Debbielynne Kespert: A Life Well Lived to the Glory of Christ

Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Justin Peters. I hope that this finds you and your family doing well today. I want to thank you so much for joining me for this podcast. This is a different podcast to be sure.

Debbie Lynn Kespert, many of you who have followed me for some time, you have probably heard me mention her in my teaching. Many of you have seen her on social media. She posted some of the articles that she wrote only for ladies on Twitter.

But anyway, Debbie Lynn and her husband John were both dear friends of Kathy and me. John was in a wheelchair because as a child he contracted polio and he had a breathing apparatus strapped to the back of his wheelchair.

He would have to give himself a breathing treatment every few minutes to keep his airways clear. Debbie Lynn had severe, severe cerebral palsy, one of the worst cases of CP that I've ever seen. But they were precious friends of ours and two of the finest people that I have ever known, that Kathy and I have ever known, just two of the most precious saints.

They loved each other and they loved Christ. They had a deep abiding love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are both with Jesus now. They have both died just this year. John died a couple of months before Debbie Lynn did.

Debbie Lynn passed away a few weeks ago as of this recording and she made the request before she died that at her funeral that I would present a eulogy for her. So I did that. I was not able to be there in person.

I had a preaching engagement in Texas and I wasn't able to be there. So I recorded a video eulogy for Debbie Lynn and they played that at her funeral. I've had several people request that I post that and so that's what the purpose of this video is.

Just precious, precious saints and I'm so happy for them that they are now with the Lord Jesus Christ. Their faith has now been made sight. And let me also say that both John and Debbie Lynn were not only powerful testimonies to the gospel and to the sufficient grace of the Lord Jesus, but they were also living rebukes to the Word of Faith New Apostolic Reformation Movement, the Health and Wealth Gospel.

Both of them had been told at various points in their lives by various people that if they just had enough faith, God would heal them. They were powerful, powerful rebukes to that theological poison, but now they have received the ultimate healing and they are with the Lord Jesus as I speak right now.

So, all right, dear ones, without any further delay, here's the eulogy that I did for Debbie Lynn Kespert. Hello, dear ones. My name is Justin Peters. Greetings in the strong name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What a special privilege and honor it was for me to have been asked by Debbie Lynn to do a eulogy for her at her funeral. I regret that I'm not able to be there with you in person. I had a longstanding preaching engagement for this weekend.

So as you're watching this, I am in Texas preaching. So I couldn't be there in person, but I did want to do this video eulogy for her. I guess it was eight or nine years or so ago that Kathy and I were made aware of Debbie Lynn.

I don't remember who it was, me or Kathy first, that came across her website and saw some of what she was putting up on social.

Media.

We went to her website and began to read about her and the things that she was writing. We were just immediately impressed by the depth of her Bible knowledge, the concern that she had for the spiritual well-being of ladies.

Of course, she wrote only for ladies, but I did read some of her stuff because I wanted to get to know her more. The more Kathy and I read about her, the more we were impressed by her. Long story short, we made contact with Debbie Lynn.

We began to exchange some emails with Debbie Lynn and John as well. Then we began to talk on the phone from time to time and get to know them a little bit more. Just as time went on, our friendship deepened, but our love and appreciation and respect for both Debbie Lynn and John also deepened.

We got to meet them for the first time in person in October of 2019. I was preaching at Debbie Lynn's church. I flew out there, Kathy flew with me, and we got to meet John and Debbie Lynn and spend the afternoon with them.

Just what a joy to be around. All of you who know Debbie Lynn, who knew Debbie Lynn, all of you know that she just had an infectious smile. I've seen many people write about that or mention her smile.

When you see her smile, I don't care how bad your day is or how bad of a mood you may be in. When you see Debbie Lynn Kespard smile, you just about can't help but to smile along with her. An absolutely infectious grin and smile.

What we saw in Debbie Lynn, what all of us saw in her,.

Dear friends,.

That's not just happiness because happiness is an emotion that comes and goes. What Debbie Lynn had was deep seated joy. What Debbie Lynn had does not have a human explanation. It can only come from a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

That was true of her and John as well. Debbie Lynn suffered in ways that few of us can imagine. All of us suffer. We live in a fallen world and we all suffer from time to time, but a few of us suffer the way that Debbie Lynn did.

I cannot imagine being trapped in a body that I could not control any more than what Debbie Lynn could control hers. I can't imagine not being able to give myself a drink of water or to hold a pencil or to even satisfy an itch on my nose or something like that with my hand.

