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Since we last gathered a week ago today we, as a church, collectively, and the Shahan family specifically, have been through a terrible, unimaginable, unexpected tragedy. We did not remotely expect this to happen when we met here last Sunday morning. I want to use that this morning in hopefully finding some eternal truths from a horrific tragedy.
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Let me outline the 6 that come to mind in this tragedy inexplicable as this is. It says something about the depravity of human nature.
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The tragedy that we have seen is a commentary on what man is by nature. We cannot conceive of any human being doing the tragic murderous act that was done here last Monday night/Tuesday morning. Its inconceivable but yet it was done, and we happen to be close at hand. The truth of the matter is that its extrapolated all over our nation every single day. One of the detectives who investigated this said, this particular act in Homewood, it was the most brutal murder that he had ever examined. I say to you that to say, in this instance we see a totally depraved human mind, and human personality, whatever the reason, whatever the motive, that's not ours to decide. Somebody did it. That somebody will answer to God for what they did, but it is a commentary upon the fact that man is totally depraved. Now, please hear me, the total depravity of man doesn't mean that each one of us is as depraved as we could be. You and I could get alot worse than what we are now. I hope we don't and only be the grace of God do we not, but the total depravity of man means that we, every single one of us, are completely saturated with a sinful nature. ...
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Whoever did this dastardly deed is a sinner in need of salvation...
Timothy McVeigh, James Earl Ray, et al.. All of these people who caused tragedy to come on the American scene, came from a broken home, and two of those mother abandoned them when they were little children. Now that doesn't exonerate them for what they did, but it says how important it is that we try to rear our children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. It also compels us to recognize that somewhere along the way if you or I, or some of us, reached out to whoever did this deed and they had become a new person in Christ, this never would have happened. And so man is so totally depraved and our heart goes out in compassion because our world his so contaminated with this kind of condition..this kind of sin saturated society.
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One thing that this type of event teaches us is the total depravity of man.
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Secondly, this tragedy reminds me and you of the availability of help. We're not in this alone. You know that. God is our refuge and strength and ever present help in trouble. But sometimes God works through mankind. Through human beings and right here in this tragedy a part of the help that has come to the Shahan family has come through human hands.
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It was Richard's own mother, Louise who had first made the phone call to our church to alert us for some reason Karen had not shown up to pick her up on Tuesday morning. It was our own GW who walked across the parking lot, then to the tragic scene in the Shahan family.
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Then it was quickly after that, it was she, CJ, TR, NL who went in and saw the tragedy that had occurred. And you need to know that immediately these two young staff members, NL and TR, said we will go to Nashville where Richard had gone on Monday morning, and we will help get his car back, and help get him back. No one asked them to do it. No one paid them to do it. They just did it because they loved and they cared.
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Beyond that you need to know that SG who is right here, along with AL, DC, CJ, CA went in and cleaned up the awful condition of the circumstances there in order when the Shahan family went back that things would be at least more decent. We couldn't take the pain away, but you could create an altogether different environment. Nobody paid them to do this. Nobody made them do this. They did this because they wanted to be instruments of help by the hands of God.
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The Homewood police has been very cooperative, SM, our mayor, has been very helpful. The Valley Chapel funeral home discounted significantly the funeral costs for Karen's funeral. All of that unsolicited , unmotivated by anyone here. They did it as a vehicle in the hands of the Almighty God who says, He is our ever present help in time of trouble. So hear me when I say there is help available and on top of human help there is the Divine help that's inexplicable. The help that only comes in an abiding faith in God.
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We can't make it go away. We can't fill the void that's in Richards life. We can't give to Colin and Kyle their mother again. Or to give to Louise her daughter in law again. We can't do that, its impossible. But in the midst of their trauma already they have felt the power of Almighty God.
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Now let me say to you. They're going to continue to need that help. They're going to continue to need our prayers. Often times if we're not careful we immediately surround people in the time of the bereavement for a day or two, or a few days, and then we have other responsibilities, and we have a tendency to fade away. We don't want to do that as far as the Shahan's are concerned. We're not going to do that and you have done a marvelous job as Dr. Strain has already said, as a church family in responding here in providing help and a support system to them where grief can take place. We can't take it away. We can't make it like it didn't happen, but we can be instruments in God's hand who is an ever present help in times of trouble.
