A Frowning Providence

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Thank you all this week for your prayers, for your love. Cards, stakes, I got all kinds of things.
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Tears, it's been a hard week, but wonderful. Tuesday, we were in New Jersey driving across the country and the external thermometer of our car said 106, 106 degrees
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Fahrenheit. And then as we approached, as we approached
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Worcester area, it changed to 56. And I thought a 50 degree temperature change as we approach home.
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And then I began to think about New England being spiritual tundra and the lack of love for Christ Jesus in New England.
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And then I thought, but to God's glory, that's not true at Bethlehem Bible Church. There are pockets of people that God is raising up.
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Christ Jesus has promised he would build his church. And even though I think as a church, we major on the doctrine side and we have a lot of growing to do on the loving side,
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I've experienced and been a recipient of your love the last week or two. And I just wanna say thank you.
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And to God be the glory that he would prompt you to love the Ebendroth family. It's been super hard to be there when mom was dying and then as she died, and then to have the family come and to see
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Luke as a pallbearer and all those things. But the Lord has been wonderful and generous and gracious.
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And I just wanna say thank you on the behalf of a pastor for all your love to the Ebendroth family.
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And it's kind of neat by the way too, because my mom knew a lot of you. Some of you have been to Israel even with my mother and have ridden camels with my mother even.
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Nancy and I, for those of you that don't know, and this isn't part of the service, but Nancy Yates and I rode a camel together.
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And so we are bound forever as we rode a camel. And I think it was my mother and Millie Lindblom who rode a camel together as well.
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And so there was a man who suffered a lot in Scotland.
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His name was Samuel Rutherford. And Samuel Rutherford said many centuries ago, the secret formula of the saints is this.
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What's the secret formula of a Christian? He said, when I'm in the cellar of affliction,
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I look for the Lord's choicest wines. When I'm in the cellar of affliction,
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I look for the Lord's choicest wines. And we're gonna take a detour from Ephesians chapter six this week.
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I just couldn't bear to get back into Ephesians six, not because it isn't a glorious passage, because it is. But I've learned a lot the last few weeks as I've seen
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God and his faithfulness. And so today could almost be called lessons from a grieving shepherd. What the
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Lord has taught me, reminded me, encouraged me with, and then I wanna make sure that you're encouraged as well as we are really one big family.
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Choice wines of affliction are lessons from a grieving shepherd. One more side note, if you'd like to hear the memorial service that I delivered for my mother last
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Tuesday, it is on our website, bbchurch .org, and you can download that and listen to the funeral service.
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I think this is an important message today because I think we're affected in our culture, Christian culture even,
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TV Christian culture, that we have health, wealth, and prosperity, and the Lord will give his people the very best and only the best, that somehow we should expect from God pleasure and prosperity, and there should be no suffering ahead.
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Friends, that's not true at all. That's a lie. God's will, as 1 Peter says, for our life is to what?
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As Christ Jesus suffered, so too it is our, it is God's will for us to suffer. And Charles Spurgeon used to say, when
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I suffer, that's when God teaches me the most. C .S. Lewis said the same thing.
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God whispers to us in his pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.
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It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. If you're taking notes today or for an outline, let me give you some choice wines of affliction, or things that I've learned from God, and then hopefully you can learn as well.
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You can always tell a pastor if he hasn't had a lot of time to study during the week, he doesn't have the introductions down, he doesn't have the segues down, he doesn't have that transitions down.
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I don't have any of those down. I'm just going to try to keep my composure as long as I can. I said during the memorial service,
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I said, for those of you that have never visited Mount Vesuvius, you'll probably watch one today.
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So you don't have to fly all the way to get there. It's supposed to hurt. We don't have to be robots as Christians walking around thinking we don't have to grieve.
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It's supposed to hurt. The word even to grieve or to be bereaved means to rip. And so I think of Christ standing at the tomb of Lazarus, knowing that in moments, if not seconds, he would raise
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Lazarus from the dead and yet he stood there and did what? He was weeping, he was weeping.
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It's supposed to hurt, it does hurt. A man in Omaha said, death is but a temporary inconvenience that separates our smaller living from our greater being.
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But that's not true at all. It's not a temporary inconvenience. Death hurts, suffering hurts, trials hurts.
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So what do we do? How do we respond? Let me just give you several that I came up with this week as God was working on me and I hope he works through me through his word to you.
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Number one, even though death is cruel, scary and vicious, you can still trust
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Christ Jesus and his word. Even though death is cruel and vicious, you can still trust the
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Lord and his word, can't you? I mean, what are my other options? God, how could you? I was in the room with my mother that Friday morning and she died at about 140 and she had had breathing problems and a variety of other things.
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And most of the other family members left and they left the room and the nurses were very generous and very gracious.