Stuff that we do automatically without even thinking about. Debbie Lynn could not do. And on top of all of that, to be so limited in my speech and my verbal communication, I can't imagine how difficult and at times how frustrating it had to have been for Debbie Lynn just living on a daily basis, not even being able to communicate to others.

And of course John could understand every word she said because he lived with her. He was her husband. But for a lot of people who did not know her well, it was difficult for them to understand her. And I can't imagine the kind of suffering that Debbie Lynn Kespert endured.

But through all of that, she had this undeniable joy. Nehemiah chapter eight, verse 10 says, the joy of the Lord, the joy of Yahweh is our strength. And Debbie Lynn had that joy because she knew Christ.

And one of the things that I really appreciated about Debbie Lynn is that she could have made much of her handicap. She could have definitely played the woe was me card. And, you know, look at me, look at how I suffer and or even, or even look how much I've overcome despite my handicap.

She could have done all that, but she didn't. I really appreciated that.

She,.

Her handicap was almost something that she was reluctant to talk about because she didn't want to bring attention to herself. She wanted to bring attention to Christ.

But of course, of course,.

Christ in his kind providence used her disability. In fact, I'll just say it even ordained it from the, from before the foundation of the world, ordained it for his glory. God never causes suffering or ordained suffering just to watch us suffer.

No,.

But he does it to glorify himself. And sometimes God is most glorified in us. Not when things are going well, not when life is good, not when our bodies are working and you know, we there's no pain or anything like that.

Sometimes God is most glorified in us when we do suffer, when we are persecuted, when we do have sickness, when we do have disease. And yet through that suffering, through the persecution or through the physical suffering in our bodies, we still speak well of Christ.

And we seek to honor and glorify him. And that is exactly what Debbie Lynn did.

In fact,.

In preparing this, I went to her website and I came across this article that she wrote that I've read before, but it's been several years. This is titled autobiography with a purpose. I want to just read an excerpt of this to use.

Debbie Lynn writes. People throughout my life have often urged me to write an autobiographical book. This advice certainly appeals to my already inflated ego, but more serious consideration leads me to doubt that such a book would profit any publishing house brave or stupid enough.

Debbie Lynn always had a sense of humor, brave or stupid enough to underwrite such a project. And as I age, I'm in my sixties now typing grows increasingly difficult for me, making the idea pretty unappealing.

And she continues a little bit later.

She says,.

I haven't changed my desire to use autobiographical material here for the sole purpose of magnifying the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that Christians in the United States most likely have little time left to publicly proclaim the gospel and offer biblical truth.

So I don't want to squander that precious time composing a vanity blog.

Yes,.

I'm physically disabled yet I've done things that some people consider. Quote.

Amazing.

Get over it. I have.

And dear friends,.

That is not false humility on her part.

Any of you,.

All of you who knew her, you know that that was real.

She,.

She's basically saying,.

Yes,.

I have a really bad disability.

And yes,.

Despite that I've accomplished some, some pretty significant things. Get over it.

I have.

She wanted all of the glory to go to Christ. She never brought attention to herself. And I've seen other people with disabilities. I've seen some evangelists with cerebral palsy.

Uh,.

It's almost like if you were to take away their disability, they'd have nothing to talk about. That was not Debbie Lynn. Let me continue.

She says at the moment,.

However, John and I think I should write a series of posts about my spiritual progression. In doing so, I don't want the focus on me.

Rather,.

I propose to show the Lord's grace and sovereignty as he has patiently brought me through various sinful patterns and questionable doctrinal positions to where I am now. He has worked so gently as he's corrected me over the years in his faithfulness to keep me rooted in his word, both astonishes and delights me.

I pray that these stories from my life, which I'll share only once or twice a week, will help you avoid the pitfalls that kept me spiritually retarded for so many years. But more than that, I pray that you will learn more about who Christ is and how he desires us to worship him.

If I must write an account of my life, at least let me do so in a manner that honors him and helps my readers know him better. I don't have time for anything less. Debbie Lynn meant that. She didn't want to waste her time talking about herself.

She wanted to spend her time magnifying Christ, and she did that so well. The joy of the Lord was her strength. You know, it's difficult for anyone who loses his or her spouse. Difficult for anyone. I cannot imagine my life without Kathy in it.

But as difficult as it is for anyone to lose his or her husband or wife, for Debbie Lynn to lose John, when John passed away, Kathy and I were both very, very concerned for Debbie Lynn, just because,.

