If you happen to be anywhere near Lockhart on Saturday this is what I will be preaching at my Grandfather's funeral service. I cannot think of much greater of an honor than to be asked to give the word at someones passing, most especially family. I know that none of you knew my grandad but I hope this message blesses all of you.
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The Lord Gave…


Today I want to talk to you about “Giving.” Oddly enough it is just the opposite of what we all feel today. Today most of us feel as if we have been “taken from.” Often, on occasions like this we focus on ourselves and our feelings. We concentrate on what has been taken from us. We cannot see all the good, for our sorrow is to often too much to bear. I will be preaching from the book of Job today, specifically Job chapter 1 verse 20. The questions are many. What eternal insight does the Lord have for us? What did He cause to be recorded almost one thousand years before Christ was born? It has been almost three thousand years since this was first scribbled onto leather or parchment, just how can it still be alive today? The Words of God are timeless ones that flow and fit with every generation that has come and gone since their recording. Allow me to apply some of them to our lives today.

Here is the word of God in Job 1:20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship [21] and said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart.* The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."

I am going to back up just a bit so that we can all see the story leading up to this particular passage. Job was a loyal servant of God and God had rewarded him for it. Just a quick side step, Job was rich, filthy rich by the standards of the day. He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and had many, many servants. He had fathered seven sons and three daughters. He was the most wealthy and powerful man in the area. Satan being the jealous type was about his usual manner of accusing and destroying peoples lives. He saw Job and the righteous life that he was leading and sought to tear him down. He managed to strike a bargain with God that if God would remove His protection from Job ,and allow satan to mess with him, then surely he could get Job to curse and lash out at God. God was extremely confident in His servant Job so He allowed it. God removed His protection from Job and satan promptly set about trying to ruin that man of faith. Starting in verse 13 satan cuts loose on poor unsuspecting Job. Job is just minding his own business and all of a sudden he is having a really bad day. The first thing that happens is that he is told that his oldest son just lost all his cattle and servants to an armed raiding party from the Sabeans. Seconds later he is told by another servant that fire came from the sky and burned all of his OWN cattle and sheep. Before this person has even finished talking to Job about the fire someone else comes up and tells him that all his camels and servants were just killed by a whole other raiding party from the Chaldeans. This messenger too, isn't even done yet and still another messenger shows up to tell Job that a tornado has just struck his oldest sons house and all of Job's children were killed in the collapse.

Wow what a terrible morning! I don't think for a minute that I would or could take that kind of an onslaught in stride. Lets look in on poor Job for a second to see how he reacted to all this bad news. I can imagine Job sitting in his rocking chair sipping a cool glass of water on his porch overlooking his land when all these people came running up with all this horrific news. In verse 20 it says that Job “got up and he tore his robe and shaved his head.” Well the very first thing that we can harvest from this for ourselves is that upon hearing the news Job GOT UP. Ok just what does that mean? Job physically moved from his place where he was sitting and he stood to his feet. But how does that effect us? God is trying to demonstrate to us that we must, after hearing news that we just don't like or cannot bear, we are to stand on our “spiritual” feet. Lets flip over to another of God's servants who received some bad news. David, a man after God's own heart, had seen Bathsheba and had murdered her husband after he had gotten her pregnant. You recall the rest of the story, how David condemned himself to punishment through the prophet Nathan. God struck David and Bathsheba's firstborn child ill. David fasted and prayed for seven days straight, never leaving the floor of the temple. We can pick up the story in 2 Samuel.

2Samuel 12:19 David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. "Is the child dead?" he asked. "Yes," they replied, "he is dead." [20] Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate. [21] His servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!" [22] He answered, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, `Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.' [23] But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me."

The first thing David did also upon receiving bad news is he GOT UP. Both David and Job were very favored and popular men of God. They both reacted to the news in the same manner ….. they calmly got up. We also should get to our spiritual feet. The time for fasting is passed, the time for praying is gone. We should, like those godly predecessors stand also. How else can we move from where we are right now, forward, to the next place that God would have us if we do not “GET UP”? Amen?

After Job stood to his feet he did something else. We can also take from his next action for our own lives. Job tore his robe. While this may not make since to us in the year 2001, it was a commonplace action in Job's time. The tear in his outer garment was symbolic of the tear that he was feeling on the inside. It was part of custom in the nation of Israel in that time. When a person was in mourning they tore their clothing in symbolic show. It served as an outward sign so that friends and neighbors would know that the person was in a season of mourning. Now I am not going to stand here and tell you all that I advocate the symbolic tearing of clothes. I don't want anyone to ruin a single article of clothing today. What I will say is this. Do not be ashamed to mourn a loss. While we may not actually tear our clothes we should also not hide the fact that we have had a loved one removed from our midst for a season, until we…may go…to them. Even athletes and the military as well as the police wear black arm bands as a show of mourning. Our nation mourns by flying its flag at half mast, so we too should not be afraid to let people know.