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I think that was actually an answer to prayer how sweet the staff was to our family and to my mother. And so they just pulled down the curtains and they said, you can stay with her body as long as you'd like.
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And I thought, I'm never gonna be able to see my mom's body again except at the calling hours in the mortuary.
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So I just wanna stay, I have no rush. You know, in the old days when grandma died in the back room, she would just stay there for a while until everybody had said goodbye.
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So I was holding my mom's hand as she died. And then I thought, I'm just gonna keep holding her hand until I've just had enough.
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And so it was probably four o 'clock in the morning when I finally left and I just thought, I wanna hold her hand until she's not warm anymore, until her body's just cold.
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And I just was thanking God for her and for her salvation. And I thought, death is horrible, death hurts.
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This whole thing about, well, let's just have a big celebration service. I think it is a celebration service because my mom's in heaven.
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As one man said, when you're born, you cry and people rejoice. And when you die, if you're a
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Christian, other people cry and you rejoice. But I was sitting there holding my mom's hand thinking this hurts.
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Death is unnatural, pre -fall. Death is not supposed to happen before the fall.
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It wouldn't have happened. The wages of sin is what? Death and without Adam sinning and we in Adam sitting, there'd be no death.
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It is a graduation, it is a coronation, but it's supposed to hurt. Yet, we can still trust
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Christ in his word, even though we can't see him and even though sometimes we don't feel like trusting him. Charles Wesley said,
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Christians die well. And why do they die well? By the grace of God, as they still trust in him, even as Job said, yet he what?
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Slay me. About four days before my mother died.
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By the way, if you're looking for a verse by verse sermon, there's about a thousand on the website, so you can just order those. I'm just gonna share what's on my heart today.
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A few days before she died, she began getting very nervous. And so I said, mom, do you have questions about your security?
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Do you have questions about your assurance in Christ Jesus, your salvation? That you will persevere to the end?
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That Christ has saved you? And she said, no, I'm just frightened of death.
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And so I pulled out Pilgrim's Progress and turned to the very back of Act One when Christian had the same kind of experience.
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Here's what Pilgrim's Progress said, the great book by John Bunyan. And I read this to my mother.
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Now I further saw that betwixt them and the gate was a river and there was no bridge to go over.
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By the way, the river's death. And every saint has to cross that river. And the river was very deep.
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At the site, therefore, of this river, the pilgrims were much stunned, but the men that went with them said, you must go through or you cannot come to the gate.
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The pilgrims then began to inquire if there was no other way to the gate. To which they answered, yes, but there have not any save two to wit,
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Enoch and Elijah, been permitted to tread that path since the foundation of the world. Nor shall until the last trumpet shall sound.
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The pilgrims then, especially Christian, began to despond in his mind and look this way and that, but no one could be found by them by which they might escape the river.
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Then they asked the men if the waters were all of a depth. They said no, yet they could not help them in that case.
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For said they, you shall find it deeper or shallower as you believe in the king of the place. Then they addressed themselves to the water and entering,
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Christian began to sink and crying out to his good friend, Hopeful. He said, I sink in the deep waters. The billows go over my head.
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All his waves go over me. Then said the other, be of good cheer, my brother.
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I feel the bottom and it is good. Then said Christian, ah, my friend, the sorrows of death has encompassed me about.
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I shall not see the land that flows with milk and honey. And with that a great darkness and horror fell upon Christian so that he could not see before him.
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Also here in a great measure, he lost his senses so he can neither remember nor orderly talk of any of those sweet refreshments that he had met with in the way of his pilgrimage.
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But all the words that he spoke still tended to discover that he had horror of mind and heart fears that he should die in that river and never obtain entrance in at the gate.
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Here also as they that stood by perceived, he was much in the troublesome thoughts of the sins that he had committed, both since and before he began to be a pilgrim.
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Hopeful therefore here had much ado to keep his brother's head above water. Yea, sometimes he would be quite gone down and then ere a while he would rise up again half dead.
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Hopeful did also endeavor to comfort him saying, brother I see the gate and men standing by to receive us.
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But Christian would answer, it is you, it is you they wait for, for you have been hopeful ever since I knew you.
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And so have you said he to Christian. Ah brother said he surely if I was right he would now arise to help me, but for my sins he had brought me into the snare and has left me.
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And then finally the book ends. Then I saw in my dream that Christian was an amuse a while to whom also hopeful added these words,
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Be of good cheer, Christ Jesus maketh thee whole. And with that Christian break out with a loud voice,
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Oh I see him again and he tells me, when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee.
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Isaiah 43. Then they both took good courage and the enemy after that was as still as a stone until they got over.
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Christian therefore presently found ground to stand on and so it followed that the rest of the river was but shallow.
