It has been brought to my attention that at some time any one of you in this class may be called upon to deliver a funeral sermon. I do not want you to be caught off guard, so I am presenting you with a funeral sermon outline that you can use as a general starting place for about any funeral you may be asked to do. My outlines for funerals are usually short and last only 15- 20 minutes. Talking longer won’t raise the dead, but you may be putting the family through more grief if you make it longer than that. I once was present when a denominational country preacher preached for nearly 2 hours. He made the family so mad that some of them got up and walked out of the funeral before he had finished. Work closely with the local funeral director who is handling the funeral. They can be a lifesaver as to providing you with valuable information about the family, or the deceased, that you may want to interject into the funeral sermon.
This is a good general outline if the deceased has family who are members of the church.
Funeral Sermon For: ______Preached on ______
Scripture Reading: Psalms 23
This morning we come to remember ______. He/She has lived a long life, seen good days, and now has come to the end of his/her allotted days on this earth.
When we see someone we love suffer so, we wonder if there is any comfort that can be given to the family who has taken care of the one they love so much? Other family members and friends care, but, even more importantly, God sees and He cares. I’d like to read for you, especially for the family, a poem titled
“He Careth”
What can it mean? Is it ought to Him
That the nights are long and the days are dim?
Can He be touched by the griefs I bear,
Which sadden the heart and whiten the hair?
Around His throne are eternal calms,
And strong, glad music of happy psalms,
And bliss unruffled by any strife;
How can He care for my little life?
And yet I want Him to care for me
While I live in this world where the sorrows be;
When the lights die down from the path I take,
When strength is feeble and friends forsake;
When love and music, that once did bless,
Have left me to silence and loneliness.
And my life-song changes to sobbing prayers,
Then my heart cries out for a God who cares.
When shadows hang o’er me the whole day long,
And my spirit is bowed with shame and wrong;
When I am not good, and the deeper shade
Of conscious sin makes my heart afraid,
And the busy world has too much to do
To stay in its course to help me through,
And I long for a Savior – can it be
That the God of the universe cares for me?
Oh, wonderful story of deathless love!
Each child is dear to that heart above;
He fights for me when I can not fight,
He comforts me in the gloom of night;
He lifts the burden, for He is strong;
He stills the sigh and awakens the song;
The sorrow that bowed me down He bears,
And loves and pardons because He cares.
Let all who are sad take heart again;
We are not alone in our hours of pain;
Our Father stoops from His throne above
To soothe and quiet us with His love.
-Anonymous
Just at that time in your life when you should be finding the gold in those golden years, it seems that our bodies begin to show signs of aging. Our bodies age, they break down, they become sick. Friends and brethren, we are all terminal; we are just dying at different rates. We will all go to meet our Maker one day.
We need our families and friends in such a time as this. We need the caring and sharing that they can give. To love and to be loved is part of the blessedness of being human. To comfort and console others in their loss is one of the privileges of being family.
A major crisis, such as this, is often a time of spiritual and emotional growth for us, if we will let it become that. It is a tribulation for us, but look at the good that can result from it. Romans 5:3-5 says, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
In times like this, we need to be a comfort and an encouragement to one another. Maybe we can be like the one talked of in this poem called:
“‘Tis You, My Friend:
The world is waiting for somebody,
Waiting and watching today,
Somebody to lift and strengthen,
Somebody to shield and stay.
Do you thoughtfully question, “Who?”
‘Tis you, my friend, ‘tis you.
The world is waiting for somebody,
The sad world, bleak and cold,
When wan-faced children are watching
For hope in the eyes of the old.
Do you wond’ring question, “Who?”
‘Tis you, my friend, ‘tis you.’
The world is waiting for somebody,
And has been years on years;
Somebody to soften its sorrows,
Somebody to soften its tears.
Then doubting, question no longer, “Who?”
For, oh, my friend, ‘tis you!’”
-copied
Or, as the Bible says in2 Corinthians 1:2-5 READ
God will comfort us in our time of sorrow and grief. When we have gone through sorrow and grief in our own lives, it makes it easier to help and encourage others who also go through sorrow and grief. It is often easier to help someone when we have shared the same basic experience in our own life.
1)We learn to love people for who they are.
2)We love people for what they do.
These first two things help us to remember those who have passed from this life into the next.
3)We are grieved when death takes them from us.
Because of this sadness and grief at death, God offers us help. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” –Psalms 46:1
Too often we forget that it was God who created man. We tend to forget that it was God who made us in His own image- “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” Genesis 1:26
Then man became a living soul – “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” – Genesis 2:7
The soul of everyone is very valuable - “..for what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” –Matthew 16:26b
At best, life is short – “The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” –Psalms 90:10
It is a vapour – “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain’; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” – James 4:13&14
Life is as a flower.. of very short duration. – James 1:11
______has experienced the two greatest experiences of humanity: life, and now death. In doing so, he/she is like a mist that has appeared a little while and then vanished, he/she is like a flower that has bloomed but now has faded; he/she has kept the appointment that we all must one day keep: (Hebrews 9:27) “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”
May we each live our lives so as to be prepared for our own journey into eternity.
May God bless ______family and friends as you go on through this life. There will be an emptiness, but you can help fill that space with all the good memories you have. You have the help from each other, you have the help of your friends, and more importantly, you have God’s help to enable you to get through this time of tribulation in your life. May God comfort your family through the days ahead as you remember those “precious memories” of ______.