Father, Why Me?

His name is Fane Hanes. You can look him up on the Internet if you decide to Google him. He is from, I guess you would call it, my hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Hanes when I sold him a job and worked for him and was able to spend really one afternoon with him as I found him very engaging, very interesting. He was in his late 80s at that time. He was a veteran of the Second World War. And he actually relates some of this story on a video that happens to be on Google when his name is punched up. His actual grandchildren or nieces or nephews did a story on him. But that was done after I had talked to him. Fane Hanes was 20 years old in 1942, which puts him at 93 or 94 today. He is a tall guy, probably 6'3", 6'4", very humble of someone that you really care about because very few people can sit and listen to for three or four hours. But he was one that even as busy as I was then, I set everything aside just because I thought this was unique. At 1942, Fane Hanes was drafted in the military, having only an eighth grade education. He was then sent to Omaha Beach where he was one of the first on the first army on the crashing of Normandy at that time, which had actually happened in 1944. But he was on Omaha Beach. But in 1942, when he first went into service, he was not sure. He had never really done a lot except for farming and was not married. And so they trained him and they found that he was very proficient with a gun, anti-tank products that he was given. And so they sent him out. And somewhere down the line, as he was relating the story to me, he got in a battle and they actually got surrounded and they had to surrender after most of the men were killed. There, I think he said there were about 125 men with him. And when it was all done, he was captured by the Germans and there were 30 of them left. And as they marched to 30, they held them up in a town because they had already heard that they're going to take them to camps. And so they surrendered and all 30 men were marched into the center of town at which time they stopped and they were all told to hold up their hands. At which time they didn't have any problem doing that until a machine gun lined up in front of them and emptied itself on all 30 men. Except he happened to be at the end of the line. And he fell, being he believed he was shot because blood and pieces of bone and skin were all over him from his fellow soldiers. And at that time, he laid there wondering if he was dead, heard a few groans from a couple of the men who were still alive to which he was able to hear the bayonets enter their bodies until there was no more sound.

Eight hours later, he arose from the ground. The Germans had left. He had survived. At which time he told me the story, he said, I had one thing to say, Father, why me? Why me? Because he truly believed that God had delivered him from this terrible thing. And yet, within another three months, he was captured and sent to a camp again, at which time he was able to escape at a time. And he went on to serve out his time and the war was just about over with by that time. He was able to come back home 30 pounds lighter. But he never lost a connection between God and himself. I bring that up today because I thought about this, and I think you will too, because David had the same mindset. When David wrote in Psalm 8, verse 4, What is man that thou shalt be mindful of him? It's one of my wife's favorite scriptures, has been for years. What is man that thou shalt be mindful of him? David thought about the same thing that Fain Haynes thought. And possibly many of you have thought about the same thing. Time. I'd like to read from the New Living Translation. Psalm 8, verse 4. David writes, What are mere mortals that you should think about them? Human beings that you should care for them. Yet you made them only a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and with honor. Powerful scriptures. But he says in verse 3, and this is what I'd like to touch on. He said, When I look up at the night sky and see the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars, you set in place. Then he says, What are mere mortals? When you see all those stars, wow, have you ever thought, me? Have you thought at this time of the year, how do I know about the Sabbath? Why do I keep it? God gave it to us, as I talked in a sermon a few weeks back. But what about the holy days? Aren't there many people who keep those, as they picture the return of Christ? And all the blessings and a relationship that you could have with God? Why me? Have you ever said that? Ever felt that way? Look at the stars. They are so far away, the distance has to be measured in light years. That's the speed of light at 186,000 miles per second, and one light year equals 5.87 trillion miles, and yet we see them.

