Welcome. We're gathered here to worship the one true living God and to honor him for the life of his servant, James McClellan. And on behalf of Covenant Presbyterian Church and James's family, I want to thank you all so much for coming here today. It's great to see you all. Let's begin together with a word of prayer. Our holy God, we do come before you, you who are the true God, the author of life. You are the beginning and you are the end. You are the beginning in that you have made all things and everything that exists derives its existence and its strength from you. And you're also the end. You're the goal of all things. Everything that is is for you and for your honor and glory. And so we come with thankful hearts as we think of you, the good creator who has made all things very, very good. But we also remember, Lord, how we have gone astray and how we have defiled your creation with our sin. And so we also thank you that you're not only a great creator, but you're also a great redeemer. that you sent your son Jesus to defeat all our sin once and for all and to take on himself the consequence of our sin, which is death, and to make a way through his resurrection that we would have everlasting life. And so, Lord, it is in this hope, the hope of the resurrection, that we are gathered here now. For we come as those who are grieving the passing of one very dear to us, James. And Lord, there's truly no one like him, nor will there be. And who can put into words all the ways in which he has touched our lives and was a blessing to us? And Lord, not the least of these things, not the least of these blessings was seeing how you grabbed hold of him and how you redeemed him and how you gave him new life in Christ. And we are in awe of your redeeming power and love. And so it's in this hope, the hope that you're not done redeeming James, that we now find comfort. For even now as we think about how he's gone to your side, we still await with him the last day, the day of the resurrection when he and all those who trust in you will be raised up in glory and we will be reunited. Lord, comfort us now with these things as we grieve. be present in our worship to bless and minister to us, and receive our thanks and our praise for your amazing grace. For we pray this all in Jesus' name, amen. We'll now have the hymn, Amazing Grace, sung by Ivy Munson. Amazing grace, How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now am found Was blind but now Twas grace that taught my heart to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come His grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. And when this flesh and heart shall fail And mortal life shall cease I shall possess within the veil A life of joy My chains are gone I've been set free My God, my Savior Has ransomed me And like a flood His mercy reigns Unending love, amazing grace Unending love, amazing grace Now come to the reading of Holy Scripture where we hear of this amazing grace. Please now rise in honor of God's word as we hear it read. And listen now to the promises which God in the Bible gives to those who believe in Jesus Christ. I'll be reading from several selections, first from Psalm 23, then 1 Timothy, and then from the book of Romans. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. to the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Now from Romans. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who were called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Amen. Thus far, the reading of God's word. You may be seated. And now we'll hear from two songs that James himself composed, and the words are found on the inside of your bulletin, and then also the actual handwritten copy here on the back. These two songs will be performed by Karina and Cinnamon Peppa. You all know how much James loved music. All of the music today, the prelude songs, the service songs, as well as the songs you will hear downstairs during our lunch together, all of this music was chosen because they were songs that James loved to hear or play. James and I spent many hours discussing music, listening to music, and playing music together. even though we didn't always like the same kinds of music. It thrilled James to have the opportunity to enjoy music with people around him. The two songs you are about to hear were written by James, the first one in November of 2017, and the second one this past December, the month before he died. Despite the ups and downs of James' life, even as a Christian, he always had a big heart for God. I've been a Christian for 40 years. I have never written a song to God. He wrote both of these as a new Christian. These songs are really his prayers to God. The first one, asking God to forgive him for his sins. And the second one, thanking God for saving him. He was excited to share these songs, so I thought it would be best to perform them at his funeral. This is the first time these songs have ever been performed. My hope, and I believe his is as well, is that you will be blessed by these songs and that you will again see God's amazing grace in James's life, just as he did. Feel free to read the lyrics in your program as you listen. Taking in my last breath, my eyes shut tight Exhaling all my evil, it's God's time tonight It's God's time tonight And my old