Memorial for Mike A. Kopp (1942 - 2023) | Faithful Prayer Warrior

Kootenai Church

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Just leave it on, it's an eight hour battery. Check, check, test, test, checking.

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Well, good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of the family, thank you for coming to my cops memorial service.

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We're gonna begin with a reading from 1 Thessalonians chapter four, verses 13 through 18.

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We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.

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For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

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For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

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For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

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Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

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And so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. Let's pray together.

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Our Father, though our hearts are aware of the sadness that we have at Mike's passing, because he was a friend and a husband and a comrade, we are just so grateful that you have given us years with him and the opportunity to know him.

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And we are grateful that we have here this opportunity to remember him. And we are sad, but we don't grieve as those who have no hope.

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We grieve as those whose hearts and minds are filled with hope, hope that is based upon your word and the certain promises that you have given concerning a resurrection that is to come.

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And so we rejoice in a life well -lived, in a servant who has served you faithfully and lovingly and who has had an impact in people's lives and has done so much even behind the scenes to minister to people whom he loved and cared for.

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And so we pray that our time that is spent here today may be spent for your honor and glory and that our reflection may be upon the goodness of a

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Savior who saved Mike and the goodness of a Savior in whose presence he is even now, as we rejoice in his life and thank you for the hope that we have in Christ.

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In his name we pray, amen. Well, it's a privilege for me to be able to share what

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Mike has been in my life. Early on when I met Mike, we used to meet together for a midweek

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Bible study and I got to know him pretty well. After he was here for a while, one of his ministries was that of ministering to those who were going to have surgery.

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That was a unique ministry and I've known throughout my Christian life men and women who make it a point to try to get to the hospital for surgeries and I do the same.

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But this was more than just an attempt. This was a driving passion in Mike's life.

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In my own life, he was at every surgery that I've had, which there's been a few, and yet he did so in a way that was quiet and humble.

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He didn't make anyone know about it. He would just check with Marcia. Anytime somebody was planning to have a surgery, if she knew about it, she would tell him when and where and he would be there, not just after the surgery.

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No, he would be there during the time they were prepping, who was having the surgery.

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He would remain quietly in prayer throughout the entire surgery until the surgeon came out to give the update.

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Once that was done, he'd quietly get up and leave. That was him, quiet man, a humble man, and yet a love for the

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Lord. God had done a work in his life that was amazing to me. And behind the scenes, he did this wanting no credit, wanting no one to know about it.

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He just wanted to be there for God's people. So I just thank the Lord today for his life and what he's meant to so many in this body.

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And I just wanna pray that his family now would be remembering him in that way and comforted during this time because he was used for God's glory.

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Father, we thank you that you had done this work in Mike and that now he is with you.

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It seems like such a breath of shortness his life was.

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When I first met him, it was more than a decade ago, almost 15 years ago, and yet just like a brief passing moment, but with an impact that will last with those who have known him.

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We just give you thanks for the work you have done in him, and we do pray for each member of Mike's family and especially

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Sherry and the immediate family that you would be guaranteeing them comfort and granting them grace, and that we would also be a part of coming alongside the family members that are needing anything.

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We just praise you now and thank you in Jesus' precious name, amen. This is the obituary.

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Michael Allen Copp passed away in his home in Coquihalla, Idaho, surrounded by his loved ones on April 9th, 2023.

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He was born October 10th, 1942 to Isla and Russell Copp in New Albany, Indiana.

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Michael retired after 27 years of service as a Chief Warrant Officer Four in the U .S. Army. He served in Vietnam in the

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Persian Gulf War and was a Purple Heart recipient. He was a pilot during his career and his favorite aircraft to fly was a

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Huey. He was an incredibly kind and caring man who helped others and gave back generously to his community.

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He lived his life with gratitude for each and every day that the Lord gave him. He's respected by all who knew him and was loved deeply by his family, friends, and church.

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When asked by hospital staff what was most important to him, he answered, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and my family.

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He will be missed greatly by his family and community. However, his legacy of compassion, principle, and great love will continue to live on in the hearts of all those whom he touched.