I mean,.

Life for her was hard enough as it was. And John,.

Of course,.

Could help her do some things. He would put her stick on her head and things like that. He would help her and then he was gone.

And,.

You know,.

It was a,.

I'll say this, please understand the way in which it's offered, the spirit with which it's offered. Even though I miss Debbie Lynn, we all miss her. And I do. I think about her every day. I miss her. Kathy and I both miss her, but we are also grateful to God in His kindness that He took her home just a couple of months after He took John home.

It was a kind mercy of God to just go ahead and call her home because now all of Debbie Lynn's suffering is gone. It's all a thing of the past. She is in a very real place right now. And I don't mean this in some kind of whimsy, ephemeral Hallmark card kind of, you know,.

Oh,.

He's in a better place. She is in a much better place, in a very real, very physical place. She right now is with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know if Debbie Lynn could tell you anything right now, if she could come back and tell us anything, she would want to tell you the gospel.

She would want you to be where she is right now at this very moment. I told Debbie Lynn just a few days actually before she died, I had an opportunity to speak with her on the phone. And by that time she was physically too weak to talk back, but she could hear me.

And I told Debbie Lynn,.

I said,.

Debbie Lynn, you've impacted me so much, Kathy and me both. You have had a tremendous impact. I told her that she has been an encouragement to us. I told her that she has been on occasion, she has been a godly rebuke to us as we have been tempted to, you know, complain about various things.

And we think of Debbie Lynn and what an example she was. So she's been a rebuke to both of us and to so many others. And I told her,.

I said,.

Debbie Lynn, even though it looks like you're going to beat us to heaven,.

I said,.

I'm still going to talk about you. I'm still going to tell ladies about you and put our website up there for ladies to write down. And I hope that that website stays open. But at any rate,.

I said,.

Debbie Lynn, it looks like you're going to beat us to heaven, but please do save us a seat. And dear friends, Debbie Lynn, just say it this way, she would love for you to be there in heaven with her to save you a seat, even though technically it's not necessary,.

Of course,.

But a figure of speech, but she would love for you to be there. If she could say anything to you right now, she would tell you the gospel. She would tell you that the greatest miracle in her life would not have been if God had healed her of cerebral palsy.

The greatest miracle that could have ever been done in Debbie Lynn's life was when God saved her when she passed from death to life. The greatest miracle is not when the blind see or the lame walk. The greatest miracle is when the dead are raised.

And I'm not talking about physically dead, but spiritually dead, dead in trespasses and sins, raised to newness of life in Christ. Debbie Lynn would want you to know the gospel. And so I want to close with that.

Has there been a time in your life when you have been convicted by the Holy Spirit of God that you are a sinner, that you have broken God's laws? All of us have broken God's laws thousands of times. When you go through God's moral law, the Ten Commandments, all of us have lied.

The Bible says, thou shalt not lie. All of us have told lies. Thou shalt not steal. All of us have taken something that does not belong to us. So we're liars. We're thieves. We're blasphemers. God says, do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

We have blasphemed God's name and word and deed. Thou shalt not commit adultery. But Jesus says, if you look at a woman with lust, you've committed adultery already in your heart. If you've ever looked at another person with lust, you are an adulterer.

And so when you go through God's laws, his standard of goodness is absolute perfection. But all of us have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us have broken God's laws thousands upon thousands of times.

We have sinned against God in word, in deed, and in thought. And just like when we break laws on earth, there is a penalty to be paid. How much more so when we break the laws of God? But because we have sinned against God, who is eternal and of infinite worth, the punishment of that sin is also eternal, and it is also infinite.

And if we die in our sin, we will very rightly and very justly go to a very real place that the Bible calls hell, where the worm will not die. The fire will not be quenched, and there will be wailing and weeping, gnashing of teeth.

The full undiluted fury of God's wrath will be poured out. For all of eternity. That is the bad news. That is what your sins have earned you. That's what my sins have earned me. The wages of sin is death, eternal death.

But there is good news. And the good news of the gospel is this, is that God has made a way for you to escape his wrath. God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to this earth. And Jesus lived a perfect life to the perfect satisfaction of God.

Jesus was the God-man, one person with two natures, truly God, truly man. And Jesus willingly laid down his life on the cross. His life was not taken. He gave it. And on the cross, this perfect person offered his perfect life as a perfect sacrifice to perfectly satisfy the perfect wrath of God.