life is over now God has me anew But before anything can happen There's one thing left to do Unbended me, Jesus Please forgive me of my sins Unbended me, Jesus Please forgive me of my sins That devil man, Satan Showing his face again He's not wanting much But you asked me to play with him But you showed me a way out Forgiveness for my sins For my old life is over now God has me anew But before anything can happen There's one thing left to do Unbended knee, Jesus, please forgive me of my sins. Unbended knee, Jesus, please forgive me of my sins. O Lord. You showed me your light. You set me right. You gave me a chance to live my life. I want to thank you, Lord. I want to thank you, Lord. You showed me the way. You taught me to pray. All I want to do is give you praise. I want to thank you, Lord. I want to thank you, Lord. I needed you and you wanted me. You adopted me into your family. You sacrificed more than I ever could. You were patient with me. Until I understood I no longer walk through my life alone Hand in hand, you're gonna take me home You showed me the way You taught me to pray All I want to do is give Grace I've had almost a couple of weeks now to try to think through what needed to be said this morning. And a lot of that time was spent just trying to figure this out for myself. The questions that we all had, that we were all tormented with through the last several months, couple weeks, how to understand and how to talk about James' life and James' death. And I've prayed through these two weeks that God would give me insight, that he'd give me clarity on how to understand this and how to speak about it. And I think he's done the former, and time will tell whether he's going to allow me to keep talking. I think it's easier just to let you know I'm going to blub, so if you expect it, it won't be as awkward. What I'd like to do this morning is to take some of the insights and the points that were made in the scripture readings and just take a look at how they apply to the circumstance. And I do think that for us to understand and to appreciate and to be blessed by everything that's taken place, I mean, it would require me to say some things and share some things that are a little more on the personal side with James. All of you know how shy he was about sharing personal information. And I'm confident that even if he hadn't been in life, these are things that he himself would want me to say, and these are the things that I hope that God wants you to hear. The first question, I think, as we walked through this with James, was a delightful question. It was a happy question. It was, why does God save a guy like James? Paul, in the second passage that we read, called himself the foremost, or some translations will say the chief of sinners. He was number one, Paul said. Those of you who knew James back in the day, and those of you maybe who didn't but heard his stories, whether the children were listening or not, you know that James would not have hesitated to describe himself in the same way as what the Apostle Paul does, the chief of sinners, the foremost of sinners. So on the front end, as we walk through this journey with James, this was our question, and it was a question with a glorious answer. Paul tells us, Paul tells us why God showed mercy to him as the chief sinner. And that was so that the glory of his grace in Christ could be manifest. Paul wasn't a private chief sinner. Paul was a public chief sinner. He was the one that everyone knew, was the blasphemer, was the enemy of the church, was the murderer of God's people. And Paul says, God didn't save me in spite of that. He says that God saved me because of that. God saved me because of that so that people could see the depth of His grace, that we can't ever out-sin God's grace, that God's grace and Christ's blood are wide and powerful and strong and deep enough to save the worst sinner that we can imagine. After a deep struggle for months, as James first started coming here to Covenant, we saw him embracing the gospel, we saw him embracing and believing what Christ had done for him, putting his trust, putting his faith in Christ. And I know all of you saw, I know all of you saw the difference. The life the strength, the love that God was working in James' heart. I remember one day walking into his apartment, an apartment that had been a scene of some difficult circumstances in the previous months, and feeling like not just James, but James' wardrobe in his apartment, everything had been resurrected from the dead. It was a really, really special day, really acute emphasis and awareness of what God had done in his life. All of us know, though, too, that even at these really up times for James, even when everything was going well, even when it looked like he had it all together, there were still things that he struggled with still. In retrospect, two desires that he had, one of which was his desire to be done with this, with the pain that he had experienced and the struggles that he had and the desire to just be at peace and to be at rest and to move on. He loved his family. He would miss you dreadfully. But he wanted that. He wanted that rest, and he wanted this peace, physically, emotionally, spiritually. He desired his race to be done. And we might ask, okay, God has done that. What was he waiting for? What was James waiting for? What was God waiting for with James? I don't think I recognized how clearly This was presented in the two songs and the timeline in between them. But one of the things that James also struggled with through even those good times, struggled to believe that God really could forgive him. Struggled to believe that what Christ had done on the cross was really sufficient for his sin, to really feel that himself. and to know that. It was a struggle that he continued to have. Memories of old sins would resurface. The faces of people that he had hurt. And he'd be broken. He'd be broken with sorrow. And voices. Voices of his own, voices from the outside telling him he wasn't good enough for this. He wasn't good enough to be part of your church. He wasn't going to make it. And struggling not to listen to those voices and struggling to believe that what God had promised was true. And that because James had put his trust and his hope in Christ that his sins really were forgiven. But this was a struggle for him. I mean, it's a struggle really that's not uncommon for us who are Christians, who have placed our faith in Christ. It's something that happens to us from time to time. What did James need to hear during these times? What do all of us need to hear when that's When that's what we're wrestling with, we need to be reminded again, even just as we read in the scripture readings, Christ's sacrifice is sufficient to cover the worst sin. You cannot out-sin God's grace. The depth of God's love for those he has called to himself is inexhaustible. And his grace, his grace is effective, and his grace is powerful. We also need to be reminded that Christ suffered once for all for sins, but for those who are in Him, those who have been united to Him, His work continues. He is in the heavens now, interceding on behalf of those who are in Him. Taking the accusations that come from the evil one and saying, I settled that. I covered that. That's what we need to hear. That's what we need to be reminded of. Many of you are also aware that It's a beginning at this past year that we've just finished. James started having other difficulties and other struggles again, and there was a more kind of acute period of wrestling that he was going through, some temptations to pull him back. He would want you to know this, to pull him back into some of his previous habits. wandering away for a good deal of time from the church. And it was a discouraging time. It was a discouraging time for him. It was a discouraging and it was a frustrating time for you as his church family, and I know it was his family as well. And this is the big question, right? I mean, even at the time, after this amazing, miraculous thing, God, that you've done for this man. Why? Why again? But, praise be to God, in the last few weeks, in the last few weeks before he was gone, really began to see see things beginning to turn a corner again with him. I remember one of the first phone calls where he called just to tell me that he had had this extended period. He had not touched any drink. He had not drunk for this extended period of time. calling me on another day, not long after, and saying, I'm looking at this television on my wall, and it's distracting me from the things that God wants me to do. So I'm gonna still keep the one in my bedroom, because I needed to go to sleep, he said, but my Bible is sitting here, and I've not been reading it because of my television. And then there was the, the last call, where he called because of his excitement at the talent show that was going to be Friday, and his excitement about the songs, and particularly the last song that you were able to hear. And specifically his thankfulness and his gratitude to God for what God had done for him, and that understanding and that that appreciation that God had forgiven him, that God had forgiven James of his sins. It might be the most meaningful gift God has ever given me. At what I look back was my absolute last opportunity to hear his voice on the way out to evening service. I was in the car on to evening services. I was speaking with him. And by the time I left the building from evening service, he was gone. And looking back and seeing how God had given me and even putting it together with the words of the song that I hadn't read yet. But knowing that this is what, because he emphasized, this is where I'm at, this is what I'm feeling. And I was able to go back after he was gone and finish that conversation with him and hear how he was feeling. But why? What made the difference there even? What was it that finally enabled James to appreciate for himself what God's forgiveness meant for a man like him? Well, I trust that it's finally the truths of which we had been reminding him had finally begun to sink into his mind and into his heart of the absolute power of Christ's love. But I do think that from his family, and I think from his church family also as well, there was, I think it was a very special means that God used To bring this realization about for him. Scripture in a number of places tells us as those who are in Christ, those who have been forgiven by Christ. To forgive one another in the same way that God in Christ has forgiven you. This means that our forgiveness for one another, the forgiveness that we show to one another, the forgiveness that we show to the person who has sinned against us, not only does it create love and beauty and peace in our relationships, but it specifically lets people know what God's forgiveness is like. And it lets them experience it in the flesh. This means that our forgiveness for one another is a living, breathing experience of the forgiveness of God. And as I think about this, I think this begins to answer the question that is loomed the largest in my own heart, in my own mind. Why this allowing him to stumble again? Why this allowing him to wander? I know that in this period of struggle that James had gotten crosswise with some of you. I know that he had disappointed you. I know that he had wronged some of you, that he had sinned against some of you. And here he is struggling to come back, and to come back to church, and to come back in his relationships. And I think he had to wonder, how were you gonna respond? How were you gonna respond when he showed up again? I mean, especially for his church family. It's all well and good for you to give him a warm reception and a welcome after a life of sinning against others. But what were you going to do when he returned after having sinned against you? After having strained your relationship with him? And praise be to God that when he showed his face here again, what he found was your welcome and your love and your forgiveness. He was overwhelmed by it. He told me. How could we still love him and how could we still forgive him after what had happened? And I told him, it's because we know that we've been forgiven more. I think this might be why. why God allowed James to wander for a time. Because of his wandering, because of his stumbling, because of his difficulties, James was able to know your continuing love and your forgiveness in a way that he couldn't have known it otherwise when he was on top of everything. And I believe that it was through knowing your forgiveness that he finally came to know God's. And then God gave him the other thing that he wanted so much. To be to be released from the pain and the struggle and the torment. And to be released at a moment when the last thing on his lips was his thankfulness for God's forgiveness to him. What I have wanted Would I have wanted to experience a more fully long-term reconciled relationship? Would I have wanted to work through all the remaining strain and tension and points that were there? Yeah. But would I have wanted to keep him here a moment longer for that? We'll have our chance. And all of our reconciliation with James, all of us who are in Christ, will be perfect. The last question, I think in my mind. Why did it have to be dragged out like this? Why did it have to be so open and public and frustrating and long? Why, I mean, God very, very easily could have the moment on James putting his faith in Christ have healed him completely from all of his trouble. God could have instantly given him a sense of what his forgiveness would like and taken him then. I think the reason God allowed this to drag out like it did, so that you could see it, so that you could know it, so that you could experience it. So that those of you who don't know Christ, those of you who have not put your trust in Christ can see the power of Christ's forgiveness, the depth of God's love. the patience of God's love so that you could see it. Those of you who are in Christ, God wanted us to see this. God wanted us to see this so that we could be reminded, as we so frequently need to be, of the breadth and the depth and the height of God's love, the bottomlessness of the forgiveness we have in Christ. But I think also so that you could see the use that God will make of your showing forgiving love to one another. So that you'll be encouraged to continue showing this kind of love to those who are struggling and this kind of forgiveness. So that you'll know that sometimes the only thing that we can actually do to help someone is to continue forgiving them. And that sometimes that's the last thing they need, the final thing, the highest thing that they need. I think God let us see this process work out in all of its tangled, frustrating details. So that you could be encouraged to know that your labors are never in vain. and so that you could see God's grace and its unstoppable power. One of my earliest conversations with James when I first met him, under circumstances that were slightly more unusual than I was used to, I was told you can't have him. To which as bravely as I could, which wasn't very brave, I replied, if Christ wants him, he will have him. Christ has won the victory. And our brother James is now with him, and his soul has been perfected in holiness. James is holier than you. God dealt with James as he did, I think, so that you can see that Christ will have whomever he wants. I just want to open it up now for people to share remembrances in honor of James, brief remembrances in honor of James. And I'm going to start by asking Mike Colucci, who's a good friend of his here, to come up and share some remarks. James McClellan, I'm sad right now, but I'm happy because I'm remembering him. He was a very unique individual. He was a friend. You know, you can have people that you associate with where it's polite and you have some, you know, friendliness and chuckles here and there. But he... Sorry, didn't expect that. He was a... a real friend in the sense that we didn't let each other get by with anything. I mean, it was real friendship. It was rude. We kind of delighted in each other in that sense. I mean, we used to love to make each other laugh. I saw the period before last year when, as Brad was talking about, Pastor Puppet was talking about, James kind of wandered away and he was struggling. And I know he was struggling. So there was a time when I didn't really see him that much last year. But before that, I mean, there were a couple years I don't even remember when we met. It was at church, obviously. But there were a couple years where we saw each other at least once a week outside of church. And we'd just talk about anything, stupid things, good things. We'd pray together sometimes. But mostly, we would just make each other laugh and get to know each other. He can make me laugh so when he wasn't even trying to make you laugh he I'll just tell you a story something. I remember. I don't know why I remember this there's so many things I could remember but This isn't profound, but this is James. He went one time a couple years ago And we used to sit in the same pew right that back one there by the wall and there's some air return ducts and vents there that They'll blow air. There's a fan that goes off from time to time. It was in the wintertime was on a particularly cold day it was you know, near zero. And after church service was over, he was talking to me, he said, who do I talk to about that, that air was, that fan kept on kicking on and blowing down, and it was really distracting. It wasn't very comfortable. I was getting cold in there. And I said, oh, well, yeah, maybe we can talk to the building manager about that. So anyway, about 10 minutes later, he's getting ready to leave. And all he had was just a shirt and jeans. And I said, wait, don't you have a coat? It's freezing out there. And he lived in the apartments over here. I'm not sure if I'm pointing in the right direction, but right here in Vandalia. So he just walked back and forth. I said, you're going to freeze to death. I mean, do you want a ride? And he said, no. He goes, the cold doesn't bother me. He goes, I could walk. all the way home without my shirt on. But that was James. And he loved his daughter, Kelly. There was a song that he wrote. He conceived and wrote. I believe it was a time when he was homeless. a really low time in his life. But he wrote about Kelly, about how much he loved her. And I think there was a lot of sorrow in that song, but hope. And he wanted to record it, so he knew I had recording equipment. And he came over, and we spent about a week together a couple summers ago. putting the tracks together and putting it online, publishing it. He was so proud of that song. Just things like that. And the way he could get you out of your comfort zone. If he told me a few years ago that I would be playing in a band at a church talent show, the first track of the Beatles' Abbey Road album, I would have said you were crazy, but that was James McCollum. The thing I'm happy about now, I don't like that he's gone. I really don't. But it's like his time here, as short as it was with us, made Jesus so much bigger. When Jesus told his disciples the parable about the shepherd who goes out and leaves the 99 sheep for the sake of the one that was lost to go and find it, and he's not going to return until he finds that sheep and brings him back, he was telling the exact truth. has told it to us and I think that's one thing I will definitely remember because that is a living proof of Christ's love that I'm going to take with me for the rest of my life to my dying breath. It's encouragement for me, for my family, for my friends. God is good and That's burned in now. And that's partly because of James. So I'm thankful for that. I'd like to invite up anybody else who'd like to share. And I'd just like to remind you, if you don't feel comfortable coming up, we'll have lots of time downstairs afterwards at the lunch to share together over the tables. I had to write some things down. I don't know if I'll get through them. I haven't even started yet. I'm Matt McClellan, James's older brother, one of four brothers. He was our youngest. And my sister. I did it again, I'm sorry. Wow, there's a lot of people here. James McClellan, and it was never Jim or Jimmy to me, it was always James, was, wow, that was fast. Wow. I didn't see that one coming either. was my younger brother. He was born almost 52 years ago and he left us January 13, 2019. James was a ball of energy, the type of person that would lift up a room when he entered it. He never met anyone that he didn't know or want to know. On his visits to my house, I was often amazed at the people in my neighborhood that he knew. When we drove down the street, he would wave at one of my neighbors and I'd ask him, how do you know them? His typical reply would be, I just met them while I was waiting for you to get here. He knew my neighbor's names and some of their backstory. Just in the brief time he was waiting for me, I've lived there 15 years, I didn't even know their names. He was also very inquisitive and had an active curiosity. He was constantly bombarding me with random questions, and when I failed to answer to his liking, I would get the standard reply, you should know you went to college. If you knew James, the first thing that stood out was his sense of humor. He was always cracking jokes and laughing. At family events, you could always count on James to provide A nonstop commentary of relative and random issues, often without the presence of a filter, and we all knew. James did. That's something he lacked. You never knew when and where the humor would come from. For example, this past week I was scrolling through some old texts that I received from James, and I'll share a few of those with you. Here's one. Just a reminder, Papa John's has a buy a pizza, get a pizza. Out of nowhere. I was just wondering, was there anybody old in our family on the men's side? Question mark. Aren't they all dying off at like 61 or 63? So I have 10 years left. Sad but funny. Here's one. Boy, go outside. You can smell cargill. It's working overtime because the other grain plant shut down. Good to know. Good to know. You chasing someone, Sheriff? Someone chasing you? There ain't nobody chasing me, boy. Now, that's an inside joke. As children in the 70s, we had this new thing called cable. And they would show the same movie every night for months. And me and my other two brothers would watch Smoky and the Bandit religiously. So we knew all their lines. And he would drop a line on me every once in a while. The other one, WKRP is on. This is the one where Carlson throws turkeys out of the helicopter. So he's giving me a heads up there. He could also be devious, as me and my older brother Mike realized at an early age. We thought we were conning James into asking dad for something we didn't want to ask him for. So we'd say, get James to do it. He's the youngest. He'll do it. And so the problem was, James caught on to that pretty quick. It took us a while. And he would always frame the question like, so dad, Mike and Matt wanted to go to the candy store. Would that be OK today? James loved music, and I'm sure love is not a strong enough word for it. He was a drummer, as you all know, from an early age, but he also was a self-taught guitarist. He was passionate about music, and if you ever heard him approaching in his car with his megawatt stereo, he wanted everyone to enjoy what he was listening to. He loved classic rock and most other flavors of rock. But it was hard to tell what his favorite band was. Does anybody know? James's life was full of ups and downs, like everyone's. He had his struggles and his triumphs. The past few years, due to his involvement in this church, I believe we all saw what James could be, kind, caring, and a joy to be around. He would ask me, From time to time, if I were proud of him, I told him I was very proud of him. So much so that one time on a work trip, I had some co-workers with me, and we were going down the National Road here, and by this church. And I felt compelled to mention that my brother had past struggles, but had found a home in this church, and that they had embraced him and helped him change the direction of his life. My co-workers were so inspired by this story, so much so that they mentioned it to me a couple years later, just randomly. They'd say, asking, how's your brother? You know, the one in the church, how's he doing? They told me it was a truly inspirational story. I'm almost done, so. I cherish my memories of James and spending time in his life. I know he loved his family. I know he loved Kelly, his daughter, and grandson Jackson, and had worked to strengthen those relationships in recent times. I know he loved his siblings, his nieces, great nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins. He loved this church family. How do I know that? Because he always talked about you. He loved his friends, and he loved his dog, Foxy, his faithful companion. Oh, yeah, he loved pizza, too. I was thinking about his favorite group, the one I mentioned earlier, and one of their more popular songs, Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. And I was just going through the lyrics. I don't know if you've ever read those lyrics. They're kind of poignant. I never really studied them or looked at them. But this one stood out. It's, if there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now. It's just a spring clean for the May Queen. Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there's still time to change the road you're on. I believe this applies to James. He changed the road he was on, and though he struggled for direction, even recently, I believe he would have kept on the better road in the long run. And for that, I believe we are all proud. I was honored to be a friend of James and had the privilege to help him in this church and just thankful. As Brad was saying, thankful to God that he was able to teach me more and more how to love others. We'll always remember James and the ways that he made us laugh. Had a good last time with him a few weeks ago, me and my daughter Laura. We were able to go to the store with him and get him some things and help him out, and we were able to pray together. He would always, when we were done with our time, he would always say, Jeremy, pray me out. Gosh, I'm shaking. Just an honor to call him my friend. I'm going to miss him. Greetings. I was James' neighbor. And being his neighbor, I just wanted to say, I knew him briefly, but James was one of those individuals who was real genuine. I mean, there was nothing fake about him. Everything was on the surface. There was no, nothing like you were saying that when he told a story, it was the whole story. And James, like, Your brother, like you were saying, he loved music. So he would drag me down into his basement, and I think he would crank up Metallica or something like that, and he would put it on this big screen, and I had to sit on the couch and watch it with him. But the thing about James was is that, If I needed anything done, James would be there to help do it. He would cut my grass with his riding lawnmower, kill the grass because he had it so low. But you really appreciated him because he didn't, you know, he was just the guy. And I can tell you, I can tell the congregation You know, he really did love the Lord. He spoke on it every time he would come over and sometimes he would want to pray together. And so I just wanted to pass on that little bit that I knew about him. He was real genuine. He did have his struggles. But the thing that about James is that he knew that he was struggling. You know what I mean? And he really wanted to do right. I just wanted to share those few words with you. I'm not sure of the time frame, but on one particular Lord's Day as I was exiting out the back door, I heard somebody say, hey Borg. Nobody had called me Borg since I'd been in high school. And I looked around. I couldn't figure out who it was, so I kept walking. And, of course, then it boomed. Borg! I turned around. Here's James, big smile on his face. He came up to me, and he gave me this tie. It's a tie of Goofy sitting next to a fishbowl with the reel in the bowl. The story that leads up to that, though, we were friends on Facebook. And I always post a lot of things there on fishing, because I love fishing. Grew up in Minnesota. We fished up north. So that's why he said, yeah. He said, you love fishing. And he found this tie, and he just gave it to me. But we had a lot of things in common. I just found out that he was the fourth son. I'm the fourth son in my family as well. But James and I struggled in like things before the Lord grabbed us. And praise God, it's been decades for me. Praise God. that James felt that tug, felt that pull, knew the Spirit was chasing him. And so as we are in this bittersweet between missing him here, we're overjoyed for him because he is overjoyed right now. Because he's rejoicing with his Lord and Savior for that. We give great thanks. I was very fortunate to spend a good bit of time with James when my wife and I joined a church two years ago. Soon after that, the session asked me to become a building manager, and James was the janitor. He and I worked pretty closely together, and the beauty of James's life is the fact that he lived wide open. One day we went to a thrift store. James loved thrift stores and garage sales and stuff on the side of the road. So we're there that day and I saw a little knickknack at the thrift store and I said, James, I don't have any money. Will you lend me seven bucks to buy that for my wife? and I'll pay you back when we get to the church. My wallet is in my truck. So he lent me $7. We came back to the church, and I picked up my wallet, and we went to a local eatery to have lunch. And the girl that waited on us was expecting a child. And I'd given James a $20 bill, and I said, keep the change off the seven. The girl gave me the bill, and I paid the bill. And then I said, I included the tip on the bill with my credit card. And James gave the girl the $20. And I knew he had no money. That's who James was. He had a heart of utter gold. I'm fortunate to be able to be on the security team here at church. And the director of our security team was giving us an orientation. And James come in and he sat down beside me doing the orientation for the security team. Now this is just a little bit rugged, so get ready. So we were talking through scenarios of what happens on the security team, what we should do in case we had a problem in the church. And James leaned over and said in a very quiet voice, Whack somebody for Jesus? Who would say that but James? My favorite story for James occurred one day when we had to go to Menards. We left Menards, and for some reason, every time we went by a restaurant, James pointed it out. There's Bob Evans. That's code language. Let's have lunch. So we had lunch. After lunch, we were checking out, and of course, I paid the bill for him. And James bought two loaves of bread. And he said, we've got to take the bread to a friend of mine that's having a party tomorrow afternoon. She's a lady of the church. So we had to drive way out to the Anderson's place out in the country, out to the farm. And when we get there, James said, hey, look, our trash cans are empty. Let's pick the trash cans up. That's who James was. He did the obvious. So we picked the trash cans up. Now, he's driving his pickup truck, and I'm riding in the passenger seat. So Mrs. Anderson comes out, and when she gets out the door, I did the right thing. I grabbed the bread up, and I said, hey, Mrs. Anderson, I brought you two loaves of bread. You should have seen James' face. Are you crazy? You didn't buy that bread. I bought the bread. I got that bread. I bought the bread, not you." And then I said, I told James to stop and get your trash cans. You did not tell James to stop. I did that. He was forever asking questions about the Bible. And one day we were talking and he asked me something. I said, James, let me show you something in the Word. I took him to John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. What does that mean? In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. James, what does that mean? I don't know, man. I can't understand the scripture. I'm dumb. I can't understand it. I can't wrap my head around it. I said, read this verse. John 1 14. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. James, what is that? The word became flesh? Is that Jesus? Is that the incarnation of the living God? That's exactly what that is. Here's what James does. He takes that little truth and he went to his sister and his daughter and everybody they saw, he shared it. James is a, what a man. The Lord saved a trophy. You know, I celebrate the very person of the Lord because it changed his life. I can tell you this, one day he hated me, the next day he loved me. One day he hated me, the next day he loved me. And I'll conclude with this. When I took over as building manager, he and I had a talk one day, and I was explaining to him what I wanted to do in terms of the presentation of the building, the property, what we were going to do. And we were talking through responsibilities. And at the end of the conversation, this is the first time I'd ever really talked to him, he turned to me and he said, can I ask you a question? I said, sure. He said, what's my name? We had never been introduced. And it was important for him to know that I knew his name. And I got news for you, as I learned who James was, his name becomes so great because of who he was as a person. He was far greater than James because I saw in him, as Brad said, I saw in him the spirit of the living God in so many ways. Now, you know, he's like you and he's like me. Like you, I'm a wretched, damnable sinner saved by grace. And that's who James was. God has blessed us because we knew him. I'm a different person because of James. We had a name for Dr. Patton. This is Dr. Patton. This is Dr. Patton. Well, there's also another Patton. And he happened to be a military general, and his name was George. When James and I had to talk in code language about the boss, James loved to call him George. This is hard, but we all love James. He sat behind us in church. I have seven children. He loved it when they would lean their head back and bang against the pew and make a big loud knock. So we're going to miss him. He was so humble. Whenever there was a word that he didn't understand in the hymns that we sang, he'd ask me what it meant. It was very sweet. And I just, I guess I'm selfishly gonna miss him. He was so fun to talk to. He was so real. And he had a beautiful soul. So we're just blessed that God let us know him for a time. Hope you'll permit a few words from George. So Pastor Pepo had a saying on Facebook, he put a big picture of James like this, and he'd say, this is my favorite piece of heavy machinery. And it was really true, because that guy was strong. And one of my favorite memories is, to me, the thing is this quintessential James. It'll just be forever emblazoned in my memory. And really, I think a picture of him in glory. is when he was over at my place and he was chainsawing a whole bunch of wood up and got to be about the end of the job and he was way out in the field, we got like a farm with a big field and he was out in this field with his pickup truck and a couple of my kids go out to see him. And one of them, who at that time I think was about nine years old, is talking to him. And he's got his big pickup truck out there. And he said, hey, do you want to drive this truck? And her eyes are like. Yeah, so they get in the truck, and there's my daughter. There's James, my other kid. And he gets her to put it in gear, and they're kind of going along. And she's like, I feel like this is going a little fast. I want to stop this thing. And so she slams her foot down on the gas. And it just goes, and just starts going like this. And there's James right next to her, like, oh, man, just on for the ride, trying to hold on, trying to stop it. And just that picture of James living high with just loving being alive, being with kids. He loved the kids of this church. I don't know. You kids of this church, you know. A lot of times, like during the service, they'd pass notes to James, you know, little pictures and notes. He kept every single one of those. And once he showed me, in a box he has in his house, every single note that you children have given to him. He loved you, and he treasured your friendship. And so when you think of James, think of that. Think of that joy. Think of that love. That was the true James. I'd like to close this now with a hymn. We're going to sing together number 44 as we worship God and thank Him for the life of James and thank Him for His grace in James' life. We're going to sing number 44 in the Red Trinity hymnals in front of you, How Great Thou Art. Please stand. Oh