God Made A Farmer - A Funeral Message For A Farmer

(This funeral message was built around Paul Harvey’s homespun homily on farmers entitled “God Made A Farmer” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRDaPEaDJ7E. The funeral home played Paul’s Harvey’s speech just before the message)

God made a farmer. In Genesis 2:8 & 15 we read that “… God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, … and there he put the man whom he had formed. … and God put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

God Made A Farmer. In fact, the very first man that was ever created… was a farmer. Paul Harvey said it this way: On the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker" So God Made A Farmer.

Paul Harvey had a way with words. He spoke of farmers as men who got up early and worked all day. They planted crops, bailed hay, wrestled with machinery, milked cows, cleared out stones and weeds and whatever else from the fields. And worked hard at raising crops and kids.

And (Harvey noted) if such a man was fortunate, he had neighbors who respected him and counted on him and he had a family who loved him… and knew HE loved them. And that was Gary…

He was hard working farmer a man who did much of what Paul Harvey described. On top of that, he worked 2 jobs, so he could supply for your needs. And he had blessings in life that many men fail to attain. His neighbors liked him and respected him - he knew just about every farmer in the area, and most people knew who he was. In fact, when some members of the church heard that he had died, they asked if he was the man who’d been the Fire Chief in Clymers. They knew him. And they respected him.

But more importantly, he had a family who knew he loved them. You learned your work ethic from him. You honored him by how you’ve lived your lives. And… there’s no question you loved him.

God made a farmer. God made the first farmer in Adam (pause) and people who are smart enough to know it – they know that farmers are the backbone of society. Someone put it this way: “Once in a while you need a doctor, or a lawyer, or a policeman. But every day, 3 times a day, you need a farmer.” So God made a farmer…

But even more than that - God WAS a farmer. Jesus told a couple of parables that painted God as the ultimate farmer. In one of His parables Jesus said: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field” and its obvious the farmer there was God.

And then there was the time the Apostle Paul wrote about farming: “Someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? You foolish person (don’t you understand anything about farming???)! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Listen! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." O grave, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

My point is this: God made a farmer… because God IS a farmer. And he spoke of farmers, not only because they are the backbone of society, but also because what you DO as a farmer speaks of the hope of the resurrection.

ILLUS: When I was 5 years old my grandfather passed away. He had been a farmer all of his life. My mom told me that I was the apple of his eye, and my eyes lit up every time he was in the room. As a 5 year old, his death was hard to understand.