Died on the cross. Three days later, bodily raised from the dead, proving himself to be who he said he was, God in human flesh. And the only way to be saved, the only way to have the wrath of God removed is to repent of sin, turn from sin, and place your trust in what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross.

Your works will profit you nothing. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 64, that our works are as filthy rags before a thrice holy God.

Dear friends,.

You cannot earn your way into heaven. Our works are as filthy rags. Lay your works down. But if you will trust Christ in him alone, what he has accomplished, and if you will repent of sin, turn from sin, then Christ will save you.

You will pass from death to life. And if you're not certain of where you are in your relationship with Christ right now, do what Paul, the apostle Paul says in second Corinthians chapter 13, verse five,.

He says,.

Examine yourself to see if you're in the faith. If you're not certain, if you've truly repented, truly trusted Christ, examine yourself, ask yourself, has there been a change in my life? There was a dramatic change in Debbie Lynn's life.

She has shared her testimony. A dramatic change in her life. Has there been a change in your life? Have your desires changed? Have your affections changed? The things that you used to love, do you now hate?

The things that you used to hate, do you now love? One of the hallmarks of a true Christian is that a Christian loves what God loves and he hates what God hates. Do you have a godly sorrow over your sin?

Per second Corinthians chapter seven, the Bible speaks of two different kinds of sorrow over sin, a worldly sorrow and a godly sorrow, a worldly sorrow. Paul says in second Corinthians chapter seven, verses 19 and 11, a worldly sorrow leads to death, but a godly sorrow leads to repentance unto salvation.

A worldly sorrow is nothing more than a guilty conscience. What would happen to me if my sin were exposed? What would be the consequences to me? And so we try to cover up our sin, not because we grieve over it, but because we don't want the consequences of it.

That's a worldly sorrow that leads to death, but there's this other sorrow, a godly sorrow, a godly sorrow,.

Paul says,.

Leads to repentance unto salvation. What is a godly sorrow? A godly sorrow comes when we grieve over our sin, and we grieve over our sin because we understand that our sin grieves God. He has been so good, so kind, so gracious, so faithful, so merciful to us, that when we sin against him, it grieves us that we do so.

One of the things that I learned about Debbie Lynn is that as much as she may have wanted to, at least on some level, and much as she may have wanted to have been free from her cerebral palsy, free from her suffering, what she wanted far more than that, far more than that, was to be free from her sin.

And she is now. Because you see,.

Dear friends,.

Her sin grieved her. It's not that Christians, true Christians, don't sin. As Christians, we can and we do sin. But when a true Christian sins, it grieves him. It grieves her. Because we know our sin grieves God.

Does your sin grieve you? Salvation is not perfection, but it is direction. Which direction is your life going? And all of us saw the progress, the progress of sanctification in Debbie Lynn's life. Her sin grieved her and she wanted more than anything to be free from it, which she now is.

So does your sin grieve you? Do you have that godly sorrow over your sin?

If you do,.

If you have that godly sorrow, if you love the Lord, love his truth, desire to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you love what God loves, hate what God hates, if you have a love for the brethren, these are all hallmarks of genuine repentance, because real repentance bears real fruit.

But if you're not certain that you have these things, if you're not certain that you have a godly sorrow over your sin, if you're not certain that you truly do have a love for the brethren, a love for truth, if there's not over time an increasing pattern of holiness in your life, if you're not certain of where you are with Christ, then I would encourage you to get real honest before God, cry out to him.

If you will confess your sins before Christ, turn from them, repent of sins, trust him and him alone for your salvation. He will save you. Jesus says, the one who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.

You'll pass from death to life. You'll be raised from the dead spiritually. And one day when physical death does come for you, and it will come for all of us, Jesus Christ himself will be your reward.

That is the good news of the gospel. Debbie Lynn, as we speak right now, is in a very real place called heaven. And she is worshiping and in awe of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The faith that she had on earth has now been made sight.

And she would want that for you. So I pray that as you're watching this, that if you're not certain of where you are in your relationship with Christ, I pray that the greatest miracle that was done in Debbie Lynn's life will also be done in yours.

Trust Christ. He will save you. Thank you so very much,.

Dear ones.

Close with this. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones. Precious was the death of Debbie Lynn Kespard. She served Christ so well. It was an encouragement and a model for so many of us.

Thank you,.

Dear ones. And may God bless you. May God bless your families.