{"id":33473,"date":"2022-09-10T20:50:20","date_gmt":"2022-09-11T01:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-tips-for-preaching-funerals-for-unbelievers\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T20:50:20","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T01:50:20","slug":"5-tips-for-preaching-funerals-for-unbelievers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-tips-for-preaching-funerals-for-unbelievers\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Tips for Preaching Funerals for Unbelievers"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re looking for more funeral sermon ideas, be sure to head over to SermonSearch.com to find 100’s of funeral sermons to help you out!<\/em><\/p>\n

In an article for the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, John Moore offers five strategies for faithfully preaching funerals for unbelievers. He writes:<\/p>\n

Some unbelievers know they\u2019re unbelievers. Many more think that because they quoted the pledge of allegiance and said \u201cunder God\u201d with gusto, they are probably good with God and will go to heaven. There are also a fair number of families that don\u2019t know what else to do when someone dies, so they call the Baptist preacher and have a Christian funeral.<\/p>\n

Yet we are people of conviction and kindness. This means we cannot just preach anyone into heaven, because we haven\u2019t been given the authority to do so. Also, we can\u2019t condemn anyone because we don\u2019t know their heart. A man with a past such as the thief on the cross may spend this day in paradise, while a man with a resume such as Judas\u2019 may, this day, find himself in hell.<\/p>\n

Whatever circumstances bring an unbeliever to the church house for a funeral, here is my strategy for preparing to do an unbeliever\u2019s funeral:<\/p>\n

1. Don\u2019t lie. <\/strong>Don\u2019t preach a person into heaven when they\u2019re not there. Remember: the family knew that person better than anyone, and they know if you\u2019re making them into something they weren\u2019t. Conversely, don\u2019t assume everyone there understands the eternal ramifications of belief on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the most vulnerable point of many of their lives\u2014when their hearts are soft\u2014this is a time for a us to bring clarity and gain credibility with the living, not throw it away.<\/p>\n

2. Tell the truth in love. <\/strong>We must resist the temptation to use this phrase: \u201cBilly\u2019s in hell right now, and the thing he\u2019d want you to know more than anything is that you don\u2019t have to go there.\u201d If we say that, we\u2019ve denigrated the dead and ostracized the living, all while being a stumbling block that people trip over before they see Jesus. Are we bigger rocks than Christ? Do we absolutely know that, in the seconds before he breathed his final breath, he didn\u2019t call upon the name of the Lord? We have to remember we are not the Lawgiver. We are gospel-proclaimers.<\/p>\n

3. Find redeemable, Christ-magnifying qualities. <\/strong>Did that person love his wife well? Was that person active in her community? Were his grandchildren his delight? Was she generous or kind? Frugal or hard-working? Even the most miserly old man has exhibited something that images his creator at one point or another. When we find it, we should use it as a transition to what the Word says about the One who displays quintessential character. We need to redeem that trait, while making sure we redeem it in order to point to the Redeemer.<\/p>\n

4. Find something unique that reminds the audience of the gravity of the situation.<\/strong> Did old Bill like \u201cDuck Dynasty\u201d? Then we can try something such as this:
Every time you\u2019re flipping through the channels and come across Bill\u2019s favorite show, and you see uncle Si up to his crazy antics, think of Bill. Think of all the wonderful memories y\u2019all shared, but don\u2019t stop there. Think of this moment, when you lost Bill, and let your mind wander to matters that we consider today. Matters of eternal weight and gravity. Matters of life and death. Heaven and hell. Gospel and belief. You know, Christ said that those who call upon him don\u2019t have to fear a moment like this.\u201d Then, we should tell them why.<\/p>\n

5. Proclaim the gospel.<\/strong> We cannot let one of the best opportunities for gospel proclamation pass. We are ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we owe people the gospel. We should not be ashamed of it\u2014it\u2019s what everyone expects from a faithful minister. More importantly, it\u2019s what Christ expects of His servants. I am tired of going to funerals and not hearing the gospel proclaimed. If we, as preachers, do a funeral and don\u2019t explicitly share the gospel, we need to find another line of work, because we\u2019ve been unfaithful to the kind of kingdom-calling of preaching the Word. [Read the full article.]<\/p>\n

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If you’re looking for more funeral sermon ideas, be sure to head over to SermonSearch.com to find 100’s of funeral sermons to help you out! In an article for the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, John Moore offers five strategies for faithfully preaching funerals for unbelievers. He writes: Some unbelievers know they\u2019re unbelievers. Many … Continue reading “5 Tips for Preaching Funerals for Unbelievers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}