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Thus they got over. And I said, mom, you can count on the promises of God.
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You can still trust in the Lord. Listen to John chapter 14. Why don't you turn there? I guess this is a Bible teaching church.
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You should open your Bibles today. John chapter 14. What do we do when we're in trial?
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And it might be not be the death of your mother, it might be any other trial. Can you still hope in God? Can you still trust in him?
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Can you trust in his word? That's the essence of faith is trusting in something we cannot see, someone we cannot see.
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John chapter 14. You're in a trial, mom, you can still trust the Lord. You can still trust it that when
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Jesus said, John chapter 14 verse one, do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
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My father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you for I go to prepare a place for you.
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If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.
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And you know the way where I'm going. And so it is true for the
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Christian that when we are in a trial, when things are going the wrong way, according to our plan, we can still trust the
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Lord and trust in his word. Turn to Revelation chapter 22, if you would.
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Can we trust the Lord when we have the hope of this heaven? Of course we can.
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Revelation chapter 22 at the very end of your Bibles, Revelation chapter 22, again with the big theme here, we're in a trial, can you still trust the
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Lord? And specifically looking at the promises of heaven. Not only what
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Jesus said in John 14, but what Jesus is apostolic messenger, John said in the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22 verses one and following.
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My mom was very sick one day and she said, just read me something about heaven. So where do you open your
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Bible? Revelation chapter 21 and 22, tell me something about heaven. There's not a whole lot about heaven, did you ever ask yourself that question?
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Why is there not much about heaven? I think it's too glorious to know about. The main thing to know about heaven is
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God will be there. And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the lamb.
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In the middle of a street and on either side of the river was the tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit, healing its fruit in every month.
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And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall no longer be any curse in the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in it.
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And his bond servants shall serve him. As one man said, there's no barbed wire like curse preventing access to the
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Lord. The saints are serving him over and over and over and they shall see his face. Question, what are we missing in our worship service right now?
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Many things, but one is seeing the face of God as we worship him, but not so in heaven. And his name of possession, personal possession will be on their foreheads.
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God owns these and there shall no longer be any night and they shall have no need of lamp or light nor of the light of the sun because the
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Lord God shall illumine them and they shall reign forever and ever. I sat there and as mom died,
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I looked at her and I didn't wanna be morbid about it or anything, but I thought I wanted to see my mom's eyes one last time.
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I just thought about the sparkle of her eyes and how she looked. I thought, I need to look one more time. It was probably 3 .30
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in the morning and so I just kind of peeled back her eyes, her eyelids. And when she was dying, of course her eyes weren't all the way shut and her mouth was kind of open as she was taking those last breaths and I had closed her eyes and her mouth.
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I thought, I wanna see her eyes one last time. And so I peeled back her eyelids a little bit just to look and they were my mom's eyes.
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There was no life in those eyes. I thought, she's not there. This is just a shell.
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The kids flew into town and we went into grandma's house and Kim was very insightful and she said to our four kids, she said, we got to grandma's house and she's no longer in the house.
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It's just the same way with her body tonight. When we see her body, she's going to not be there.
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That's her body, that's her house, but she's no longer there. And as I stood there looking into my mother's eyes thinking, it hurts to lose a father, it hurts to lose children, it hurts to lose people, but right now, how do you deal with the loss of a mother?
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And I looked into her eyes and it was nothing but cold and blank and staring off. And I thought, never before have
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I trusted God so much to say my words are true, what are my other options?
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Here's the one who's victorious over death. And I said to mom before she died, I said, absent from the body, mom, present with the
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Lord. To live is Christ, to die is gain. I said, mom, I firmly and resolutely believe those things.
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And you do too. One time when I was talking to her, one of the last words she said in a kind of a morphine haze, she said,
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D .L. Moody used to say for his obituary reading, quote, you will read in the papers that D .L.
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Moody of East Northfield is dead. Don't believe a word of it. At that moment, I shall be more alive than I am now.
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Atheists can't believe that, the infidels can't believe that, the pagans can't believe that, but the word of God teaches that.
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And Jesus was not the first to be raised from the dead, but he was the preeminent of all, he was the firstborn.
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He conquered death. We have to trust him. And that's when we can't trust our feelings.
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I mean, how many times as Christians do we go on our feelings over the word of God? At a time like that, you have to submit your feelings to actually the word of God.
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Martin Luther used to say, feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God, not else is worth believing.
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My mom would always send Christmas cards out, and this was her last Christmas card, and you can't see it, and I'm not into props or PowerPoint preach or anything like that, but it was her with all the grandkids.
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And here's what it says, as an example of how God can work through someone and still let them trust in the
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Lord, even though we're having a hard, difficult time. Shortly after Christmas last year, my life's pleasant bubble burst.