Look at the stars. Perhaps you can tonight. Look at the stars with the naked eye. You can see about 3,000 stars on a clear night. If you could see from both hemispheres, you would see about 6,000. Yet our Milky Way galaxy contains over 200,000 million stars. That's our galaxy. It was figured a few years ago that if you could count three stars per second after 100 years, you would have counted less than 5% of the stars in our galaxy. What is man that thou shall be mindful of him? Scientists now with the Hubble telescope, and we've been able to go into space. I wouldn't say deep space because that's a relative word. But scientists now estimate that the total number of stars that we have been able to observe is 10 to the 25th power. That is one followed by 25 zeros. Let me put it in this way. Using an extremely fast computer, making 10,000 million calculations per second, it would still require 30 million years of nonstop counting to number the stars. God made them all. I'd like to, if we can now, if you'll close this, Kurt, I'd like to show you some short scenes here. I'll pull this out of the way.

So hopefully you can understand.

This, of course, is our Earth. This is the solar system we live in. This is the distance between our planet and the Moon. This picture here is actually, that's the United States near Jupiter. Look at these rings. See how big Saturn is? That's six moons, if we can slow it down just a little bit.

No, that's okay. This will give you a picture. This is a picture of a comet that was traveling through. We actually sent a probe up there on it. That's a city of Los Angeles. Can you imagine? Those things are just floating up in the universe. These are the things that's going to come before Jesus Christ's return to the Earth, to wake up the Earth, make them realize there is a creator.

Well, that's a plug-in. Don't know why it's there. Don't think it's up in space.

If you click on the bar, it'll go up right there. Just click right there. There we go. No? Okay. Yeah, hit play.

I didn't plan on him taking my time up for my sermon, but sorry.

That's a different one, Mary. We can do this one. We'll just do this one. That is Saturn with six. It shows just how big it is. Saturn with six Earths. Pretty big. Next one, Mary. Move down. And here's what Saturn's rings would look like if it was on the United, if it was around our globe. From Washington, C.C., that's what you would see. Next one, Mary.

And this is that comet. How big it is. Imagine it impacting. But it says, nothing compared to our sun. Just remember, you are here. That's our sun. Go down just a little. That is us. That's our sun. What is man that thou shall be mindful of him? Go ahead. And here's you from the moon, it says. So if we're on the moon, they just show us. Look how many stars there are out there. Trillions of miles away. Okay. Here's you from Mars. It shows how small Earth is. Okay. Here's you from just behind Saturn's rings. You see this little dot for those in the back. Okay. And here's you from just beyond Neptune, four billion miles away. There's where we are. Next. Let's step back here. Let's see the size compared to the size of our sun. It's our sun and here's the Earth. Pretty small. We are on this little planet. Okay. Here's the same sun from the surface of the moon. That's our sun. Okay. Carl Sagan said, to be amused, that more stars in the space than there are grains of sand on every beach on Earth. See how many stars there are. Which means that there are ones much, much bigger than our wimpy sun. Just look at how tiny and insignificant when you take V.I. Canis Majoris. That's another sun in another universe compared to our sun. And we think our sun's a pretty good size. Okay. Here's another look. The biggest star. The same one.

How much bigger it is than our sun. Okay. But none of the none of those compared to the size of the galaxy. In fact, you can if you shrink the sun down to the size of the white blood cell and shrink the Milky Way galaxy down to the same scale, the Milky Way would be the size of the United States. Which sometimes hard to believe. Okay. Go ahead. A couple more. That's because the Milky Way galaxy is huge. This is where you live inside this little thing here. Okay. But this is all you ever see. All the stars you see at night are just part of this yellow circle. See that little bitty circle. That's all we ever see from our universe. Okay. But even our galaxy is a little runt compared to others. Here the Milky Way galaxy compared to IC 1011. 350 million light years away from Earth. Way down here. Okay. Last one. Well, let's just think. In just this picture taken by the Hubble Telescope, there are thousands and thousands of galaxies, each containing millions of stars, each with their own planets, just like ours.

What is man that thou shall be mindful of him? You can open those. Thank you.