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I'm gonna read to you from John chapter five. This is a promise of the Lord Jesus. Verse 24 through 29, truly, truly,

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I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

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For just as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself and he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the

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Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come forth.

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Those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

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Those are the words of Christ. I wanna offer just my own testimony of Mike and his significance in my life and how much of an encouragement he was to me.

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It was not uncommon for Mike almost every time he saw me on a Sunday morning when he was here, whether it was out in the foyer or passing each other in the bathroom or wherever, he would stop and he would encourage me in some way.

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He would say, I appreciate what you do and I love being here and I appreciated that sermon or whatever it was, he always had a word of encouragement.

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And this was true, I understand, not just for me but for others as well. Some of you remember Tim Carr who used to attend here some years ago before he went to take a pastorate down in the

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Tri -Cities. I got a text from Tim this week and he said, I was listening to your message from Sunday where you mentioned two saints from the body who passed away.

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Who were they, if you don't mind me asking? And so I said, well, the first one that we buried last week was

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Marilyn Brothers. She passed away back in January. And I said, I'm sure you probably remember her.

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I was texting this to him. I said, you probably remember her, but I'm not sure if you'd remember Mike Cobb. Because I couldn't remember if Mike and Sherry started coming before Tim left or what the overlap was.

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I knew for sure that Tim would know Marilyn but I couldn't remember exactly if Tim would remember Mike. So I texted that to him and Tim immediately called me and said,

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I have to tell you a story about Mike. He said, Mike is at least in part responsible for me taking a pastorate down in Kennewick because every time

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I would preach at Kootenai, Mike would come up and he would say to me, you need to be a pastor, you need to find a church, you need to be a pastor, you need to do this regularly, you have a gift you should pursue.

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And Tim said, I took that as partially, at least in part, the Lord confirming that desire in my heart that I should be pursuing something like that.

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So he said, so I have Mike to thank, at least in some measure for me being a pastor today. So Tim has

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Mike to thank for him being a pastor. And I told Tim, I have Mike to blame for you leaving Kootenai and going to Kennewick then.

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But that was Mike's nature. And even in the final days and months,

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I mean, it happened quickly from November when he found out he had pancreatic cancer to just recently on Resurrection Sunday when he passed away, that happened quickly.

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And in the conversations that I had with Mike, even visiting him once with Jess in his hospital room down in Coeur d 'Alene, he was prepared for going to be with the

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Lord. He understood what that meant. He didn't long for it in terms of what that meant for his family, his loved ones, those he left behind, but for himself, he was ready to pass out of this state of bodily death and into life.

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He knew that to die in this world is to live in another. And he knew that to hope in Jesus Christ in this life is to be raised to newness of life in the world that is to come.

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And his regret, his only regret, I should say, that I ever heard him express to me was that he couldn't pray more, he couldn't serve more, he couldn't do more.

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Limited as he was physically, he was always wishing that he could do more for God's people and for the

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Lord. And death is an intruder that robs us of people like that, isn't it? There's people that we love, people that we cherish and we care for, people that bring us joy and encouragement, people that have significant impact in our lives, sometimes in palpable ways, obviously, on the surface, and sometimes in quiet and indistinct and more hidden ways.

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Death takes those people from us. And death is an intruder into this creation. It robs us of loved ones, it robs us of joys, it intrudes into our lives.

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But this world was not created that way, it was created perfect. And death is a result of man's sin.

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Mike died and we will all die because we have all sinned. And because we have all sinned, therefore death is the result of that, physical death.

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But spiritual death is also the result of our sin. And we have sinned against God, all of us have, and sin brings that death into the world.

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Scripture says in Romans chapter five that it is by one man's sin, Adam, that all die, so we all die physically. And it is also because of one man's sin that all of us are born sinners.

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So we're not sinners because of what we do, we sin because of what we are. We are sinners, we are born into this world as rebels against God, hostile against Him, and that manifests itself in so many ways in our lives.

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When we lie, we tell lies, we demonstrate that we are children of the father of lies, the devil, and not children of God, because we hate the truth.

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We reject God, we do not like God. We hate God, in fact, Scripture says. We love darkness, that is how we're born into this world.

