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Funeral
Message Greg Storey
Many of you have known Greg Storey for a
long time and you have loved him. The photos from before give us snapshots of a
rich life in the midst of a most amazing family and a wife Mandy who
was with him to the end. This means something in our time. Only death would
separate them and that only for a while because Greg knew where he was going
and one day the entire family can be and by the grace of God will be united again in heaven eternity with our God. All of us here we are on earth only a fleeting moment
which is the time where we prepare for eternity. Are you prepared?
In this message I cannot do justice to
everything that happened in Gregs life. However, I can and will focus on the
last twenty months which are leaving a legacy for all of us today. I, for one,
will never forget him. At the beginning of last year some branches of the
extended Storey family found their way into our church Living Grace. Gregs
brother Bruce was the one that
told Greg to try out this Lutheran church but at the time he wasnt interested.
(Why come to a Lutheran church?) However,
he and the family did not settle in any other congregation and therefore
one day they did come to Living Grace
and according to their testimony they
just knew that they were home.
They kept coming which surprised me. Last
year Living Grace was going through some internal conflict over the direction
of the church. Who would want to join a community in a time of turmoil?
However, a few months into the year Greg and I were both waiting for our girls in
the COC carpark and we had a chat. Again he surprised me and encouraged me.
He had a handle on what was going on in the church, was secure and positive,
and not going to be swayed by anything. He saw what he saw and he knew what he
knew. There was leadership in him. He was a bit of a character too.
Then later again Bruce the
brother came with a testimony of
healing from Diabetes. He no longer needed injections. This was a wonderful
testimony. There was something happening with the Storeys. Everything began to
settle and in the beginning of 2009 the church was feeling like the people of
What came next was that Greg was
diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas. There was so much yellow in his eyes.
This was a shock. He was too young. He had a young family. And then the
question: How would we handle this as a church? Over the last one and a half
years with God clearly prompting me
I had immersed myself in the Bible
promises on healing and how important healing miracles were to the proclamation
of the
Who is getting healed of cancer? Could
we not just begin and pray for a few headaches first and stomach pains and the
flu? God, did it have to be cancer? Everyone will say that we are crazy religious nuts extreme unbalanced uncaring. You do not raise the expectations of a man
that suffers from cancer because you just set him up for certain failure
an even bigger disappointment because (as
everyone seems to know) the disease of
cancer is terminal this is according to medical science and Greg was only given another three to
six months to live.
Yet, God was so clear: I made you preach on this and I made you burn
for this and now will you not act on my Word? I was so nervous. I didnt need any more conflict with anyone but this is precisely where God used Greg
a man like him to give leadership to
his church. I talked to Greg and Mandy and shared what was on my heart. What did he want to do? He was
prepared to have faith and to fight and to have a church rising up behind him.
And over the last eight months he was remarkable. There was no wavering. In
moments of extreme pain he would tell God to either take him or heal him, but
he never wavered in his commitment to believe for healing. There were times
when tears would come but no self-pity. There was absolute commitment to press
into God more and more.
For us Living Grace and maybe also for others here this was a first for us to be so
public and bold in having faith for healing. I was so anxious but Greg was strong and we needed his strength
especially towards the end. We needed
him to say that there was no going back on the promises of God. [You may say that he was in denial but I do
not think so. The messages from the doctors were loud and clear and the pain was
also speaking a clear message. But there is a contending for the promises of
God and he encouraged us he encouraged me not to give up. I will never
forget him and the way he broke new ground for us.]
The defining moment came when we
identified the battle with Gregs cancer as our Jericho the city where the people of God
won their first victory in the promised land. This was our first battle in a time of new beginnings and there was
this understanding that God made this strategic. On the eighth of February (2009)
again with the permission and encouragement of Greg the entire church stepped out into some crazy behaviour of faith. Taking
our lead from the way Jericho was conquered at the end of the worship service the men of the congregation came out
from their pews and circled the entire seating area of the church with
Greg and Mandy in the middle seven
times with worship banners in the hand. This took quite some time. Just picture us. Solemn determined old
and young acting on the promises of God in a crazy fashion and then
once the seven rounds were completed we
had a trumpet blast and like the people of Israel before Jericho we shouted at the walls of Gregs cancer. I
did not know how the congregation would take to this but the shout was long
long and loud and passionate. And the
presence of God was so strong.
And God responded almost immediately. Three weeks later Greg gave a testimony in church (available on the
net: www.livinggracetoowoomba.org).