Psalm 147 verse 4 says that God, he determines the number of stars and calls them by what? Name. He calls them by name. See all those? All that we saw. I'd like to read Isaiah from the New Living Translation. Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40 in verse 26. He says, look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. He knows each and every one of them. What is man that thou shall be mindful of him? Or as Fain Haines would say, Father, why me? Because Fain Haines believed that God was instrumental in this life that he preserved that day on the battlefield and the months and months afterwards. Fain Haines actually came back to town after the war. It took him a long time to recover. And he actually started a candy company. And he ran the candy company from 1950 to the year 2000. Because one of the things that he actually told me was, he said, you know, I'd seen such destruction. I'd seen such sad times that I wanted to do something and bring something to people that made them smile. Candy did. And it wasn't until the towards the end of his time on the candy company that he he went because he wanted to buy a flag and fly it at his home and fly it on his business. And he couldn't find one. So he just decided to go start a company. And so now that's what he's been doing. His wife sells flags, all types of flags. He believes God preserved this country and blessed him. And he decided he wanted to do something for his country. Have you ever thought about it? All the many times that perhaps God intervened in your life? Many of us can think of times and wonder, wow, hopefully you don't say, boy, I was lucky. Rather than, boy, I was blessed. What is man that thou shalt be mindful of him? Well, God knows you. And in Matthew 10 and verse 30, he says he knows you so well that... Gatlin? He knows that hair I just pulled out of my head. He knows every single hair on your head. That's pretty special when you see how big the universe is or the multiple universes are out of space. Let's put it that way. And God's back there behind all that. And we see how small we are. And he still knows this little hair. Knows that hair on your head. And then he said in Matthew 10 verse 29 that even a sparrow doesn't fall to the ground unless he knows it. That's pretty special. Known to this world simply as God with a question mark too many times. But hopefully he's known to us as Father. Father. Every year this country sets aside a day for Father's Day. Hopefully we set the year aside as Father's year. Now we remember that our spiritual Father controls our lives and blesses us. And blesses us.

He's called Jehovah-elion. Jehovah-elion. Which means he's God, the Father. He's God the Most High. Sovereign. Highest of the utmost. Incredible. That he still knows who I am. And he knows who you are. Growing up, my father, my physical father, he practiced storge. S-T-O-R-G-E. It's a Greek word. He practiced storge. It's a Greek word for natural, emotional, affectionate love. His family love. Storge actually means to cover over. It means to protect, which my father did. He protected me. He put a roof over my head growing up. But there's something different because our God, our Father, in heaven displays agape. Agape. It's a Greek word that was coined exclusively for its specific use in the New Testament. Every time it's used in Scripture, it means without exception, God's pure divine love. Besides the Bible, there is no other usage of the word agape in literature. You can find something way back thousands of years ago printed in Egyptian text. I like Chuck Missler. He wrote a book called The Way of Agape. I have it, read it. He got about 10 pages that were really good, 220 that was a waste of my time. But he actually said agape is the only unconditional, nonreciprocal, freeing, other-centered love there is.

See, we try to practice agape, don't we? But you see, God is agape. We try to practice it, and God is that all the time. You know, fathers in this physical realm cannot love a child on the street as much as one of their own. God does. God does. Amazing. It says that God knows you by name. Remember the old TV series Cheers? Everybody, you want to go where everybody knows your name? Because it makes you feel important. It's like the old overweight, obese, beer-drinking norm would walk into place, and everybody goes, norm! We get, no matter where we go on this planet earth, God knows our name and he knows where we are. The God of the universe, the God of all this, can make you feel rather small sometimes. Every hair on your head, I've got a lot less than I used to, and they're a lot grayer than they used to be. See how wonderful that is?