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My life was in such fine working order, playing with the grandchildren, et cetera, suddenly chaos.
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A doctor discovered a tumor in my lung, adenocarcinoma. It's been a tough year of chemo and radiation, and the effects of those on my body.
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But God is good, and in Him, I've found security and comfort. Everyday activities are difficult, but I have so many friends and family who help me and encourage me daily.
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I haven't been able to get back to work, but I have resumed my participation in Bible study. She was the lady's teacher.
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I've enjoyed the pool this summer and even traveled some. Now I have more time in God's word and more time with my family.
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Would you believe it? If I told you that I thank God for this cancer. It's true, whatever the storm is,
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God is in control. Wherever we are, whatever we're up against, when we cry out to God in our trouble, when we trust
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Him, He will hear us. He will calm the waters. God teaches me, I'm learning.
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What is there for me to do but to praise and to thank Him? Psalm 107, 21.
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Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men.
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Stop in for a visit if you're in my neighborhood. I love seeing you. And then she tells some about the gospel. What do you do when you're in a trial?
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How do you respond or how do you react? It can't be by sight, especially if we walk by faith.
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And all these things, when we fall short of, a good prayer would be, Lord, I can't do this on my own, so increase my faith.
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Help me not to rely on my feelings. Help me to trust in your word. After all, Christ Jesus said, He didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.
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And He said, I tell you in Matthew 5, unless heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.
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In the Hebrew, there's this little tiny thing that's about, well, it's like a period at the top of a sentence, a comma.
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For us, it's about that size. There are about 66 ,000 yodes in the Old Testament alone. Not one of those will pass away because it's the word of God.
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By the way, where else would we turn in a trial? Even though death is cruel and scary, you can still trust
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Christ Jesus and His word. Even though you're in the trial that you're in, you can still trust the Lord. Number two, death is a certainty, so you must preach the good news to your lost family and friends.
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Death is a certainty. George Swinnick, the old Puritan said, against this arrest, there is no bail.
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Everyone's going to die. And I sat there looking at my mom's body, thinking there could only be one thing worse than this, that if I knew theologically, unless for the grace of God at some last minute rescue, if what would be worse than looking at my mom's corpse, it would be looking at my mom's corpse, thinking contrary to all popular opinion, that salvation is by death.
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You die and you're in heaven. Oh, they're in a better place. What if she wasn't in a better place? What if she was in hell?
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Americas don't like to talk about death. Think about that little Arab boy who had a bunch of dates and he'd hold the dates up to a candle late at night and he'd see a worm in it, pick up a different one, worm in it, worm in it.
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He couldn't deal with it anymore, so he just blew out the candle and stuffed his face because he was hungry for those dates.
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That's the way it is, I think, with America and death. We don't talk about death. We can't handle death. It's like Woody Allen, I'm not afraid to die.
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I just don't want to be there when it happens. And people are going to die. When we stood at the calling hours and it was a closed casket except for family and I opened up the casket and I showed the kids and we brought the kids all around.
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And I said, why don't you just touch Grandma Carla's hand and her face if you'd like? And she was as hard as a rock and cold.
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I said, one day, kids, every one of you is going to lie in a casket just like that. Why did
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I say that? To be morose? To be weird? No, because we never see death.
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You don't see anything dead except maybe a chipmunk on the street. We will die and then comes what?
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Judgment. And for the believers, the judgment is this. The advocate Christ Jesus steps in, the risen one, and he says,
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I have paid for all the sins of this one. Let them into your presence, God. We have the right hand of God, the intercessor, the high priest on our behalf.
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For everyone else, damnation. And beloved, when someone dies, when there's a tragedy like that, it kind of just levels everything out.
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And it makes me want to encourage you by saying, if you don't have family members who are saved and you haven't preached the gospel to them because you think they might not like you or you might cause some ripples and waves, it's just a good time to have them preach because one day they're going to be stone cold dead and they're going to think that their life on earth was at a veritable heaven compared with the hell that they're in.
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Jonathan Edwards used to say that. If you're living a great life here on earth now and you die and go to heaven, you'll think your great life on earth was practically like hell compared to the excellencies of heaven.
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On the flip side, can you imagine thinking you're going to go to heaven and then ending up in hell?
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And now's a good time to preach the gospel to your friends and family. And if they revile you, then bless
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God. They reviled Christ, they reviled Peter, they reviled Stephen, and we walk around and I'm probably the biggest one.
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So remember when I preach, I preach to you because hopefully the Lord has preached to me first. When you are dealing with family members, they're going to die and then what?
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You're the Christian. You're the one who's been taught. We have to preach the gospel to them. I turn to Matthew 7 and let me just remind all of us that there are those who call themselves
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Christians who only are Christians by name. I don't want to read too much.
