The Phrase of God Stored Him: Funeral Message for Sidney Boyd (1948–2023)

When a youngster (say, 14 or 15 years outdated) is surrounded by his greatest pals, dwelling in a secure neighborhood, amongst blissful households, rooted collectively in a trustworthy church, the very last thing on his thoughts is that, in sixty years, a kind of youngsters can be talking on the different’s funeral.

We didn’t understand it on the time as a result of we simply took it as a right that, from about 1956 to 1964, Bradley Boulevard was a type of paradise in Greenville, South Carolina. No person locked the doorways at evening. We performed video games after darkish, working by means of the backyards, with nobody sounding an alarm. We truly drove go-karts on the neighborhood streets.

World of Friendship

4 blocks northeast was White Oak Baptist Church, the worshiping, relational hub of my life and my friendships. And on the heart of that little group was Sidney Boyd — together with Billy Watson and Joel and Carol Reed and Nancy Ponder. Sidney lived 4 doorways down the hill. We just about by no means went to a park to play. Our yards had been our kingdom, our battlefield, our Wild West canyons and prairies, our strategic rendezvous.

One of many causes I’m right here this afternoon is that this little world of friendships meant extra to me than most individuals realized. I felt very a lot an outlier at Wade Hampton Excessive Faculty. However with my circle of pals within the neighborhood and at White Oak, I used to be beloved. We most likely wouldn’t have known as it love. Nevertheless it was. We had been at dwelling with one another. The thought by no means entered our minds that one in every of us would possibly have to fake something. Being actual and relaxed was not one thing you probably did. It was simply who we had been.

Whether or not it was a ping-pong sport within the storage; or swimming within the yard pool; or sporting our inexperienced uniforms to play church softball; or consuming pizza on the picnic desk; or sitting in a circle on Sunday evening, finding out the Bible; that band of pals was a profoundly stabilizing power for me.

Stored by God’s Phrase

Jesus was at all times the best. We by no means doubted it. The Bible was at all times certain. Issues weren’t up for grabs. In our personal immature method, we noticed what we couldn’t identify. Jesus and his phrase and his individuals had been self-authenticating. We didn’t know that phrase. We couldn’t clarify it, any greater than we may have defined electrical energy or the workings of the interior combustion engine or the method of photosynthesis. However we knew that gentle and motors and vegetation had been actual they usually labored. Jesus was actual. His individuals had been actual. And his e-book labored.

Why did Sidney get up a believer in Jesus for twenty-five thousand days — together with days of deep sorrow and relentless illness? Why did you get up a believer this morning? The phrase of God had taken root. And it did its work. “I’ve mentioned all these items to you to maintain you from falling away” (John 16:1). That is what held us: the phrase of God. And that is what held us collectively, even after we didn’t see one another for years.

The phrase of God made Sidney and stored Sidney. To the top.

Unafraid to the Finish

So, I’m deeply grateful to God and to his Son Jesus and to his phrase for the life and the friendship of Sidney Boyd. And I feel he can be happy if I left you with two Scriptures, one for him and one for us who nonetheless dwell.

God has not destined us for wrath, however to acquire salvation by means of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us in order that whether or not we’re awake or asleep we’d dwell with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:9–10)

Let nobody boast in males. For all issues are yours, whether or not Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or dying or the current or the long run — all are yours, and you might be Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. (1 Corinthians 3:21–23)

We don’t have to worry dying. It’s our servant. Belief Jesus who died for us. Stroll in fearless pleasure, and love the individuals round you.