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When we are born, Scripture says, uttering lies, they just come out of our hearts. And not only that, but we steal things, which makes us thieves, we blaspheme

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God's name, we covet, we slander, we lust, we commit adultery, we commit idolatry, we do not honor

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God as we should, we don't love God as we should, and the Bible explains that we do all of those things because we are fallen children of Adam.

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And the just judgment for our sin, Scripture says, the soul that sins, it shall die. And so when we sin, because we are sinners, our soul, we are born dead in our trespasses and sins, and the soul that sins in this world, judgment from God is what that sin deserves.

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Because of my sin, I have credited up in my file before God a host of transgressions against him and against his law that deserve eternal damnation and eternal punishment.

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That is what is true of every fallen child of Adam. We can't even begin to number or name our transgressions.

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And see, we know that justice must be done, and our physical death is merely a harbinger of what is to come. If we do not have a payment for our sin before a holy and righteous

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God, then on judgment day, we will stand there, and all of our crimes against God will be listed before us, and the verdict that comes down will be guilty.

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And not because God is unjust, it's be guilty because we are guilty. We've committed those crimes, and we deserve that judgment.

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And so eternal damnation is the just punishment for our sin, unless we have somebody who has paid that price for us.

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And this is the good news of the gospel. This is what Mike understood, and this is what he cherished. The good news of the gospel is that God the

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Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, came into this world, and he lived a perfect life, and he died a death on the cross to pay the price for sinners.

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So that your sin can be forgiven, not because you have done anything worthy of God's grace or his mercy or his forgiveness.

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You can be forgiven because somebody else has merited eternal life on your behalf by living the life you were required to live and then dying the death that you deserve to die.

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That's the good news of the gospel. And what God demands from us in order to have our sins forgiven and to be given the righteousness of Christ so that we may stand in his presence, blameless on the day of judgment, what

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God demands is that we turn from our sin and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and trust that his sacrifice on the cross was sufficient to pay the price for our sin.

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And when we turn from our sin and we believe and trust in that Savior, God's promise is that he will cause us to be born again, our sins will be forgiven, we get the righteousness of Christ, and we get to stand before him on that last day, blameless and innocent, not because we're blameless and innocent, but because the blameless and innocent one bore our sin in our place and died in our stead and then rose again victorious three days later, and now he invites all men to repent and come to him, and Jesus' promise is that the one who comes to him he will certainly not cast out.

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So the invitation is there, and if you reject that invitation and choose to stand in God's presence based upon your own self -righteousness, what you have done will not merit anything but eternal judgment and damnation.

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That's true of everybody outside of Jesus Christ, but if you stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ because of what he has done by virtue of your repentance and your faith in him, you can have assurance on that day that you will have eternal life.

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As Jesus said in John chapter five, verse 24, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but is passed out of death into life.

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This is the hope of all who belong to him. We have passed spiritually now out of spiritual death into spiritual life, and now we are in a state of decaying, dying physical bodies, and we will pass out of this world and be resurrected again on the last day in new and glorified bodies to spend eternity with Jesus Christ forever.

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So we grieve not as those who have no hope. We grieve as those whose hearts are experiencing and sensing sadness, but also as those whose hearts are filled with hope, the hope that we have that Jesus Christ is coming again and he will resurrect us on that day and we will stand in his presence with Mike on the last day because of what

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Christ has done. So have you repented of your sin and trusted Christ for salvation?

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That's the question that this service should confront you with. Now Mike, or not

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Mike, but Sherry has requested that Lanny close the service in prayer. Lanny, would you do that now? Heavenly Father, we know that Mike ran the race well.

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He ran the course and went across the finish line. And he's with you now because he believed in Christ alone.

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Let's pray that everybody here that might not know you as Lord and Savior, as most people do here, to take heed to the message, the word we're shared, because there's nothing in this world that's worth anything compared to what's the glory we're gonna look forward to.

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Yes, Mike, we're coming. Let's pray for the fellowship after that you've done to glorify you,

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Heavenly Father, in your precious Son's name. All right, loved ones, that concludes our service for today.