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It's homiletically not right to read too much from a book and a sermon, but I'm not after homiletics today.
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I said I read the last paragraph of Pilgrim's Progress. I was in error. This is the last chapter of the first act with Christian.
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Now while I was gazing upon all these things, this is Bunyan's view of Matthew 7. I turned my head to look back.
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Bunyan's Christian is in heaven and he's rejoicing and blessing
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God, but he turns his head to look back and saw ignorance come up to the riverside, but he soon got over.
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So now ignorance dies and stands before God. And he got over without half the difficulty which the other two men met with, for it happened that there was then in that place one vain hope, a ferryman, that with his boat helped him over.
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So he, as the other I saw, did ascend to the hill to come to the gate. Only he came alone. Neither did any man meet him with the least encouragement.
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When he was come up to the gate, he looked up to the writing that was above and then began to knock, supposing that the entrance should have been quickly administered to him.
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But he was asked by men that looked over the top of the gate, whence come you and what would you have?
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He answered, I have ate and drank in the presence of the king and he has taught in our streets. Then they asked him for his certificate that they might go in and show it to the king.
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So he fumbled in his bosom for one and found none. Then said they, have you none?
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But the man answered never a word. So they told the king, but he would not come down to see him, but commanded the two shining ones that conducted
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Christian and hopeful to the city to go out and take ignorance and bind him hand and foot and have him away.
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Then they took him up and carried him through the air to the door that I saw on the other side of the hill and put him in there.
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And here's the punchline, if you will, the last words. Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gate of heaven, as well as from the city of destruction.
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A porthole to hell at the gate. And Jesus said it this way, if you'll look at your text,
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Matthew 7 .21, not everyone who says to me, even fervently, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven.
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But he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter. You don't get saved by works, but if you are saved by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone, your life will show that.
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This life didn't show that, it didn't reflect that. The God of the universe has changed you, you'll be a different person.
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Many, did you get that? Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
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In your name, cast out demons and in your name, perform many miracles. And Jesus, if you notice, did not say, no, you didn't.
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You didn't prophesy, you didn't cast and you didn't perform miracles. They might even been able to do that through some weird demonic power.
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And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. As election is called for knowing, for loving.
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Here, he's saying, I never knew you in an intimate way. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. I got up to do the memorial service and I had no sleep the night before and I thought, how am
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I gonna get through this? I'm just gonna ball the whole time. And I wanna make sure I preach the gospel. And my mom and I were raised in a
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Lutheran church and many, many Lutherans came that day to the service. And I'm sure there were many others who believed in sprinkling water on the head will somehow make you right with God.
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You can go down the list between Protestants and Catholics. There are many that think if you get a little water sprinkled on your head, somehow you are in.
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I could even read the passage this way. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, I got baptized at a
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Trinitarian church. Lord, I went to confirmation. Lord, I went to church.
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I even went to a church where they preach the gospel. I even went to Bethlehem Bible Church. They try to preach verse by verse through Ephesians in 19 years.
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I went to that church. I know the word of God. I know justification. I know sanctification.
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But friends, and I can look you square in the face because I need to. There are some of you here who aren't
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Christians. And when you die, you're going straight to hell. And you try to sit here and you think, well,
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I'm getting in on my parents' account. I'm getting in here on my friend's account. I just know all the words of God and I'm just gonna get in.
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If you don't act like a Christian, you're not a Christian. What do I mean by that?
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If God saves you, you will respond by the grace of God and in a even baby step fashion, obey.
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Not by your own strength, but of course the strength that God provides. James knew it when he preached. Do you think
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James was so naive to think that everybody who attended church was saved? I don't think there's just one or two people here who aren't
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Christians. I think there are many who are in this church today who aren't Christians. And what is the claim to salvation?
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The only claim to salvation is to say my own self and my own self -righteousness and everything that I am.
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How about this for Jesus to preach the gospel to someone? When you wanna get saved, hate yourself, have nothing to do with yourself.
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Say, you know, my own self is so wretched and vile. I'm glad we sang a song today about our vile nature. I hate everything about me.
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God saved me from myself. Saved me from your wrath, but saved me from myself as well.
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I'm frightened that people don't build their house on the rock. And I'm frightened because I, as a
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Lutheran, grow up saying, if I die, I know I'm going straight to heaven and I believe in the
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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I could recite the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, and I knew the Bible, but I thought
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I could just have God as kind of my genie last minute thing so I could live my life of immorality, cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, licentiousness, everything that I wanted to live the way
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I wanted to live. And then what? I could not believe one day in the car coming home from church, a guy had the audacity to look me in the eye and say, you call yourself a
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Christian? You've got another thing coming. Friends, that was the most loving thing probably ever said to me in my entire life.
