The Lord Is Our Provider & Our Provision

This past Saturday I was given the opportunity to be the closing speaker at my Grandpa Clark's memorial service in Lawton, MI. I was honored to be able to share, and below is what God put on my heart that day...

My Grandpa instructed the family, to not “make a fuss” when he passed, but rather to keep the service simple. I think I know why he gave these instructions. He wanted the focus to be somewhere else. William Carey, the pioneer missionary to India, was known to have once said something to this effect. He said, “When I die don’t spend too much time talking about the missionary, instead focus your attention on the missionary’s Savior.” So I want to do a final summary of my grandpas life in order to point toward His Savior. I want us to think about two things as we reflect on my grandpa’s life:
(1)The LORD was his Provider And (2)The LORD was his greatest Provision


First of all, The LORD was his Provider
• Let’s start from the beginning. When my grandpa was 1 years old, his father died. His mother was not fit to take care of him. The Clark side of the family even suggested that he be put in an orphanage. But the LORD was his provider. His step grandmother insisted that she and his grandfather take in him and his brothers, so that they would indeed have a home with family. The LORD was his Provider.
• The LORD provided my grandfather with an amazing singing voice. He had a booming, full, powerful voice. In fact as an older teenager and young adult a local church paid him so sing in the choir there. It was at that church one Sunday that the preacher gave an invitation to Salvation in Jesus, and my grandpa walked the aisle and prayed to receive Christ. So at the age of 21, my grandpa experienced the amazing Gift of Salvation. He received God’s amazing grace in the person of Jesus Christ.
• That same year, 1937, he joined the military and while in the military the LORD provided an evangelistic ministry. A ministry team was formed, and they began ministering at churches in England. In God’s Sovereignty, at one those church meetings, the LORD provided a wife and ministry partner.
• Fast forward the tape a bit, and when my grandparents returned stateside, the LORD provided two more children in addition to my dad who was born in England.
• During my grandpa’s seminary training the LORD provided a job as a camp director and many young people came to know the LORD.
• My grandpa and grandma would then serve at four different churches in Michigan – Wadhams, Lansing, Novi, and Decatur. At each stop the LORD provided a home for the family, a car to drive, and loving community. They never had much, but they always had enough. The LORD was his provider.
• When they moved to California, the LORD once again provided a ministry home – this time at Foothill Bible Church where my grandpa would serve as assistant pastor.
• Even when there was no formal ministry position for my grandpa, the LORD faithfully provided ministry opportunities for my grandpa to teach and proclaim the Word of God and to encourage others with his infections spirit fueled by the joy of the LORD. The LORD was his provider.
• As my Grandpa entered his 90s, his body began to break down. The LORD provided a sound mind and an unshakable memory of the Word of God. The LORD provided peace in the midst of pain and joy in the midst of sorrow.
• A few weeks ago, on a late Friday afternoon in California my grandfather passed away. The LORD was his provider, this time providing a heavenly home in the presence of His LORD and Savior.

But not only was the LORD his Provider. The LORD was his greatest Provision. Can we thin for a couple of minutes about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that my grandpa came to believe on as a young man.
GOD – The God of the Universe created us in His image. God is all powerful and all-knowing and never-changing and eternal. He is worthy of our awe, of our adoration, and of our praise. This God created us and He created us to known Him and to have a relationship with Him.
MAN – However, this Holy and Righteous and Just God has a problem with us, or He has beef with us. You see we have offended God with our sin. The Bible says that all have sinned and that the wages of our sin is death. Our sin separates us from God! We cannot come to know Him in our sin.
CHRIST – However, God is not only holy and righteous, but He is loving. The Bible says that He loved us so much that He sent His one and only Son to die and pay the penalty for our sins. Jesus died for us. He took on the punishment for sin that we deserved. And after dieing on the cross, He rose again three days later. He conquered death. That is good news! Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
RESPONSE – Our response is repentance and faith.

The LORD Jesus Christ died for my grandpa’s sins. He gave my grandpa eternal life. He lavished His grace upon my grandpa’s life. Jesus was my grandpa’s greatest provision, his prized possession, and his treasure. And you see when Jesus becomes that Big and that Beautiful in our lives, it radically changes our perspective on life – I would suggest in two major ways. When Jesus is our greatest possession we will have a different view or perspective of self & stuff.

First of all, when Jesus is our greatest possession we become more and more selfless. We increasingly live for His purposes and for His agenda. We increasingly give our lives for the glory of Christ and for the good of others.
Acts 20:24
Philippians 1:21
Philippians 3:8

 
Secondly when Jesus is our greatest possession we will have a different perspective on stuff. Materialism will increasingly loosen its grip on our lives. Because of His grace and mercy, our lives will increasingly be marked with generosity on behalf of others, rather than self focused accumulation of more and more stuff. This is how my grandpa lived. Because of Jesus, he lived simply. He lived generously, and He made eternal investments his entire life.
1 Timothy 6:17-19

Some might say, and even some Christians might say that my grandpa was not “financially wise.” You see there is no large earthly estate that he is passing on. My grandpa never earned a home. His kids are not getting large inheritances, and neither are the grand kids. But I am reminded of what Jim Elliot once said. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he can never lose. My grandpa made eternal investments his entire life. He invested in people – today is evidence of that. Family we did not inherit money, but we inherited his legacy of faith in Jesus Christ and if we have believed we have received that Paul calls the Gospel of the grace of God.

So today we celebrated the life of a great man, but let us remember that he served a GREAT GOD who was both His Provider and His Provision. And may we come to know the LORD ever-increasingly as both our Provider and our greatest Provision. Amen.