We often feel that, since we are Christians, people should not be allowed to see the depth of our feelings. For some odd reason we are more prone to covering our true feelings than most secular people. But for that unknown reason we feel obligated to put on a façade trying with our humanity to reflect that scripture in:

Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Again I would like to show you Job and David. The things that Job did, were the usual expressions of great sorrow. The symbolic shaving of ones head to demonstrate loss and the tearing of your outer shirt or robe. He did those things with the full knowledge that the protecting hand of God had been, for whatever reason, removed from him and his family. Yet, he did not break out into a long string of cuss words. He did not respond by having a bout of clinical depression, he did not even react hysterically. He did not faint away or pass out, but arose, as a champion to the combat. Job did not, in the heat of the moment, throw off his clothes, but very gravely, in conformity to the custom of his country, tore his robe. He did not passionately tear his hair, or pull his beard out in outrage like the Prophet Ezra after hearing about the ongoing sin of the exiled nation of Israel:

Ezra 9:3 When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled.

Rather, Job deliberately shaved his head. By all this it clearly shows that he kept his temper, and bravely maintained possession of his faculties and repose. In the midst of all this traumatic mess he ensured the integrity of his own soul! The time when he began to show his feelings is easily observable; it was not till he heard of the death of his children, that is when he arose, and then tore his coat. David acted quite similarly. David wept and prayed and fasted for seven days, nonstop. Notice in that passage we read earlier that he did not walk around the palace and wail or cry out against God. No. Instead he acted with purpose, even in his sorrow! David sought God in his darkest of times, even though those times were brought upon himself, by his own sins. That is the biggest difference between the lives of David and Job, David brought God's judgment on himself whereas Job was undergoing a test of faith.

Most interesting for us, is what both David and Job did next. After immense personal tragedy, after getting up to their feet, they both had the exact same reaction! Can you believe that? Despite being several hundred years apart, not even considering that David was the anointed king of a nation and Job was just a rich God loving man, even so, their reactions to travesty are in a word identical. When God took the life of David's son, he too reacted with purpose and composure. He calmly got up from his prostrate place on the floor, he washed himself, put on clean clothes and went to worship God. After Job got up, shaved his head and tore his coat, he worshipped God! How could someone do such a thing? Weren't they sad? The answer is, of course, that they were sad, but they had something that we should get also, and when we get it we should hold it tight! They both knew that God was still God and worthy of their praise in spite of the worldly hurt that they were going through. Most of the time we do just the opposite of that when we get bad news. Instead of worship we have self pity. That is what that passage in Philippians 4:7 was talking about. Being able to worship the Lord under any circumstances. Not putting on a brave face for our friends and neighbors. Simply knowing that God is still God and HE is worthy of our worship no matter what is happening in our earthly lives. God gave us our earthly existence for just a season, and we have a vested interest in it while we are here, but it is only temporary and we must remember that. While we have friends and family that we cherish, things that we own and use, they won't last! Each of you are an awesome spirit being in a temporary human existence, I am going to say that again. Each of you are an awesome spirit being in a temporary human existence. The peace that passes all understanding is knowing your place in Christ's redeeming love and simply resting in it! Job and David both knew where they stood with God, in the bigger picture, they did not get bogged down in the moment of grief and pain. They had purpose and they worshipped the LORD.

Job and David even made similar remarks in regard to what happened. Job said “Naked I came into this world and naked I will depart” David said “But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” They both realized that this is not a permanent home for us, and that the time had come for them to “finish their own race!”

“The Lord gave” said Job. What exactly was THAT supposed to mean? Well just as it appears Job realized that everything that he owned was from God. “The Lord has taken away” is the phrase he used next. This showed that Job knew that everything he had was subject to God's government and that he was ok with that order in his life. Can we say that about our lives today? Then Job summed it all up with “may the name of the Lord be praised!” Are we ready to praise the Lord today? I hope by the time I get done we will have enough reasons. Amen?

The Lord has given to each of us, in a measure that each of us can handle. Our Father is a good God. He is the only one who has the insight and wisdom to know how much we can take in any given situation. Has He ever overloaded us, no. He has and He will continue to stretch us and bend us to get us out of those places that we get all comfortable in, though. It is not His will that we should get stale. If we were to just maintain our place in life and just keep the relationship that we have with Him just as it is right now we would not be doing His will. He wants us to grow, to mature, to become closer to Him than we ever have been. God will always get you into a place that will allow you to grow. That is if you will…. It is our choice every time, as to whether we grow when we are faced with obstacles, or not. I can promise you though, if we don't grow that obstacle will keep on coming around and around again until we mature! I read an interesting quote, its not in the Bible, but you can sure learn it by reading the stories there! It goes like this “We are all faced with opportunities, brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” It is simply a matter of whether or not we have the strength to stand on our faith and the faith to stand on God's promises.

Job and David had that strength and that faith. They both knew that no matter what happened to them on a day to day basis that it was of little consequence to those things that were eternal. You have all heard how only the faith of a mustard seed can move mountains. The Bible has an example of that mustard seed faith.