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My first response though was, who are you? It's loving to tell people the truth.
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1 Corinthians 13, love rejoices with the truth. And I'm not gonna go off on some kind of, you know, ogre tangent, but I'm kind of done at least,
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I hope for the rest of my life playing these games of, you know, you're okay, I'm okay.
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There are many here that I wanna meet with and just say, how do you call yourself a Christian? I've been here eight years as a shepherd and you think you're a
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Christian? I see no fruit in your life, I'm not your eternal judge, but how could you be? And if it makes people leave, then it makes people leave.
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They'd leave any, they need to leave because sitting here in this incubation chamber, oh, I'm good to go,
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I don't want that false assurance. I sit there and look at that dead, cold body and think the only hope for that soul in that body that's no longer there, the soul's no longer there, is
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Christ Jesus and his death, burial and resurrection and a believing faith in him. Beloved, there is a faith that does not save.
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Demons believe the gospel. People that don't believe the gospel,
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Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 7 .25, that the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and slammed against that house and yet it did not fall for it had been founded on rock.
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No, that's the people that respond. Here's the ones that don't. Verse 26, everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
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The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and slammed against that house and it fell and great was its fall.
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Thirdly, we're starting to run out of time, but I even thought to myself this week, you know, there's always the time restraints and time constraints.
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I'm just gonna start preaching until I'm done. If we go an hour, we go an hour and if people don't like it, I love you anyway, but it's called the
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Bible teaching church for a reason. If the elders gave me an 8 % raise, I'm preaching 8 % longer. That's just what
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I'm gonna do. Where else do you have to be? Some Father's Day thing? Today is the day we give God worship by listening.
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Do you know you're worshiping God now by listening to his word? Well, there's something about death where you say,
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I want to be changed. When I held little Lily for R and then two days later, little Tori for R as we held their bodies, as they turned from pink to other colors, as we just watched their bodies die,
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I was driving home just crying, thinking I never want to be the same again. And as I was watching mom as she died,
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I thought, God, I don't want to be the same again. I have so many frills in my life and so many things and so many gizmos and gadgets and hobbies and everything else.
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It's still good to rest, but this world is dying and everyone's going to die and against this arrest, there is no bail.
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And so what are we going to do? I don't want to be the same. Well, the first choice wine of affliction was you can still trust
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God in a trial. The second choice wine was we need to make sure we preach the gospel because nobody gets saved apart from the gospel.
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And the third choice wine is when you're in a difficult trial and you know this, and I know it too, but I have to preach to myself.
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If you drive down the street past me, by the way, and you hear me talking and my cell phone's not up here, I'm probably preaching to myself because I need to do that.
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It's not a sign of insanity, it's a sign of sanity. Self, quit it. Self, repent. Self, how could you?
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Self, you're a pastor. When you're in a difficult trial, why questions are better off, are better left to who questions.
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In other words, don't ask why, ask who. Why don't you turn to Psalm chapter 42, if you will.
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Now, at the risk of sounding like a braggart, and I'm not a braggart. If you know me, you know my foils and follies, foibles and sins.
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But so far, I haven't asked God why since mom got diagnosed 18 months ago. God, why?
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I never said, God, how could you? God, what are you doing? And by the grace of God, I never said that.
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And I think I didn't say it because I've been preaching to ask who instead of why for a long time.
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I didn't wanna be like Job's wife, curse God and die, Job. I wanted to be like Job.
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The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, what? Blessed be the name of the Lord. All upward, all thinking about who this
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God is, who gives life, who gives salvation. And I wanted, as 1 Peter 4 said, to entrust my soul to a faithful creator in doing what is right, morally right, ethically right.
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And God did the right thing. Psalm 42 and 43 should probably go together.
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And for those of you that have to ask the why question, this is the psalm for you. And it'll end up in a who.
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So it's gonna do a few whys and then it's gonna rotate back to a who. So if you have to ask why, you can't stop it with the why, you have to end up with the who.
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So when you start saying why, God, don't forget to finish the cycle. Why could this happen?
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How could that happen? And you need to end up reminding yourself who God is. And this psalm shows us very distinctly how that happens.
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As a deer pants after the water brooks, Psalm 42 .1, so my soul pants for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, Psalm 42 .2.
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For the living God, when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food all night and they say to me all day long, where's your
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God? These things I remember and pour out my soul within me for I used to go along with the throng and lead them in a procession to the house of God with the voice of joy and thanksgiving and multitude keeping festival.
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Why are you in despair, O my soul, verse five? And why have you become disturbed within me?
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Don't stop there, complete the cycle. The why must turn to a who if you want to grieve properly.
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Hope in God for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence. Here's another lament.
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Oh my God, verse six, my soul is in despair within me. I remember thee from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon and from Mount Mizar.
