercy to Sinners
1. Ephesians 2 begins with the wickedness and death of a person outside of Christ, but v. 4 starts with one of the biggest “buts” in Scripture.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
2. God’s mercy and grace can change the human heart—regardless of current situation.
3. God is kindly choosing you to receive His grace as well. The previous chapter in Paul’s letter reads…
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
4. God’s merciful and gracious choice is that you would respond to His invitation to be adopted into His family.
Transition: Speaking of God’s Will, Kenny had a pretty simple way of looking at it. He was known to tell his kids, “It’s in the Bible, I’d better do it!” One of those things he read in the Bible is how a man should treat his wife…
Ken loved Ruth with a love that still brought tears to his eyes years after she had passed.
Ken loved Ruth with a love that still brought tears to his eyes years after she had passed.
28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
1. Cathy recalled that many times she heard her daddy say, “The best way to love your kids is to love their mother.”
Kenny knew hardship, but it never broke him.
Kenny knew hardship, but it never broke him.
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
1. James, I saw a video of you playing guitar. I encourage you to write your own song based on this verse.
2. Ken, and his wife Ruth, endured one of the hardest things that parents will ever be asked to do when they buried their daughter, Kim.
3. Every man in this room knows how closely our identity is tied to our work and our livelihood. Ken and Ruth ran on hard times and Ken found relief from good friend Alan who already spoke. But the circumstances that led Ken to work for Alan were events that would cause a lesser man to question the goodness of God.
4. Ken never broke because he chose to believe something good was about to happen.
This is what we call Faith.
This is what we call Faith.
1. Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
2. Faith’s reward is guaranteed in Romans 8
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A portion of Scripture that several of our young adults are studying together is 1st John. Kenny had a bookmark at the book of 1st John and wrote 2 references at the top of the page. 1 is Hab. 3:17-19 which we’ve already read. The other is John 14:6 that I would like to discuss for the rest of our time together.
Let me set this verse in the setting of Jesus’ conversation
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus Gave Heavenly Hope to Heavy Hearts (John 14:1-6)
Jesus Gave Heavenly Hope to Heavy Hearts (John 14:1-6)
The disciples had just been with Christ as he calmed the seas that threatened to sink them.
The disciples had just been with Christ as he calmed the seas that threatened to sink them.
1. In John 13 Jesus announced his own death which agitates the disciples.
The Death of a loved one can unsettle our hearts
The Death of a loved one can unsettle our hearts
1. Jesus talks about the reality of Heaven (John 14:2)
· One week ago yesterday after the family had decided that hospice care was the next step in Ken’s healthcare, I personally heard him ask his nurse, “Do you think Heaven is real?
· Since that is the last question I heard Ken ask, that is the question I pose to all of you right now. Do you think Heaven is real?
· I’m convinced that Heaven is not only a real place; it is really different from earth.
(1 Cor 15:53) For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Two little birds had a nest in the bushes in the back part of the garden. Julia found the nest. It had four speckled eggs in it. One day, after she had been away some time, she ran into the garden to take a peep at the speckled eggs. Instead of the beautiful eggs, there were only broken, empty shells. "Oh!" she said, picking out the pieces, "the beautiful eggs are all spoiled and broken! "No, Julia," said her brother; "they are not spoiled: the best part of them has taken wings, and flown away." So it is in death: the body left behind is only an empty shell; while its soul, the better part, has taken wings, and flown away.
2. Jesus discusses their reservations in Heaven (John 14:2,3,6)
· I asked Kenny point-blank, “What do you want the people at your memorial service to know about you?”
· He said that revival preachers used to hold services out at the country church in Homestead and some of them tended to get pretty worked up. It was at one of these services when he was a Junior in High School, that he responded to the invitation and made sure His reservation was set!
My friend Mike got on an airplane one day and saw one of the strangest things he had ever seen in his life. The man sitting next to him in first class was dressed in a bathrobe and slippers. The man's seat was a beautiful leather chair, but my friend's was simply made of fabric. The man said to my friend. "I see you have noticed my chair. This chair is made of the finest leathers money can buy." Then my friend noticed that the man had a mahogany tray table. Again, the man said, "Ahh, you have noticed my gorgeous tray table." My friend looked up and saw that the guy had a ceiling fan. The rich man was also surrounded by a VCR, a television set, a CD player, and a computer.
My friend was flabbergasted. He asked the rich man, "Why would anyone go to the expense to have all these things installed in an airplane?" The man replied bluntly, "Because this is my home."
My friend thought, "What a shame! A place that was intended to be a journey, he has made his home."
-- Paul Azinger, Zinger, (Zondervan, 1995), p. 216
3. Jesus announces their reception in Heaven (John 14:3,4)
Nothing can take away the hurt and the sense of loss that you now feel.
Nothing can take away the hurt and the sense of loss that you now feel.
1. But knowing the assurance of Heaven can offer peace in these troubled times.
Conclusion:
For the family the days ahead are going to be rough and you may be tempted to ask God “Why?” Perhaps we can draw strength from a story that reminds us of God’s care.
Conclusion:
For the family the days ahead are going to be rough and you may be tempted to ask God “Why?” Perhaps we can draw strength from a story that reminds us of God’s care.
In Catherine Marshall's book about her husband Peter, she cites a touching story of a young terminally ill son asking his mother what death was like, if it hurt.
"Kenneth," she said, "you remember when you were a tiny boy how you used to play so hard all day that when night came you would be too tired even to undress, and you would tumble into mother's bed and fall asleep?
"That was not your bed -- it was not where you belonged.
"And you would only stay there a little while. In the morning, much to your surprise, you would wake up and find yourself in your own bed in your own room.
"You were there because someone had loved you and taken care of you.
Your father had come -- with big strong arms -- and carried you away.
"Kenneth, death is just like that.
We just wake up some morning to find ourselves in the other room -- our own room where we belong -- because the Lord Jesus loved us."
The lad's shining, trusting face looking up into hers told her that the point had gone home and that there would be no more fear -- only love and trust in his little heart as he went to meet the Father in Heaven.
He never questioned again.
And several weeks later he fell asleep just as she had said.
-- Catherine Marshall, A Man Called Peter
Last Saturday Kenny’s pain medicine lured him to sleep, and by Monday afternoon, he woke up in Heaven!
Before our final song, I’m told that Kenny had 2 questions he would use to start conversations. 1 was “Are you married?” The other was, “Do You know Jesus?” Do not leave this building today without truthfully answering “yes” to that 2nd question.