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Besides that the resources of their Christian faith will enable them to cope with this when those who are not Christians don't have that kind of resource. So the availability of help is there. If additional help is needed, We're going to see that the Shahan's have the help they need emotionally, spiritually, financially, every way we can as the body of Christ.
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A third biblical truth that i thought of as we heard of this tragedy is not only the availability of help and the depravity of human nature, but also beyond this there is our own desire to recognize in the midst of all of this that there is the help that can come to this family and their loss thru the recognition that our real values are determined not by how much money we have, but by the priority of real values...
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This tragedy underscores for us real values, What I am saying to you is this, whatever time Karen was killed last Monday night/Tuesday morning, that the bottom line at that time, the only thing that made any real difference was did she know Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord. That's the only thing that made any real difference. It didn't make any difference what kind of house she lived in, how many churches she and her husband had served, how she reared her children, how much money she had.. The only real thing that counted, did she know God. And fortunately I can say to you, and you know, by her life and her testimony, she did.
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As a teenager she walked the aisle of that church in Del City, OK, a friend of mine, BS, baptized her into the fellowship of that church when she was just a young teenager. Now don't hear me say she was perfect. She was not. You're not either. I'm not. But she was saved by the grace of God and because of that we don't weep as people who have no hope. She didn't face that terrible, painful death as an unbeliever. She faced it with her priorities in order as far as spiritual things were concerned and the most important thing was that she had made a commitment of her life to Christ.
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Now I wanna say to each one of our hearts hopefully you will never face the kind of crisis that she did, but eventually you're gonna die. It may be suddenly like hers, or it may be slowly through a bout of cancer. ....
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It also talks to us abut the sovereignty of God. Don't hear me say God has caused this to happen. God did not cause the death of Karen Shahan. God doesn't go around killing young 52 year old mothers and wives. The sovereignty of God did not cause this to happen. He can reveal His grace and sovereignty even in the midst of it, that is He can work with Richard , He can work with her sons, He can work with our church to produce good even out of what man intended for evil.
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I have no idea what the intent was of the murderer, but I do know this, God works in all things for the good of those of us who love Him. Karen loved Him. He didn't make it happen, but I wanna tell you one thing He wasn't caught off guard when it did happen. He's not up there in heaven pulling his hair out saying, what am I gonna do for FBC, Richard Shahan?.. Oh, no, no, no, no..God is a God who always understands and is always here and whose sovereignty will somehow reveal his greatness and His power in the midst of this.
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As I said yesterday, if just one person comes to know Jesus Christ as a consequence of this will be more than well paid for, for her death. And somehow, somewhere, somebody could have been brought to their senses and to recognize the uncertainty of life and the certainty of death.
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A week ago she was here..and now she's gone. We never know when will be our last day of life. We never know. There's the uncertainty of life, and the certainty of death under the sovereignty of God.
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One last thing, we have the certainty of hope. That's what keeps us going. We saw in the midst of the memorial service for Karen yesterday, the hope that we have...
Hope can cure almost anything and what we want to do is surround Richard and remind him that hope in Christ, not in the church, not in the goodness of mankind, but hope in the all loving, all powerful God.. Hope can cure almost anything.
Time is a great healer and revealer, and hopefully with time it will reveal who committed this terrible act, hopefully it will become revealed to the authorities, and proper justice can be done in the context of our legal system.
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Hopefully time can be a great healer, and what I'm saying to you is, that this doesn't have to be the end of Richard's ministry, it doesn't have to be the end of the influence of her life. The greatest tribute we could give to Karen Shahan is that we can continue serving the Lord she believed in, and working in the church that she loved, and providing the support and encouragement to her family, and in the midst of that bring honor and glory to the Lord. And to deliver the certainty of hope even in the midst of tragedy.
**link to mp3 audio file
http://fbcbirmingham.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/