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Deep calls to deep at the sound of thy waterfalls. All thy breakers and thy waves have rolled over me. He's hurting, he's suffering.
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The Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime and his song will be with me in the night. A prayer to the God of my life.
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I will say to God, my rock, why hast thou forsaken me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
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As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me while they say to me all day long, where's your God? Why are you in despair,
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O my soul? See, he's talking to himself, asking the why questions. Why have you become disturbed within me?
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Hope in God, he finishes the cycle. For he shall I yet praise him or for I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my
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God. And it is the same thing in chapter 43 and look at the very end, verse five. Why are you in despair,
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O my soul? There's the refrain. Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise him.
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When you ask the why questions, don't forget to answer the why questions with the who.
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Matter of fact, that's what happened in Job. If memory serves me right, 16 times, Job said, God, why?
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And how many times you think God answered that why question? He answered it 16 times with the who answer.
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Why God? Here's who I am. Why this God? Here's who I am. Why God? Here's who I am.
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And lots of times God doesn't tell us because he doesn't want us to know the answer. We're just to trust in him and rest in him.
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You have why questions? God, how could you have this happen to my mother? Couldn't you have picked somebody else?
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Why do you let 95 year old people live who have been atheists for 95 years?
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And my mother has been preaching the gospel for the last 16. She teaches the women's Bible class. She's the Dallas Brown of Omaha Bible Church.
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Why take her? But those questions aren't for me to ask because I know in Job chapter one through 37, there's a lot of questions
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Job asked God. In Job chapter 38, 39, 40, 41, God says,
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I think I'm the one asking questions here. If you can tell me who made that mountain and how he did it, then
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I'll answer you the question. And in chapter 42, Job says, I repent. And what? Dust and ashes.
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We just have to trust the Lord. And maybe you can learn from my mom. Here's what she would do when she had a hard time trusting the Lord. And I've explained this to you before.
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She would do the ABCs of the attributes of God. So you're in a difficult trial and she'd say, A, what do
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I think of when I think of A? Almighty. God is the almighty. He's the all powerful God.
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B, he's beautiful. Some of the scriptures say that he's a beautiful God. Isaiah 28, five, in that day, the
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Lord of hosts will become a beautiful crown. C, he's compassionate. The Lord, our
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God is compassionate and gracious. D, oh, he's a deliverer. E, and by the time you get to Q, trying to figure out an attribute of God of Q, you've thought about the
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Lord properly and rightly and for long enough time and you forgot about your own problem. There is one for Z though, zealous.
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I don't know if there's one for Q. Jonathan Edwards died at 55.
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Why God so young? Spurgeon, 55. Why God so young? Jonathan Edwards' wife, who was no slouch theologically, said these words after Edwards died in Princeton, New Jersey.
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What shall I say? A holy and good God. There's the H and a G for you.
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A holy and a good God has covered us with a dark cloud. Oh, that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths.
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The Lord has done it, but my God lives. He has my heart. We are all given to God. See, that's the right response.
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I brought it home because mom had all these little things around her house and one by the phone, she had this little saying on a little plaque.
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It said, Lord, please put your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.
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And I thought that was right. It's not the why questions. Why do I have this disease?
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Why do I have this issue? Why do I have that issue? Why don't I have a husband? Why don't I have a wife? Why don't I have this GPA? All these questions, you need to look to the
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Lord, who He is. I think of Christ that way, where 1 Peter 2,
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Christ committed no sin when He was in the trial, nor any deceit was found in His mouth. While being reviled,
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He did not revile in return, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.
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Well, let's just do one last one. The fourth choice wind of affliction. We can still trust the Lord is number one.
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Preach the good news to your family, number two, and friends. Number three, ask a who question instead of a why.
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And number four, I'll ask it in the form of a question. Do you love the things and the people in this world too much?
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When I'm going through a trial, it just kind of makes me think about everything properly and I ask myself the question, do
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I really long for heaven? I kind of have a good life, how about you? I have a wife, great wife, four great kids, pretty great church,
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I'm just kidding, a great church, loves Bible teaching, my health is okay,
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I have friends, I have all kinds of things, and frankly, lots of times I don't long for heaven. You wish you could go to heaven today?
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That's hard to ask. The story goes a grandmother lost her granddaughter by drowning.
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Grieving deeply, she said, life will never be the same without her, but heaven has never seemed more real.
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That's what death is supposed to do. This world's not my home. That's why
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Ecclesiastes 7 says, if you want to have a good illustration and learn a spiritual truth, go to a funeral, don't go to a wedding.
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Eternal perspectives are hard to come by, but suffering cuts our knees down and we can see properly. Last passage of the day, turn to Philippians 1, verse 20, and following the passage that I even said to my mom as she was dying.
