For Don

Over the last two years I’ve counted it a supreme privilege to know Don Phillips as his pastor, friend, and brother in Christ. To know Don was to know a man who could inject joy and laughter into any situation with effortless ease. It was to know a man so filled with a welcoming spirit that after just a few conversations you’d feel as though he was a life-long friend. It was to know a man passionate about his wife, children, grandchildren, and the happiness of games like golf. Yet, I stand here today to say that over and above all those things, to know Don was to know a soul changed by the Lord Jesus Christ.

What I want to think about with you is exactly how that change came about in Don’s life.

An Amazing Awakening

One of Don’s favorite hymns was “Amazing Grace.” As many of you know, that first verse says, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound / that saved a wretch like me.” If you saw Don sing those lines you would have likely seen him beating his fist on his heart in that moment. It was as though he was preaching to himself, “Oh, my soul don’t forget this. That you were a wretch saved by amazing grace.” What I want you to see today is a truth Don showed with his life—that God’s amazing grace is always awakening grace.

As we just heard in the song a few minutes ago, a great anthem in Don’s life was, “Wake Up.” It’s no mere theme derived from pop culture, it is an anthem Scripture shouts forth with fervency and mercy. One place in particular that comes to mind is Ephesians 5:14 which says,

“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

I see in this text two truths about God’s awakening, truths in which Don Phillips lived with great delight.

Awakening grace is sovereign grace. Earlier in Ephesians 2 the apostle Paul said we are all dead in trespasses and sins, by nature we are children of wrath. “But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” Spiritually dead people can’t breathe life into themselves. Spiritually dead people don’t even know they are lost. Such deadness is only overcome by a sovereign God who cries out in love and mercy, “Wake up, O sleeper and arise from the dead.”

Do you know how God woke Don up? It all started when a telemarketing evangelist from Campus Crusade for Christ called his house during a football game. Don said, “Leave me alone, I don’t believe in God anyway.” Don told me it was as though God said to him in that moment, “I won’t let you got that far son.” And so God woke him up—through telemarketing evangelism! Awakening grace is sovereign grace.

Awakening grace is satisfying grace. “Awake, O sleeper, and Christ will shine on you.” In the sweep of Ephesians 5 we find that the light of Christ is a light more satisfying than anything sin and this world can offer. In Ephesians 3 Paul says there are unsearchable riches to be found in the shining, awakening grace of Christ. Don knew what the world had to offer, for years he tasted of its finest feast. And when Christ shined on him he found a satisfaction in Jesus infinitely superior to anything this world or sin has. And he fought—oh, how he fought hard!—to be satisfied in Christ alone.

Just two months ago, at our church’s monthly men’s gathering, Don spoke of this fight for joy in Jesus with his typical passion and boldness. If you looked close enough in that moment what you saw in his eye was the joy of God’s sovereign and satisfying grace. God woke Don up, only by His sovereign grace, so that Don might enjoy His supremely satisfying grace.

Blunt Tenderness

There’s another reason why I find Ephesians 5:14 emblematic of Don Phillips: it’s blunt in its tenderness. “You who are dead, wake up and behold the glory of Christ!” Don was nothing if not blunt. But as you well know, there was such tenderness in his bluntness. He longed to be, and I think he was, an ambassador of Christ who went about each week with blunt tenderness, calling people to “wake up!” Are you dead in sin? Don’s life calls forth God’s word to you, “Wake up and rise from the dead.” Is there somewhere in your life where you are feeling dead spiritually? Don’s life cries out, “Wake up o sleeper, and the light of Christ will shine on you.”

Finally Alive and Free

I find in in this text unusual comfort for those of us who mourn the loss of our dear brother, and it’s this: Don is now staring at the everlasting, shining glory of God in the face of Christ. He is finally and perfectly alive to Christ. He fought the good fight and finished his race, all the while keeping his faith. Seeing the Lord Jesus is his prize.

There is a verse of “Amazing Grace” that goes unsung by many, but we can rest assured this day it is a song of truth for our brother:

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

So let us mourn with hope, let us grieve with faith, for he is has sailed behind the veil of heaven, to endless joy and peace. He is finally, perfectly awake in God’s heavenly presence.

To our God be the glory forever and ever, amen.