Psalm 139 gave a sermon on it a year or so ago. A year or so ago, Psalm 139, I'll read from the New Living Translation. Psalm 139, it's the one that said he knows, or rising up, or sitting down, or laying down. It's a wonderful chapter, Psalm 139. But in verse 16, it says, You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Every moment of your life before a day is over, it's written down, recorded by God. You think he ever goes back and looks at it? I think he ever goes back and looks at it. You wonder if he looks at it and says, here, look at this. See how many times in that day my children talked to me, referred to me, thanked me? What is man that thou shalt be mindful of him? The amazing part in John 17, as Christ was given the high priestly prayer. John 17 in verse 23, he says, He loves us as he loved Christ. You can actually use the word as much. Can you imagine how wonderful and beautiful it was to be around Christ? And he called him his son. And the scripture, even Christ, is saying, Father, you love them as much as you love me. Reason to follow God. Reason to call him, Father. Had anybody cared that much for you? I guess that's why Christ, by being a human level, he truly found out just how great God was. You remember, it's addressed in Matthew 6 and verse 9, he says, When you pray in this manner, pray, our Father in heaven hallowed. How great is your name? He says in Luke 11, they asked him, Lord, teach us to pray. And he said, what? Our Father. He didn't say, my Father. He said, our Father in heaven. You know, this prayer, these verses indicate a spirit of adoration and reverence, which I truly believe should be approached by his children. When we see, truly see how great and awesome God is. Matter of fact, Christ, in his high priestly prayer, actually said, Abba, Father. He's a term of endearment. It's like Papa or Daddy. Set that example for us, because we can come to him and say, Papa, Daddy. And he's so far away. But is he really? Is he really? Is he really? Like you turn, I will go in Romans 8. Romans 8.

Romans 8, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, Romans 8. In Romans 8, I'd like to go to verse 16. He said, The Spirit itself bears witness of our spirit, that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. God calls those who follow him, his children. And he says, you're going to be heirs. What does he own?

Remember the picture? How about everything? And you know, I guess that's why God has promised the entire universe, as it says, to his children. And that's why he has to laugh at somebody on this earth squabbling over a little hundred thousand acres of land. A thousand acres of land. Didn't mean a thing. That's why he doesn't want his children bickering over little things like that, when the future contains everything. Everything. And what we talked about this week, Neil and I, if you're in Romans 8, I'd like you to go to verse 30.

Romans 8, verse 30, Moreover, whom he predestined. Yes, he predestined you. Even could have been hundreds or thousands of years ago by your relatives. He predestined for you to be called, and then he called you. He calls you. It's your responsibility after that calling to answer the call. And then once you answer the call, then it's on you to be justified.

And the only way you can be justified is by the blood of Jesus Christ. And then once you're justified, it says there, you will be glorified. Total inheritance. Amazing scriptures. I like to turn back, if you will. Turn to Galatians. I'll read from the New Living Translation. Turn back Galatians, if you will. Galatians 4. I like to read verses 6 and 7. Galatians 4, verse 6, New Living Translation. And because we are...

Well, you might even look in your margin. It actually says you, making this personal. Because we are his children, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, Abba, father, daddy. Now you are no longer a slave, but God's own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. Awesome. Awesome. What about us? You know, my wife, she calls her father, daddy. Daddy. I also had some friends call her daddy.

Papa. In terms of Medeiros, I don't know what people called yours. Papa. Papa. Papa. It's special, the relationship. Hopefully, not everyone... Well, hopefully, everyone did have a good relationship with their father. It's probably not correct, though. But see, you can always have the best father that ever existed or will ever exist in your father. And the only thing you ask is that you follow him and you spend time with him. No matter how far away he is, he's right here listening to every word, every hair that falls from your head. How incredible is it? Really incredible. You know, we are blessed by being here today.

Have the understanding that you have. You understand about the Sabbath. You understand the Holy Days. You understand the food laws. You understand so much because he gave it to you. Because most of the world does not. I hope we're thankful for that. But it's bigger than that. And I think most people in here today can understand the statement that LeBron James won the genetic lottery. Say that again. LeBron James won the genetic lottery. Here he is, this incredible athlete. Six foot nine, 275 pounds. Can do about anything he wants to with a basketball. Right, Brandon?

Brandon knows. Yes. He's sometimes been called a freak. He's just a freak of nature. He's just that big, that good, and he's so gifted. Yep. He won the genetic lottery. Well, brethren, if you're here today, you're following God. You won the spiritual lottery.

Seven billion people out in this world. And trillions and trillions of stars. That God could have started anything, anywhere, at any time. But we know from Romans that it started here. He says the whole universe is groaning in chapter eight. Waiting, waiting for us. For us. And then the world really begins. The universe really begins.