He reaffirmed his whole-hearted support
in believing for his healing. Jesus was his only hope. He thanked the church
for being a fool for Jesus and having no fear of man when we did our Jericho
march and shouted like crazy people. He confirmed that the whole affair had
become rather public. He said: Christians in town know about it. Greg also shared how much he was touched by
the love that was shown to him. When I was listening again to all of his
testimonies, this came through so clearly. Greg felt loved by those around him
and it meant so much to him.
Then he shared that last Sunday he was
crook (stomach pain lying down like
a sick calf). He said to God: I
am pathetic. I dont feel well enough to read the Bible and pray. Lord, please
help me. He fell asleep. On Monday
he looked forward to Jesus and the Word. He prayed for the Holy Spirit to
inspire the reading of the Bible which happened because after this time
with God Greg felt so satisfied. He
said that it was like having a big meal. He felt that he was in love with Jesus
a young fresh love. He couldnt
stop smiling. It was so nice to go to bed with Jesus.
The night before and here I am not completely sure of the sequence of
events but he read Hebrews (in the
Bible), went outside, sat on a chair
meditating on God, said very little, just enjoyed God, went back inside,
finished reading Hebrews, sat meditating on God the words were being
absorbed in his spirit. Felt the Spirit
moving. He sat outside again, looked at the stars, started to love and adore
God, said to Jesus how much he loved him, heaped as much praise on him as he
could with his whole heart how God put his stars in order perfectly. He began to tremble. The whole body was
shaking. He never had an experience like this. He was not afraid. God was
visiting him. The bedroom light was on. He thought that he better kiss Mandy
good-night but she told him that he had done this already one and a half hours
ago.
Greg had a bath, sat in the bath, put
his head down and then started crying like a child. Suddenly he
repented (never bothered spending time asking and receiving) and spent time asking for all the riches
and glorious inheritance that is made available to us through the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Greg repented of so much lack of love, no
compassion, no mercy, no forgiveness, no time, no healing. The list went on and on. He said to God that he had missed out on so
much because of laziness but he would make up for that. He promised to search
God with a whole heart. There was weeping before God. Why was I crying like
this? God told him: All the people that are praying. No wonder can I
work with you like this.
After reading a couple of things in
James he kept repenting. He had wasted money on the pleasures of the world and
went after the world but God spoke to him from the Bible: If you are a friend of the world, you are an
enemy of mine. Greg repented of
that. When he went outside, God revealed to him that he had healed his inner
man his spirit man which
released Greg in giving him all the glory and praise. God was worthy and lifted
him. Then as early as he could Greg
rang me and shared the whole experience with me and then (more importantly) his
family (there is a journal for the family) and the church. At that time he passed on what God had told him: First
the healing of the spiritual man and then the physical man.
One week later Greg gave us another
update and he spoke of an almost continual love-affair which he had with Jesus.
He was so hungry to be filled with all the fullness of God and God filled him to the brim. He
asked for all of the spiritual gifts and began receiving some of them. At the
same time God had led the congregation into something else that was new to us
fasting. We prayed and also fasted for
the healing of Greg. Again he and
the family felt loved.
More good news was coming. The cancerous
lesions to the kidneys and livers disappeared. The tumor on the pancreas shrunk
by half and then also disappeared. God was on the move and after the healing of
the inner man we were now excited about the healing of the physical man.
The good news defied any medical
expectations but in the long run the good news would turn into bad news and
there would be a prolonged downward spiral of much pain, infections, blood
poisoning, more pain, a wasting away and then finally the end of his life on earth at St
Vincents hospital.
Last week seeing him in hospital with pain just skin and
bones crushed me. You just feel like
crying and I began to have a few issues with God. Why did he not heal
Greg? Why did you take Greg from his young family? Where is the healing of the
physical man? God, look at the children. God, you made us step out in believing
for his healing. We looked like fools back then and we look like even bigger
fools now. [And by the way only a
few weeks ago this worship building was packed for the funeral of Lewis Moss
a sixteen-year-old student of the Christian Outreach College. So many of us had
also prayed for his healing and in the very same week of his funeral I was
teaching six nights on healing at Toowoomba City Church. How foolish did this
look Christians believing in a healing God and then thousands of prayers
remain unanswered in the case of Lewis.] In Gregs own experience even
Christians (his words now) would go strangely quiet when he told them that it
was Gods will to heal him. God, why did you not keep your word.
