Glenn Hathcock Funeral

The New King James Version Chapter 4

15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Louise and family, we need to hear and know what we can learn about our God from this passage especially for the days to come when we want to speak to Glenn, hug his neck, hear his voice, and hold his hand.

Remember that you have a High Priest… this is someone who carries us into the presence of God as a mediator. We have a High Priest who sympathizes with our weakness. This High Priest that you and I have that carries us into the presence of God in our times of need, not only knows about our weaknesses on paper, not intellectually, but has gotten the bitter taste of what it’s like to suffer on this earth. Jesus Christ, our High Priest, fully God and fully Man, experienced the weaknesses we all endure, our weaknesses we experience even now… but that’s not all we learn about our High Priest. We learn that he was tempted in His weakness, just like us.

Isn’t it true that we aren’t only weak, but there’s something else that goes on in our weakness? What I mean is that there is a voice tempting us in our weakness. We are tempted to believe things about God that simply aren’t true when things get hard aren’t we?

What are we tempted to do when we are weak? We might be tempted to withdraw from one another. We might be tempted to become bitter. We might be tempted to give up. Each of these things we are tempted to do flow from what we believe about God. Before we do anything, we first believe something.

What is it then are we tempted to believe that leads us to withdraw, or become bitter, or to despair? We are tempted that we have no help. What then tempts us in our hearts when we are weak and facing difficulty? We are tempted to believe that God isn’t good, or that he isn’t powerful, or He doesn’t know everything. We falsely believe that we don’t have access to help.

I want you to recall and remember today that God in his infinite wisdom sent His one and only unique Son, Jesus Christ, to demonstrate his infinite sacrificial love to suffer in our place and bear the wrath of God that was on each of us. Not only did he bear the wrath we deserved, in his infinite power He arose from the grave. He ascended to be in the presence of God to be our High Priest. We are receive mercy and grace to help to help in time of need. We receive help in our time of need, each and every one of us when we put our faith in Christ alone and draw nearer into the presence of God. This is our time of need. See his infinite goodness, infinite power to win back those who were lost and rescue us

This passage says that the weakness and temptation that we endure has also been experienced by Jesus Christ… But importantly we learn that though he “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Whereas we have given into hopelessness in the face of suffering or the suffering of someone we love, Jesus Christ, our High Priest, never has nor ever will.

I want to remind you of the important reality that our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ sympathizes with you today in your weakness and even your temptation. He has gone before each of you to make payment with His own life, suffering on the cross for when we have fallen short in our weakness and given into temptation, when we’ve doubted the goodness of God… the power of God… and the sovereign plans of God. And he invites us into His presence yet again with His strong and kind voice.

16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

The invitation Jesus Christ extends to you in this moment is that if you recognize you are in need of His help, you can receive it. You are invited to come into relationship of the One who alone gives mercy and grace without end… He has an infinite amount of love… and infinite amount of comfort… He is a good and gracious King…

Notice the location of the place where the author of Hebrews invites us to come to. It is a throne. It is a throne over heaven and earth. This is the most powerful throne in existence, it ought to be where those who approach should be filled with dread or anxiety because we have been found guilty for giving in to temptation because we’ve held onto false beliefs about God and acted upon them. But we can approach the throne… not shaking with fear… but boldly because of our High Priest who has given us peace through his suffering.

This throne is to those who trust Christ, a throne of grace that flows from the Good and Wise, Sovereign King who reigns over all things. It is through faith in the goodness of our High Priest that we will be united with all the saints that have gone on before us. That is where we trust our brother Glenn is at this very moment. Let us draw closer to the One who gives us peace with God and with one another as we see that this is the goal of our lives. The goal of our lives in this life and beyond death is to be with God forever.

In our weakness… in our exhaustion… in our suffering… in our moments of loneliness when we wish we could visit Glenn just one more time… When we question why he suffered before he passed away… we will be tempted to doubt the sovereignty, goodness, and wisdom of the LORD God. Remember the reality… You have a High Priest who has gone before you, who sympathizes with you, who lived and died among us, who lost friends and loved ones, who wept with his friends even when His friend Lazarus died, this High Priest and friend, invites you into the very presence of your heavenly Father into his love boldly so that you may receive help in time of need.

The New King James Version Chapter 11

28 And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, “The Teacher has come and is calling for you.” 29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. 31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”

32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. 34 And He said, “Where have you laid him?”

They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”

35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

v. 32 - Mary didn’t go to the tomb with her grief… in Jewish culture back then they believed that the soul of a person hovered around after the body died. It would then depart upon or after the third day, depending upon which source you read. Nevertheless it had been four days that the Lord waited. Our timing is not sovereign. His timing is sovereign. He is perfectly working out His plan upon the earth. Though in the middle of the sadness it is hard to make sense of it… though it doesn’t change the greater reality of a joyful conclusion in God’s perfect timing. Lazuras was raised bodily from the grave. Jesus was raised bodily from the grave. All those upon the earth who humble themselves today and trust Christ this side of eternity will be exalted and raised with Him on the other side. Our brother Glenn has partially experienced that now.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD.

she went to The LORD of Life. We will honor the body of Glenn… but we know that his remains are not the essence of Him. Today we also look not finally to the grave… we look to Christ.

God is sovereign over each of our lives. He reigns over our days. He is motivated by his desire to glorify God by showing great kindness and mercy to those who haven’t earned it and can’t keep it without Him.

Martha and Mary thought that things had fallen thru. Their poor brother