Funeral Sermons: How Much Effort? Do You Remember Them?

I can't believe that I'm posting a thread at 3 AM in the morning!

However, I've been up all evening preparing a 'funeral sermon' for a precious 92 year old lady from our Church. After a season of prayer and study I felt the Lord deal with me to minister from this subject:

"The 'Good' about 'Goodbye'"

It's amazing that I still love the thrill that I get to know that God has dealt with me about a message - any message - that can help people.

But, ultimately, it got me to thinking;

(1) QUESTION: How many preachers here put a lot of effort into funeral messages?
I probably put just as much, if not more, effort into my funeral messages than I do my Sunday Night sermons. I've been to funerals that I wish they had tried to put more into it... but I digress!

(2) QUESTION: How many preachers or saints here really remember anything preached in funerals?
I remember a lot of funerals that I remembered virtually nothing about what the preacher said. On the other hand, I remember a few that really impacted the atmosphere.

I do know, for a fact, that at times like those you can make major 'inroads' to souls with your message. I've become famous in this area for a funeral message I preached for the father of one of my Saints: he was an old guitar player in the honky tonks in our area.

Not knowing what to preach exactly the Lord dealt with me and I preached a whole sermon with my guitar on (I play several instruments) and, right in the middle of talking about losing someone you've learned to depend on, I reached up and cut one of the strings... altering the sound.

To make a long story short I ended up playing that old song 'Precious Memories' on the five remaining strings with the premise that 'even though something's missing the song goes on'... and every drunk, winehead and druggie in the place started sobbing! The good part? They all remember me on the streets of my city to this day!

God helped me... and my obedience paid off well.

OKAY: Answer the questions! This weary preacher wants to know the answers.