For the first few days I could not be
comforted. A fellow pastor tried but I told him: I know all the things to say to let God off the
hook but I am not ready. An
important breakthrough for me came (and I pray that sharing from my
perspective will also help you) when I
talked with Mandy on the night before Greg died. We happened to be on our own
in the hospital corridor and Mandy was sharing more of what happened in Gregs
and her life. I began to understand more fully how much God had poured out his
love on Greg and Mandy over the last eight months. So much had changed in Greg.
The healing of the inner man was something deep and beautiful and life
transforming.
Mandy also told me that right from the
beginning God revealed to her that Greg would not make it. He would die. At the
same time she said that we the
church I Greg had to be obedient
to what God was telling us and she kept this to herself. I believed her
that God spoke to her about Gregs dying and in this way prepared her for this
time because God is giving her so much strength right now.
From that night I gave up being offended
with God. I did not understand what was going on but the goodness of God is not
dependent on my level of understanding. He had loved Greg and loves him still.
Greg had talked about and experienced a continuous love-affair with Jesus.
Right to the end he was filled with hope and a certain knowledge of God who was
his friend and Saviour. I gave up doubting the goodness of God. God who did not
spare his Son but gave him for us all on the cross, he would never disappoint
us.
Then slowly I could see that God
did a lasting work here. 1. (And this is probably closest to Gregs
heart and so important today.) God made
Greg finish well and thus allowed him to leave a rich legacy for his children.
God healed Gregs inner man also for his sons and daughters. There is an inheritance of faith and glory
which you David & Karen, Jess & Lachlan, Chloe, Alana, Cassandra,
Robertson and William can step into.
God made your dad show you the way and he wants to be reunited with you one day
in heaven so that you can be as happy as he is right now.
2. God used Greg to lead our church into believing for the healing of
cancer. God set the bar high the word cancer strikes fear into any
healing ministry but Greg never
wavered in his commitment to have complete faith in God. There was no
self-pity, no regrets, no wishing that we had kept quiet, no embarrassment in
the end and therefore we may have lost this round with the disease but we will
keep going we will keep aiming high all the while growing in spiritual
authority, faith and the power of holiness. We will keep closing the gap between what people received when they
came to Jesus and what people will receive when they come to us.
Earlier in the year I also read the
biography of Rees Howells which our leadership board is reading at the moment
and even last Friday independent from this another church member drew my
attention to his stepping out in faith for a consumptive woman. She also died
but then God revealed why: It was after that the Holy Ghost revealed why it
had been necessary to take this case that no flesh should glory in his
presence. In a great position like this, God would not be free to use it
through a person who had not first died to it. It is death first and then
resurrection. As the first-born and the first-fruits were to be given back to
the Lord, so the first case of healing, the first-fruits of this intercession,
belonged to the Lord and had to go to the altar (Norman Grubb: Rees Howells
Intercessor, Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press 1952, p84-85). God is testing us
humbling us building perseverance into us so that we would operate in
healing to his glory and not ours.
3. Greg died but we pray for a ten-fold return of blessings for his passing.
At the hospital I mentioned to Mandy and I dont know why this went
through my head that the missionary
Reinhard Bonnke was kept out of Nigeria for ten years. After ten years of
banishment from this country he was allowed back in and then he prayed: Devil,
you kept me out of Nigeria for ten years and I demand an interest payment for
every year that I was kept out a tenfold return of blessings. God listened and the first meeting in
Nigeria broke all previous attendance records. 1,7 million people came. 1,1
million people filled out commitment cards to Jesus Christ. Our prayer is now
that the same ten-fold increase of blessings for his family (for the
church) will come out of Gregs
obedience and sacrifice. May there be financial provisions. May the business
sell for a good price. May the family prosper in every respect.
I close with the Bible reading which
Greg chose two days before he died
for his last celebration of Holy Communion Romans 8:18-21: I consider
that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be
revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God
to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own
choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation
itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the
glorious freedom of the children of God.
In the end Greg knew that he would die
but he would be more than okay. I repeat one Bible verse what Greg knew in his heart: I consider that our
present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed
in us. Greg is in glory now. He is
continuing his love-affair with Jesus (who died for him on the cross)
with no pain and so much joy. If you are
here and you are not yet a Christian, may you one day know the truth as surely as he did. This is
for all of us:
our present sufferings are not worth comparing with
the glory that will be revealed in us. Amen.