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I want to have the hope of salvation. I want to have that hope of salvation, give me a desire to get to heaven.
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I don't think I desire heaven enough. Now certainly my desire's increased because that's the only time I'll get to see my mother again.
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I'll get to see her for a long time. But we need to have the hope of heaven, and I think too often, we just kind of live our lives and we need these wake -up calls, and so God uses suffering as an education for us, and that's just one of the ways
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God can make good come out of suffering. And just jumping in here, this book on joy, he says in Philippians 1, verse 20, as he was talking about his ministry and being in jail, he says at the second half of the verse,
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Philippians 1, 20, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now as always be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
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Paul said, my whole life is for Christ and to preach the gospel of Christ, so no matter where I am,
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I'm content with that. I'm just here to preach. I will gladly accept death if that magnifies
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God more than my life. The song says, have thy own way,
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Lord, have thy own way. It says, while I'm living, I'm going to preach. When I'm in the body,
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I'm going to preach. He says in verse 21, for me to live is what? Christ, he's everything to me.
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If life could continue, I'm going to be about the occupation of preaching the gospel. This is my personal confession.
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He'll be the object of my affection and the goal of my life, Christ Jesus. And then he says, for me to live is
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Christ and what? To die is gain. Here's some bumper stickers that I've seen.
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I live to shop. Music is my life. These aren't bumper stickers, but this is how people think about it.
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Sports are my life. He lives for his work. How about you?
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Blank is my life. What's your life? Who's your life? Blank is my life.
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Beloved, if you put in anything there, pleasure, popularity, money, fame, success, fulfillment, besides Christ, then you have to change the second phrase, to die is loss.
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If you don't have Christ, it's for me to live as Christ, then anything else that you put in the word for Christ and replace it with something, to die is loss.
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But if you live for Christ, to die is what? Gain. I believe it, even though it's hard for me to emotionally put it all together.
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You could take my mother and have her sit on the brink of eternity and have her put things in a big heap.
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Here's what's in the heap. Son, daughter, another son, eight grandchildren, ministry, fellowship, love of life, love of travel, all kinds of things, whatever she had.
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You could put it in one big heap and then you could look at the eyes of Christ in heaven and what are you going to say about that heap?
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It's gain. Christ is gain over that heap. That's why
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Paul said, look at verse 23, for I'm hard pressed from both directions. It is hard, but having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is, and he just adds a bunch of particles there together, very much better.
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That's just a lot better, he says. Beloved, I hope
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I'm not just affected for a few days or a few weeks or a few months, but I want the
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Lord to affect me and infect me with the idea that this world is passing away and then what?
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And I think death and trials are good to keep our mind off this statement that has all kinds of truth in it, even though it's not from the
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Bible. This world is not heaven. You believe that?
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This world isn't heaven. Sometimes I think it is. I have so many good gifts here, but this world isn't heaven.
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I'm not going to talk about it much, but I will say fifthly, the best comforter in the world is the Father, Son, and the
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Holy Spirit. When you need comfort in your life, as the old saying goes, go to the throne before you go to the phone.
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You've been very dear and very sweet, but lots of times people just say the wrong things. They don't know what to say. Just a little side note of advice.
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When you are around somebody who's grieving, the best thing to do is to just hug them, cry with them, love them, give them steaks.
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No, I'm just kidding. You don't have to say a lot. You don't have to quote Bible verses. You can just say,
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God has put a deep love in my heart for you and we just love you. And a couple of you wrote me letters and say, we just want to see you face to face and give you a big hug.
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But people will let you down, but the God of the universe, the Trinitarian God, the Father, Son and the Spirit, He will not let us down.
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And that's why, and even some of you have written in your letters to me, blessed be 2 Corinthians 1, the
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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. God gives a comfort and many times
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He gives it through other people. Well, today
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I was just trying to share with my heart and you're so close to me and my mother and I wanted to give you kind of an update and to give you some of the lessons that God has been teaching me and hopefully
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He can teach you as well. The final song we're going to sing is my mother's favorite song called Victory in Jesus.
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Beloved, as I give you these exhortations today, if you think you can do them on your own, you can't. You are in Christ and God has given you the power and the ability by the
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Spirit that dwells in you to obey His commands. And we celebrate now Victory in Jesus, a song written by E .M.
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Bartlett in 1939. Did you know that Bartlett? Maybe you have hymnody in your blood.
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From 1 Corinthians 1557, but thanks be to God which gives us the victory through Christ Jesus.
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And what we're going to do is when you get to the final stanza, I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory and I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea.
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And I heard the angels singing the old redemption story and some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory.
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What I'm thinking about is mom is singing that song already and for those who are in Christ, it's future tense.