Sample Funeral Outline  (Why Suffering) – by Pastor John White

FUNERAL SERVICE FOR H.C. BELL
by Pastor John White

Sardis #2 Baptist Church, Addison, AL
July 25, 2003

I. His testimony
A. His relationship to his family.
B. His relationship to God.

II. Why the suffering?
A. Man is a three part being, spirit, soul and
body.
1. I Thess. 5:23
2. Rom. 12:1-2

B. The wages of sin is death. Rom. 6:23
1. Rom. 5:12
2. The sin infected blood of Adam.

C. Death is an enemy
1. I Cor. 15:26
2. Death is not a friend to God.

D. Richard Exley in his book “WHEN YOU LOSE SOMEBODY YOU LOVE”

We inhabit a planet which is in rebellion, we are a part of a race living outside God’s will, and that one consequence of that rebellion is sickness and death. God doesn’t send this plague upon people, nor does he will it. It is simply a natural consequence of humanity’s fallen state. Although, as believers, we are a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), we remain a part of this human family-a family that is tainted by sin and death.

As a consequence, we too suffer the inevitable repercussions of that fallen state, even though we may be personally committed to the doing of God’s will and the coming of his kingdom. In truth the cause of sickness and death is not God, but the hated enemy, sin. Nor our personal sin necessarily, not a specific sin-for life and death cannot be reduced to a mathematical equation-but the fact of sin.

III. Why bad things happen to good people.
A. Hos. 4:6 ignorance
B. The tongue.
1. Prov. 18:21
2. James 3:6
C. Fear
1. Fear hath torment. I John 4:18
2. Job 3:25
D. Satan hasn’t been expelled from the earth

Conclusion:         2 Cor. 5:1,6-8
Phil. 1:20-23
1 Cor. 15:19-26, 51-57

Grave side: I Thess 4:13-18

Song: