Funeral of Richard Bewes

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] well a very warm welcome to all souls Langham Place for this great sad but full of hopes special occasions it's a day of Thanksgiving as well as of Tears a day to have an eye on glory as well as a grave it's a real privilege for all souls to house the service Richard was a much-loved rector for 21 years or so and we owe him a huge debt as a church and obviously a particular welcome for Pam for Richard children Timothy Wendy Steven they put so much of this service together and for the whole of Richards family which at times can sound like saying welcome to the whole Christian world the seems little difference actually that the hundreds of his friends gathered here are a tribute in itself to Richard the man and the minister as we remember him and His Christ today at this point all the best liturgies have a line about mobile phones and switched off and silent and we better not skip that but as we come to our service Richards African roots never left him so it's appropriate we begin with a reminder of them and as the musicians play toku tenderizer yaesu will you please stand [Music] Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life the one who believes in Me will live even though they die and whoever lives by believing in me will never die the Apostle Paul wrote I am convinced that neither death nor life neither Angels nor demons neither the present nor the future nor any powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord because of the glory love for us we are not consumed for his Compassion's never fail they are new every morning great is your faithfulness as we stand at his brain Almighty God our loving father we come to worship you join together in Thanksgiving for your servant Richard views and united in loving one another in our sadness weariness and remembrance Lord as today we sing listen and revive our memories may you comfort us and transform us by our knowledge of your compassion of your salvation through Jesus your son crucified and risen and by the sure hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord amen [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] please be seated some words from Hebrews chapter 12 you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire to darkness gloom and storm to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them but you have come to Mount Zion to the city of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem you have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembling to the Church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven you have come to God the judge of all to the spirits of the righteous made perfect to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel as we continue through the service we will hear several quite short tributes however one of these a bit later on will be shown on these screens it's a video recording made for this service in Nigeria where Benoit she serves as Archbishop as we listen to others we know that we all come with our own very precious memories of Richard maybe we start in Beckenham or Harald woods where I came in never a dull moment with Richard as your vicar or perhaps his Northwood or all souls in Africa maybe America or through Richards varied publications projects and sermons a good place to start is with Elizabeth Bridger with her memories of Richard her brother and what a privilege to speak for my brother Michael and myself about our beloved brother Richard his many passions were woven together throughout his life Africa tennis friendships and the gospel Richard was the second son of Cecil and Sylvia our missionary parents we were all born in Nairobi Kenya with our early years in with Hagar a Kikuyu village on the lower slopes of Mount Kenya with no gas no electricity or indoor loom yes it was a very happy childhood the early foundations were music on an old gramophone and lots of stories mum was a great storyteller you can see where Richard got it from all sorts especially Bible stories Peter Richard and Michael played happily in the garden I was a little toddler they once made an impressive hippo trap with a certain heavily pregnant visitor in mind mercifully their lack of discretion prevented your calamity our humble home bursted a tennis court and so began a romance with the racquet coached by dad with Peter making a foursome years before the area had been under the sway of the witch doctor but the impact of the gospel and the preaching of the Cross took root and the little church began to burst at the seams as revival brought black and white together at the foot of the cross in joy and repentance with two cotton Teresa Jesu which we've just sung as the revival song this all made a profound impression on the Richard see his last book under the thorn tree Africa was in his DNA and in later years he often revisited it preaching once in Kikuyu in the church our dad built then five years in Nairobi mum had started the boys off with homeschooling but then they went to Kenton prep school Richard and Michael formed an invincible tennis partnership but Richard was very shy and our concerned parent saw the headmaster who prophesied that his gift with words would shape his future his shyness in fact proved an asset giving him empathy and humility Richard's school essays was the sparkled with purple passages some of them straight from Biggles it must be said he was a talented actor and mimic as well and at 11 he became the school speech maker his many gifts were god-given Richard and Michael were inseparable and went on together to join Peter at more breh when we moved to England in 1948 their their tennis partnership became legendary competing in the yule Cup the school's tournament at Wimbledon no less and so began a love of Wimbledon on which Richard became an authority Richard Michael's tennis partnership went on right through Cambridge we had moved to Blackheath and dad continued with CMS as Mission Africa secretary but Richards faith came alive in August 1948 when aged 13 he went to Cameron with Michael their dorm leader Timothy Dudley Smith is here today they both took that life-changing step one night of committing their lives to the Lord Jesus it became clear that Richard would spend his life in Christian ministry we had many visitors of many nationalities we sang a lot as a family we had family prayers we played together we had much fun mum and dad even started a Boris Club in our house yet another gospel enterprise involving us all Richard and Michael created guitars for themselves out of a kit in their teens from which developed involvement in Christian music before Cambridge Richard worked in peak greens biscuit factory making custard creams it kept him grounded that's yeah he got involved in Billy Graham's Haringey crusade and the clear preaching of the gospel thrilled him soon a lifelong friendship developed with dear Billy and his family we all know the warmth of Richards friendship a true people person but his deepest friendship was with the Lord Jesus Christ he was christ-like with his gracious gentle yet uncompromising personality and a passion for the transforming unadorned gospel of christ i treasure the memory of his wise advice his prayers and guidance in my teens and late-night chats many of them Michael and I thank God profoundly for so many happy memories of such a wonderful brother Daniel a book Richard loved chapter 12 verse 3 those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness like the Stars forever and ever Richard and I would introduce one another to other people as my greatest friend even in the last lucid day we introduced each other in that way it started 60 years ago in 1959 when Richard became a friend a friend who his proverbs puts it stuck closer than a brother now we were bonded not by my having to have an interest in tennis thank goodness nor did he have an interest in trains or holidays but we were bonded in the camaraderie that we've been thinking about yesterday in d-day and in the attack of on Normandy of being soldiers for Christ's pioneering to break through what was churchy stuffiness of the 1950s you wouldn't believe it and we long to break through and make the Gospel relevant and we loved sharing together in our various enterprises in creating hymns and songs in music workshops when we did get under way and had to teach people the guitar Richard used to teach the beginners and desperately sit up all night trying to learn the next chord to keep ahead of them in the contemporized youth rallies of all sorts in trying to bring life to some of the more traditional evangelical meetings that went on in the catholic youth meetings which we absolutely loved at the Lausanne Congress when we were really quite naughty and so much more we we were bonded together and when we led events together we had an immediate spiritual bond we didn't need to even say to each other what we were going to do next it was given to us all through our lives together and lots of joy it really began in 1959 with the desire to produce contemporary music songs for young people Richard dared to have a guitar in the Church of England shock horror what is going to happen next he took it to his ordination retreat and he certainly copped it for that one they went on year after year with the impossible dream of trying to produce a book for young people instead of just courses for children and hymns the impossible dream became eventually as many will know youth prays told by everybody that it would fail went with youth phase two to over a million copies across the world and it was together with a lovely group of others that we worked on that Richard was there at the launch of youth praise one it was sent to her Westminster we had two guitarists the revolution two began three years later in the Royal Albert Hall youth praise to had to have the whole afternoon and evening it was packed both events are fun fact we were exhausted by the end of the evening now Richard guitar conducted a hundred guitars or 100 plectrums as someone put it and then came on further on all the time his communication skills of course alongside his preaching at first way back the modern thing to do was slide presentation some of you may remember the endless things that happened at Christmas with slides if you lived in that era and the slide presentation remember we were at an evangelical conference in Morcom in a holiday camp in May it was freezing cold and dead damp it was awful and Richard had really worked very very hard on production of this I forgot what it was about now but it was and he got a hundred slides but the screen was out there and he had to stand on a ladder with his projector then what do you do with the slides when you take them out toss them over his shoulder like and I caught them in a paper bag and so he went on all the way through his innovative recording and broadcasting skills were really honed honed with our weekly orange and lemon Club which was the Sunday School of the air on Radio London each week we produced this program and the things that Richard came into the studio with the recordings the innovative ideas were just breathtaking he really had a gift to know how to communicate and he kept up with it so came the brilliant DVD productions on books of the Bible and the great sermon series and so on and across the years we had enormous joy in encouraging one another in presenting the gospel and preaching Christ everyone here will feel they were friends of Richard but this is very much because friendship breathes through his ministry he didn't pontificate but had the ability which is the ability of an evangelist to make you feel he had his arm around your shoulder and not anybody else's when he was preaching it was a wonderful gift friends of mine in Doncaster wrote the other day of the blessing there from his Bible book expositions and said interestingly we have all lost a friend precisely but the greatest was told of the title friend is from the Lord Jesus in John 15 he said you are my friends if you do what I command like his hero John Wesley Richard did just that as I read a few weeks ago he had the Bible in his pocket and Jesus in his heart and he certainly did what the LORD commanded with every ounce of energy he could with imagination with vision with souls was strength it was difficult Pam wasn't it even to get him to go on holiday so the spirits of our many hem revisions which we were involved in in that spirit I would like to rewrite the line what a friend we have in Jesus and replace it in terms of John 15 as a tribute to our beloved Richard God's wonderful minister of the gospel with the words what a friend Jesus had in Richard Kathleen is our soloist she has been one of many who sang at prom praise events from the Royal Albert Hall drawing Richards time at all souls and was very much appreciated by him with the other musicians Kathleen will help us just pause and reflect reflect on the vision that the Lord's new heaven a death and encouraged us to put our trust in him by darkness or by day in the second of these songs after the first verse solo were invited to join in the remaining verses but continuing to stay seated throughout [Music] for the first time the whole [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well I know it says colleague here but I was speaking to Paul blacken her this week and we didn't so much feel like colleagues as sons so it's a great privilege to be speaking here today and he was always known Richard at all souls you know by the initials R P and me so endlessly that's what they were so I better give you a little talk around our TV so our revelation revelation this amazing little commentary he wrote the lamb wins and he used it to craft a 12-minute final address to 10,000 evangelists since from 200 countries in Amsterdam 2000 Billy Graham was sick and so could not exist 10 to give that final send-off to these 10,000 evangelists so Richard wrote this talk as they would be commissioned to go back round the world to preach the gospel and I remember him memorizing it and crafting it and in staff meetings he read it to us on our Thursday morning breakfast and we all chipped in and then on the day as he was to speak on that final day to send off the evangelists the music group who shall remain nameless but they were from World Vision were given eight minutes and they took 20 so Richards entire talk was gone and because there were buses waiting to take people to the airport it had to go there was no flexibility and I was sitting in the service waiting for this talk and then I saw it cut and so afterwards I went round behind behind the main stage to find him and I saw him there very calmly having a cup of tea and I saw him and I explained Richard they cut your talk and he looked at me and he said oh no no Rico no no no no no no we're just servants we do whatever we're asked we're just servants you know you'd walk under a bus really like that I mean so humble so gracious such an example if it had been me I'd have said well the word wasn't taught but I don't meant where was my platform and there he was which is servants Rico we do whatever asked no wonder billiad asked him to give that final address so who was Richard serving tea well his the tea is through one ship richard was out to serve Christ and can I say today I don't know where you stand spiritually but Richard pews was thrilled with Jesus Christ and his great longing today is that you would find that similar joy he was thrilled with the Lord Jesus and that's why it's great that his last book under the thorn tree has been made available by the family thank you so much and so do take a copy one per family but amazing but also as he was thrilled with Christ you know there was great power I mean I remember he took me to an exorcism I remember him him there saying in the name of Christ gonna be gone I I send you to the place of appointing as you will be judged by the Lord Jesus I mean the authority the spiritual power very unlike the home life of our own deepa dear Queen I thought as I saw it happening but great spiritual past so do take under the thorn tree one copy per family mixing history truth wonderful heartwarming stories of the East Africa revival amazing spiritual power and then of course be what's the be here well the B is obvious isn't it the B of course is Bible so revelation through Manship Bible I can still hear him saying to the students at Oak Hill Theological College young men I hope you have your Testament in your inside pocket and then he dad not too heavy so it ruins the cut on your jacket but always at the ready to get out and bring out the word quickly to share it we used to have the pocket Bible police to see if people had their pocket Bible on them and he taught us here at All Souls to always ask two questions in your quiet time as you met the Lord Jesus each day and as he walked off the pages of Scripture and Richard said there are two questions you asked what does it tell me about Christ and once I found that out how can I please him today what does it tell me about the Lord Jesus and how can I please him today and wonderfully we saw him model it ladies and gentlemen he lived it he sought to do that I remember once during the Toronto blessing in 1995 when everyone was asking about it and I walked into his study next door and I said Richard what do I say and he said Rico you say this here at All Souls we're going to read the Bible and pray and we're going to do that until we die or the Lord returns that's what we're gonna do well he is now with the Lord he served so faithfully seeing him face to face let me first say that this is such a privilege it's an emotional privilege to be here to talk about our friend Richard it was a cold February morning last year very early when I received a telephone call that Daddy had slipped into heaven I immediately went to our home and his precious staff and nurses and had bathed him and dressed him and had him lying on the bed he looked so handsome and I sat for a long time beside him I waited until they came to take him and I watched as they took that precious person who I'd known for 73 years and put him in the hearse that would take him down our long winding driveway for the last time I was emotional as that hearse went through our gate where we had stood and waited for him time and time again when he came back from trips around the world and then I remembered my goodness this morning not very long ago he went through Heaven's Gate and I was excited but you know it's hard I have felt close to Richard's family in the last 2 or 3 weeks it's very very difficult to watch someone you love suffer and then pass away it's emotional to just say goodbye to the dear human body the human person that we love and there's a mystery to death you know we know we'll see them again but how what would they look like what would it be like we would love to know that I've asked the Lord to please opens a little bit of heaven and show me he hasn't answered that Rick question but Richard was such a dear friend to my daddy they mentioned Harun gay and I was a little too young to go to Harun gay or they were afraid to take me because I wouldn't behave what properly but they daddy did ask the family and the staff to raise money for Harun gay and so as a little girl I went around our hometown in the fall when all the leaves had already fallen off the trees and I sold all leads to the neighbors as well as bottle caps to raise money for Harun gay so I had a part in that but from Harun gate on Richard was such a friend of my daddy daddy loved him you know he wasn't only a friend to Daddy he was a friend to daddy's children he emotionally encouraged us he loved us he was there when my mother passed away and participated in that service in fact daddy wanted Richard to preach his own funeral service and Richard was not well enough so I know now they're rejoicing in heaven but you know in so many ways Richard to our family was like a personal very tender loving chaplain and so we're going to miss him greatly watching those pictures of men to go just his smile warmed my heart he was just a wonderful friend someone one time said that God is a father with a mother's heart I experienced this from a distance in Richard's life when his first wife was taken from him Liz Liz it's the one that my parents knew we his friends grieved with him but to tell you the truth we were also a little bit concerned for him now what would Richard do then a few years ago I came to London and I'm at field and I said oh my lord thank you thank you how precious of the Lord to have given Richard such a sweet intelligent and beautiful partner to walk with him the last part of his journey and it thrilled my heart for him and for her but you know what I don't think we're here this afternoon to eulogize Richard views because the way I look at it nothing we can possibly say could come close to what he heard when he to entered heaven's gates and was met by his Savior and I like to imagine if the Lord Jesus gave him a big warm embrace and said Richard welcome and then I think the Lord Jesus took him by the hand and led him to the Father God the Father whom Richard had so long served and he heard him say well done good and faithful servant I don't think we can beat that today and I hope that each one of us I know each one of us has that desire to to be faithful and Richard was faithful and I thank you for all the service he did to our family thank you Richard Thank You Pam dear friends we celebrate this day the home call of what too many of us we will describe us a gospel preacher a family man an evangelist and a teacher of the Word of God a man most people would describe as their pastor their friend for me I have lost an encouraging a few years back he met me at some place I cannot remember exactly where ever I remember him coming close to me and he held my hand and said then preach the word preach the word and I was wondering who this man was a little later we met again and he introduced himself as Richard and he said to me Ben I'd like you to preach and I will record it and send it all over the world on this enthusiastic plan I was wondering who could he be in God's grace we were able to meet and when I asked around who this man was they said this most people after they said this is the man who encouraged me and thews II a Stickley to preach the word I'll never forget my first recording Richard counsel did he said Ben be yourself you an African preacher release and preach the word and the recording was taken again and I preached my life out and he recorded it and he kept on with me to ask me please come whenever you are in London we will record whenever you are in London and he is let us encouraging me and numerous assurances of prayers uncountable and he's followed up with my life with all the trials that we've been through in jars and in northern Nigeria dear friends I've lost an encouraging I look forward to meeting him with the Lord Jesus Christ and many other Saints in his death I throw the challenge that he would have thrown to anybody will you be there [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I've spent nearly 20 years assessing people who want to adopt one of the best ways to get a picture of their childhoods is to ask them to give five adjectives to describe their relationships with their parents and examples to illustrate these thinking about this with my father in mind I would describe my relationship with him as reassuring fun protective supportive and passionate reassuring I was quite an anxious child and I often voiced my fear to my parents that the house would burn down mum ever practical would say well if it does terror sheet lengthways down the middle tie the ends in a knot tie it to a bedpost and use it like a rope to climb out of the window personally I prefer dad's reassuring answer don't worry it's not going to burn down fun dad was a lot of fun often at mealtimes he taught us the spaghetti bolognaise was best eaten by putting one end of a piece of spaghetti into your mouth and then the rest of it up off the plate and not brilliantly healthy he would cut a square hole in the top of an orange insert a cube of sugar and then suck the juice out over the sugar through the hole you should try it it's delicious and fun protective dad was always very protective of his family I remember one occasion when I was in trouble at school as I'd volunteered to help my very strict class teacher untangle a ball of string and by the time my friends and I had finished it was more tangled than ever my friends said I was to blame and the teachers took the teacher told me to take the string home and not bring it back until it was untangled I was so upset and worried that I hid it in my dolls coat and became increasingly anxious as my friends would asked me each day if I had sorted out the ball of string a few days later dad found the string and I told him the story he listened quietly took the string and said he'd talked to the teacher when he came back he simply and firmly said that it had been sorted and I didn't need to worry about it again supportive one of his catchphrases if I all my brothers were moaning about anything was I'm on your side and he not only said this but he acted it as well when I was 16 I dyed my hair pillar box red a spur-of-the-moment thing I came home not knowing what reaction I would get dad said Wendy how lovely Reds my favorite color ha Matt Matt Pam son describes dad as relentlessly positive dad was also a passionate man most if not all of you will know about his love of tennis he also adored avocado pears a nighttime snack of banana with bread and butter corn on the cob which he insisted on calling a member the Kikuyu word and digestive biscuits his enthusiasm was infectious and if we didn't like any of these things at first we felt as though he were definitely missing out and I would keep trying them until I did like them and he was passionate about nothing more than introducing Jesus to the world in a gentle and unassuming way he never pressurized us but as a father he lived what he preached as best he could kept by the power of God from 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 5 became a favorite promise for Richard and his siblings throughout their childhood and into adulthood drawn on at times of anxiety and transition despite the enormity of the loss we're acknowledging today we in the family are encouraged by God's promise that our beloved dad Richard and Grandpa who has been kept protected and loved throughout his life is now receiving the inheritance kept for him in heaven over the past three weeks we Pam Wendy my brother Steven and I have been consulting a document entitled Plan B that was stored on the desktop of my father's computer the origins of this document are a conversation between Wendy and dad shortly after we lost our mother Liz when Wendy suggested to dad that he write a letter expressing his wishes in the event of his own departure from this world gently resisting the suggestion he responded that it seemed to him quite likely that such a letter would not be necessary but isn't life in its essence a preparation for the eschaton here invoking the term from the New Testament referring to the last days of this world wasn't it possible dad said that his own end would be preceded by the end of all things it's entirely possible when you replied but perhaps you need a plan B and so Plan B the document that provided us with the rudiments of today's service was born somehow the existence of this document captures for me the singular quality of dads faith which was as much about joy in the everyday as about the final things dad's belief system was a practice of daily attentiveness to the people around him but it was also about a delight in language the form of revelation of God's Word as a light that was expressed in his love of colorful phrases such as that such as the term excuse me Eero prayers to describe the Prophet Nahum ayahs one sentence entreaties to God or the phrase mere blobs of protoplasm lifted no doubt from some favourite piece of popular fiction maybe Biggles with which dad enjoyed disparaging materialistic conceptions of humanity or the words of the philosopher søren kierkegaard describing the ludicrous total to which we risk reducing God by the forms in which we worship in in dad's final hours as we measure the intervals between his breath counting the seconds in the way he taught us he would appear to be one hibbity bibbity - he would be only three we found ourselves bonded together by recollections of these joyful lessons in the everyday his 2009 book the good night book opened with the fifth fifth verse of the Bible which reads as follows there was evening and there was morning one day the conventional order dad points out is reversed evening comes first his idea for the book was that we might therefore see the NYTimes dreaded times when when one is in hospital as dad was quite a bit in the last few years not as the dregs of a dying day as he put it but as the prelude to another day of adventure this book then was born directly of his own experience but the same is true of every book he wrote and also very story he told not one of which did not have a personal origin not one of which was about an individual an individual he could not have named and the story I want to tell about that involves the conversation many years ago one Sunday lunchtime at home in Weymouth Street the guests included several visitors to the morning's service at all souls perhaps they're here today one of them turned to me during lunch and asked me about my faith having recently hit a wall in my spiritual journey and being in any case a rather sullen younger person I batted the question away dad gave no indication of having heard the exchange but moments later another guest asked him whether he ever had doubts about his beliefs yes he said let me put it this way when I preach I am preaching to myself in the first instance this story tells us everything I think about the nature of all of those at work writing and ministry is the story about his profound humility about his attentiveness to his family and about his ability to speak to every person in a room at once and to have each one feel that he was speaking to them but it's also a story about his conception of faith as able to survive even moments of crisis and desperation in his final pieces of writing dictated to Pam from this hospital he describes himself about 3:00 in the morning struggling to locate God between the third and fourth panel of the ceiling above story an athlete totally dry so yes he is in his final piece of writing dictated to Pam from his hospital bed he describes himself at 3:00 in the morning struggling to locate God between the third and fourth panel of the ceiling above in Pam with who he shared the last seven years he found a true soul mate their closeness humor and complicity in all things made their home a place of joy and warmth and their partnership opened a new chapter of dads life and ministry for dad life and ministry were always inseparable as the dear friend put it in a recent email our family shared him with his ministry the sharing was our sacrifice but dad's ministry in fact was a lesson in integrated living to absorb this lesson was to understand that life and ministry were both magnified rather than diminished by their integration but Pam needed no such lessons as anyone who has ever experienced even a few minutes of the love empathy and wisdom the poor from her very being will understand the gift that dad is given 2 nd Stephen and myself in the form of Pam is immeasurable Pam you've become for us the third beloved parent who we cherish human parenthood at its best right dad in the goodnight book is patterned after the person we have come to recognize as the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the human parent he had in mind does not of course himself but his own father all dad's stories and examples without exception pointed away from himself and this is why the only shortcoming of Plan B was his complete silence on the matter of celebrating our father's achievements any such elements we have painstakingly introduced into today's service today we feel deep gratitude for the life skills our father taught us for his patient guidance on all worldly and on worldly matters for giving us a model of belief that was as creative as it was dead fast and for a practice of father newness that was nothing short of heavenly we're going to have as it were a short moment of reflection before our second reading we've had a lot to take in so far there's more clearly to come now what I say next is not a cue for any kind of applause I'm sure that's not appropriate or wanted but I can imagine you will want me to express our very quiet but very warm appreciation to all those contributing to our service with tributes readings and music when I say music I mean under nose Direction instrumentalists singers and the organist all souls members of staff have covered many of the practical manners matters too they're needed for carrying out this service here and have set out the refreshments for later and as we talk about later please come downstairs afterwards then but just to write that also there will be cold rather than hot drinks available up here in this room as long as we leave this particular area by 4:30 that is in order to enable setting up for the free English lessons which is the next event held in this church today but that is no reason why we should feel we can't stay any longer downstairs on talk with friends at the end of the time that we spend together you are invited if you wish to to fill in this funeral attendance little card you just need to put your name didn't worry about the address and you'll find some of the back here and also done some downstairs where the refreshments will be and leave them there in advance now we thank David Turner for the address that he will be giving and also to David for his obituary about Richard in the press one person not on the platform is Pam boos in fact Pam with other members of the family has been the one most responsible for drawing this service together she wanted me to mention that three of the four hymns were not chosen by Richard it was the members of the family therefore who decided that we should sing some words that had been written by Richard I vow to you my Savior and that hymn will follow the reading which Matt Wright is going to come and give us now Tim Wendy Steven thank you very much for asking me to do this reading on behalf of my dear mum and our family the reading is from Psalm 16 starting at verse 1 keep me safe my god foreign you I take refuge I say to the Lord you are my lord apart from you I have no good thing I say the holy people who are in the land they are the noble ones in whom all is all my delight those who run after other gods will suffer more and more I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips Lord you alone are my portion and my cup you make my lot secure the boundary lines have fallen for me in Pleasant places surely I have a delightful inheritance I will praise the Lord who counsels me even at night my heart instructs me I keep my eyes always on the Lord with him and my right hand I shall not be shaken therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices my body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead nor will you let your faithful one see decay you make known to me the path of life you fill me with joy in your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand this is the word of the Lord [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] please sit Richard was an immensely easy man to love and that inevitably adds a measure of emotion to the loss we feel at this moment what an exemplar of Christian ministry at its best as we've been reflecting humble and gentle passionate and strong dynamic and yet self effacing a visionary with his feet on the ground and a twinkle in his eye a serious person who did not take himself too seriously and who was consumed by gospel passion a learner and teacher whose eyes never closed to the wondrous things of the Bible as his dear friend Michael born said a moment ago Richard was a man who carried a Bible in his pocket and Jesus in his heart and behind his own unfailingly gracious air of relaxed informality was of course immense confidence and versatility and a steely conviction that at the end of the day it was not creativity or excellence or winsomeness and he had all those which won hearts to Christ but the all-powerful word and spirit of God he was as we've been thinking a communicator and preacher whose whole life had been saturated in the gospel of grace what he said and how he said it reflected that it was always grace and truth there was no hectoring or scolding just compassion and warmth and content and whether it was a major conference address or a family service flannelgraph that he'd been up all night painting himself the Bible spoke he was us his sister has said a storyteller rooted in history and culture absorbed in testimony to the greatest story of all the immense reality of the kingdom of God the stone that became a mountain and fill the earth the whole earth reordered around the powerful love of God in Christ and as we've just sung he was a poet too who understood the power of words and music to move and to inspire and he was a theologian of the very best kind though of course he would have denied it I remember Richard and I collapsed together in giggles one Sunday morning as an immensely respectful American visitor insisted on repeatedly calling him dr. views note Richards theology had Jesus at its center worship as its goal holiness as its objective the world church as its audience and mission as its imperative every chapter studied in every doctrine understood there was the impulse to go and tell there was the impulse the imperative this will change your life and he was a person of Prayer not infallible test of spiritual integrity where frankly so many of us fail and he loved the truths of Psalm 16 our text ever confident of the world the words sheer reach into life's big moments he put recoat ice onto this Psalm for funerals and he put me on to the psalm for weddings and we've each come to share his enthusiasm for these remarkable words because it's a psalm full of faith and confidence of security and hope for the present and for the future it has much of David but even more of Christ it's a poetic meditation on trusting the Lord and the benefits that flow from such trust and as the Psalms so often do it presents us with sentences of audacious certainty and that last verse verse 11 is just one such you make known to me the path of life you will fill me with joy in your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand as Richards so often loved to say the best is yet to come and if as in Richards case God is our greatest good the psalmist says we gain what cannot be lost and will only increase infinitely so let some theology comfort us at this moment Richard is more alive and alert now than we are he has no more pain or infection or discomfort he is absent from the body but present with the Lord his body will never be abandoned to the grave for Jesus has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light he is entirely free from the power and presence of all sin he no longer sees through a glass darkly but face-to-face with the Jesus he loves the days are getting brighter and brighter does it get any richer than this no because there's nothing fuller than fool and there's nothing longer than eternal you can't improve on all that flows from following Jesus it simply doesn't get any better and this is what we human beings were made for it's what Richard devoted his whole life to teaching and modeling the joy Jesus offers is not just deeper than any other it's also more durable he can satisfy your soul today and he will satisfy it forever as the God of the future draws us into the infinite riches richness of knowing him so sound 16 is really about the good life the anchored life it challenges us personally about what Richard loved simply to call our worldview tell me your worldview he would say gently to people he saw were thinking the somme begins with certain commitments in verses 1 to 4 3 stand out first verse 2 there is submission to the Lord as our supreme good apart from me says David I have no good thing I say to the Lord Yahweh you are my lord Adonai it's personal you are quite simply number 1 says the psalmist my supreme treasure my lord my sovereign in you is all the good I need or will ever need the question here is not that of our individualistic age Who am I rather it's whose am i CS Lewis put it he who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only Richard knew that and he modeled it for us and then second in verse 3 there's passion for God's people as our great delight Richard loved the Saints who are in the land the Church of Jesus the true nobility here in London in Africa in the u.s. across the world the most important organ on the planet the Church of Jesus Christ and it gathers here every Sunday and we love it there's a sweetness to Christian relationships and delight in the people of God without which none of us would be in any sort of ministry Richard used to say that he felt safe with John's daughter and we felt safe with Richard around because we sensed his delight in us and then third in verse four there's repudiation of all competing idolatrous as our greatest danger there's an age of realism in the psalm here as there was in Richards whole ministry we're in a battle those who run after other gods suffer more and more Tim Keller commenting on this first writes we must all live for something and if we live for and love anything more than God himself we are trapped who in their right mind would not want to turn from the all satisfying God only to embrace gods that leave you sad and broken but the anchored life is not just about commitments to the Lord to his people to truth is all those in Richard it's also about contentment verses five and six because Richard modeled godly contentment as well as anyone I've ever known Lord you alone are my portion and my cup you make my lot secure the boundary lines have fallen for me in Pleasant places see nothing sustains or satisfies the way God does and that Pleasant places phrase of verse six is a single Hebrew word which reappears as pleasures in verse 11 and for us of course it's not about acreage in Palestine it's rather the sense that life and eternity are wonderfully and securely fenced in by the God who sustains our every breath and of course this has nothing to do with life being pain-free or uncomplicated but it has everything to do with the knowledge that it all comes from the hand of a God who couldn't love me more than he has done on the glass and I don't just affirm that stoic ly i exalt in it commitments contentment the climax of the anchored life is there in verses 7 to 11 it's confidence confidence first there's confidence in the Lord's direction verse 7 dear Richard was a bit of an insomniac and maybe maybe David the psalmist was - do you see I will praise the Lord who consoles me even at night my heart instructs me you see there's an interactive quality to the secure life which death doesn't end anymore than sleep or lack of it does in life the wonderful counselor is always there leading us in the path of life and second there's confidence in the Lord's protection verse 8 I will keep my eyes always on the Lord with him at my right hand I shall not be shaken and that right hand hints at the advocate in court the champion in battle and the psalmist draws a mighty deduction here about his personal security whatever comes and then finally this confidence in the Lord's resurrection in verses 9 to 11 the psalmist here talks directly to God he becomes you in verse 10 verses 9 and 10 of the puzzle at the heart of the psalm which of course Peter explodes in that in with meaning in that Pentecost sermon in acts 2 where he explains that David in the seemingly heartfelt plea not to let him be lost in death was speaking not merely of himself but of the very resurrection of Jesus from the dead Jesus was the one not abandoned to the dead for God raised him and all Christian confidence takes its cue there even these frail physical bodies of ours will as we are united with him come under the ultimate protection of the Lord as they are renewed for glory does any other Psalm end on a greater note of confidence death will not cancel out love or relationship or security no God is not the god of the dead but of the living mark 12 27 and as the psalmist says later Psalm 73 verse 24 you guide me with your counsel and afterwards you take me into glory Richard lived a life marked by commitment to God and his people he lived a life marked by contentment with the Lord's provision and he lived a life marked by confidence in the Lord's resurrection death will not keep him from fullness of joy in God's presence Christ is risen this psalm is his and we must make it ours to remain seated while we're led in prayer Richard wrote this prayer at the end of his final book under the thorn dream God our Heavenly Father I come this day to you awaken my soul to the angel music of heaven where the morning stars sing together and the sons and daughters of God shout for joy create in me a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me let me abide in Christ and take my part as one of his faithful witnesses in our turbulent world may I be filled with the spirit of truth and grace and be your loyal ambassador wherever I go and to all I meet our men come Lord Jesus and as we have been reminded again again as Richard prayed so he lived and we pray gracious God we give thanks for your faithful servant Richard we praise you as we recollect his life and cherish his memory we bless you that in bearing your image Richard brought life and light to our lives and to countless others near and far we give thanks again for his gifted ministry in preaching teaching writing and evangelism and so much more not least in this great church of all souls and so a moment of stillness of quietness as we make our own response are earned thank you for Richards life and our hearts go out to parent all the family in their great loss father of all mercies and God of all consolation you Perseus with unfailing love and dispel the shadow of death with the bright dawn of life eternal give we pray comfort and courage to Pam his daughter Wendy sons Timothy and Steven grandchildren Heather Matthew J and Charlie sister Elizabeth and brother Michael and all the wider family in their huge loss and sorrow be their refuge and strength and lift them from the depths of grief into the peace and light of your presence through Jesus Christ our Lord amen and a prayer from Richards beloved Kenya wind of God blow far from us all dark despair all deep distress all groundless fears all sinful desires all Satan's mares all false values all selfish wishes all wasteful worries blow into us your holy presence your living love your healing touch your steadfast courage your mighty strength your perfect peace your caring concern your divine grace your boundless joy wind of God bless strong blow fresh blood now upon us all and as we approach Pentecost this weekend we joined together in the Lord's Prayer that spans the world our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's remain standing I'm sure that many if not all of us they're going to feel that it has been so good to be here together but we also recognized that shortly we'll be moving out into our own individual lives and how much we need God's blessing his love his peace his presence to go with us day by day so may the peace love and joy that comes through Jesus Christ fill our hearts and lives and may the blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be with us and remain with us always amen [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: All Souls Langham Place

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Length: 112min 17sec (6737 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2019