Every year at the Feast of Tabernacles, God gets to have a homecoming. God gets to have a family reunion. Seven times during the year, He makes these days that people that really follow Him will keep those days in honor of Him. But He made a feast of tabernacles. Eight days long. Seven and one. Eight days so that people could come, His children, could come together and rejoice. He even called it a feast. He even said to go there and rejoice, as my friend here said. He wants us to enjoy ourselves. He tells us to set money aside so that we can go and not feel guilty, but go there and rejoice. And you know, it's for us, some of the greatest times I've ever had in my life, where it feasts of tabernacles. And I think, man, this is such a blessing! And then I realized, it was for me, but it really wasn't. It was for my father. He did this so he could watch. So he could watch His children having the time of their lives. See, I used to see that with my father, when he would have all the kids come over, my physical father, and he enjoyed it. He would even make, oh, we're going to cook out. He would make up these things. I know how busy he was, but he would tell, and my mother's like, Charles, we don't have time. Yeah, we do. Let's get all the kids over. You know, I'll grill out, or everybody just brings something. Why? My father just loved to watch. He loved to watch all his grandkids, his children, his grandkids, having fun, laughing, and playing ball, and doing all these things. Every year at Thanksgiving, my marriage father, my law is 92 now, and every Thanksgiving, all the family comes, they all get together. And it's amazing. You see all these kids, and it's just like, well, you know, because that's the only time we get away from here. You go back home as we do it over that weekend. So I have not seen the kids and the grandkids for a year. It's amazing how you see them grow up. And you could see her father just sitting there, and he's older, and you know, his days are numbered. He knows that. But he's so enjoying seeing these kids, and the young ones, and the playing, and talking, and that's when I began to realize, man, as much as I enjoy the feast, it's God who is truly enjoying the feast. Because he gets to see everybody, and they're there for the reason of worshipping him, and talking about him, and it's just a wonderful thing. It's a family reunion. That's why he does it. And he's far away. But he's not. He wants to watch. He wants to be there. Let's go to Revelation, is where I wrap this sermon up today. Revelation 21. Read it here. There's a time when he will no longer be away from us. There's a time, it says in Revelation 21, which is past a thousand years, that the Feast of Tabernacles pictures. Okay. And in Revelation 21, verse 2, I then, I John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle. The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. You know, he's waiting for that time. So waiting for that time. And they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them, and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed. Away. Say, wipe away every tear. That's what dads do. Going to make sure he eliminates it.

And we must ask, Father, why me? Perhaps you can understand if you've ever had the opportunity to be driving down the road. And somebody has dropped off some little dog on the side of the road. Or somebody who stops, and our last three dogs, two dogs, two or three dogs we had in our life were rescues. They were about to put them to death or something, and went down and one of them, and I just picked it up. Well, you know, it's a big dog. Nobody really wants to be, well, we'll take that big dog. We picked that dog. We didn't pick a... never picked a bad one. One, it was a little problem sometimes. But we never picked... but we went in and you saw all these dogs, and we got to pick one. And we saved it from death, and we gave it a good life. God picked us. He picked us. He picked us. Out of seven billion, He picked us. We hit the lottery! The spiritual lottery, brother.

On the opening night of the feast of Tabernacles, it'll be a full moon. Most of the time, it's clear when it's a full moon. And you walk outside after the service, as my wife and I will typically do, and we, as I've said before, we usually have a bottle of wine. We take two glasses, and we go out, and we toast that full moon. See, that's our Father's invitation to us. To most of the people, it's just a moon. For us, it's a seventh moon. It's a full moon. He says, it's time for the feast of Tabernacles. It's time for my family to come together for a reunion. How awesome is that?

Tonight, if it's a clear night, take a look at the stars, light years away. You may even see some suns out there. And they may even see a planet or two. You'll probably only be able to see this universe. But as they've found, they think there's thousands upon thousands, if not millions and millions of other universes with billions of stars. God has to laugh when someone here thinks they've done something big. I wonder if that's why he stresses humility and his son came to show it.

So instead of asking, what is man? That thou shall be mindful of him, as David asks, or as Phane Haynes asks, Father, why me? Maybe it's time, if we truly realize, it's time to say, Father, thank you. Thank you.