Matthew 15:22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." [23] Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." [24] He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." [25] The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. [26] He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." [27] "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." [28] Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

Imagine that! Jesus healed her daughter because of her faith. Lets take that passage apart. Allow me build up to this. Jesus had just walked on water with Peter a couple of days ago, He had been healing all sorts of sick and lame people. Just that very morning He had to go another couple of rounds with those wonderfully legalistic Pharisees about whether not washing your hands makes you a sinner or not. Then this woman approaches him. But not just any woman but gentile woman and not just a gentile woman but a Canaanite woman. Remember now that God had ordered the Canaanites utterly destroyed when Israel came into the promised land (Dt.7:2) because they were an unholy idol worshiping people. Jesus knew this when the woman came to Him. He even told her that she should not be allowed the same grace as the Israelites because of her heritage. She was a persistent one though, and she did recognize Him for who He was. She called Him “Lord” and “Son of David” and said that she even knew that grace was not for her, yet she would take whatever Jesus would send her way. Jesus paid her one of the highest compliments written in the New Testament. He said “Woman you have great faith!” and of course He healed her daughter. That is what I am talking about when I say the strength to stand on your faith and the faith to stand on the promise! Not a physical strength but a strength of conviction!

Each of you was uniquely and wonderfully made by God and inside each of you is that same ability. You can have that same strength of faith. God, through you, can move those mountains in your life. Is your mountain job related or perhaps is it a relationship issue, or perhaps is it the loss of a loved one. God can use your faith to remove that mountain. What is that promise that we need to have such strength to stand on? Paul was writing a letter to the church in Rome and he was addressing some of the fears that they had as the Roman church was one of the most persecuted in the post resurrection era. Perhaps you remember tales of the Christians being fed to lions in the Coliseum? That was in its beginning stages at the time Paul wrote them this passage.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,* who* have been called according to his purpose.

Paul, led by the Holy Spirit of God wanted to let us know that everything was going to be alright! He was clarifying something he wrote just s few short verses earlier.

Romans 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

You see God never promised us a life free from trials and times of suffering, He simply will make it all work out in the end. Job had a glimpse and said “though He slay me I will yet hope in Him….” Its all about that eternal perspective. We often feel that we are suffering immeasurably and that our life is a mess. This reminds me of a story I heard about three years ago that goes like this:

God's Embroidery

When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. I told her that it looked like a mess from where I was. As from the underside I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand, I complained to her that it sure looked messy from where I sat.
She would smile at me, look down and gently say, "My son, you go about your playing for a while, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side."
I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view. A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother's voice say, "Son, come and sit on my knee." This I did only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy. Then Mother would say to me, "My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing."
Many times through the years I have looked up to my Heavenly Father and said, "Father, what are You doing?" He has answered, "I am embroidering your life. " I say, "But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can't they all be bright?"
The Father seems to tell me, "'My child, you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side."

You see, we often think that things are worse than they really are when we are in challenging times. Sure we may even be suffering in our human experience, but it is only because of our earthly human perspective, that we cannot see past the trouble. Trouble, pain, emotional hurts, they will all pass God tells us. One day we will be transformed and everything that we know now will no longer matter. Hard to believe isn't it? Eternity is so long and our time here is so short we need to place our faith in our eternal God not our earthly selves. Can you begin to imagine what Paul was writing about. What we go through on a day to day basis will matter so little, that it is not even worth comparing to what it will be like when we get home.

“THE Lord gave, the LORD gave, the Lord GAVE” There is no telling what the emphasis was that Job placed on those words. I would like to think it was the last one because that has always been the way that God deals with us. We are all here today because the Lord gave. Not only did God give each of us life He gave us each other. He gave us the hearts that we use to love Him. The Lord GAVE. God has bound us together and tied us to each other with His giving. God has allowed us to be with Him in eternity because He gave us our salvation through His son! The Lord GAVE. The Lord gave us a man. A man who used to be called by many names while he was here. There was someone who called him son, another who called him brother, another still who called him daddy, and to several he was grandpa, more still called him great grandpa. The Lord GAVE! There was one even that called him husband. Yes, the Lord gave us Charles Hanna! No matter in what capacity each of you may remember him he was a gift from God to each person here. As David said “he will not come to me, but one day, I will go to him!” Rejoice and be glad! What am I getting at? The Lord GAVE!

And now the Lord has taken away.

GREAT IS THE LORD!

Would you all pray with me. Father we love you. Though we do not understand your ways, we praise you. Your mysteries are many and your appointments are right on time. Help us this day and for all the days of our lives to ever more realize your greatness. Help us Lord to “get up” and worship you even in our saddest times. You have given to us, over and over again, not the least of your gifts lies here before us, and we thank you Lord for the time we had. We need your help today Father. Give again to us. Give us the strength to stand on our faith and the faith to stand on your promises. You promise that all things will work out for our good Lord. We hold on to that tightly. In the name of Christ Jesus our Savior, Amen.

...was a huge blessing and you showed your grandad honor with each word. So sorry for your loss, but we know that we'll see him at the feast

Wish I could be there for you. God Bless you and yours...