So Long, Friend

On Saturday, March 10, about 400 people gathered in the Pottsboro High School Auditorium to say "so long" to our friend, Brick James.

The following is the text of what I said at that memorial celebration:

Funeral for Brick James

One of Brick’s responsibilities at Hagerman was each Sunday he led our welcome time and our prayer time. And he was always late getting to the podium because he was busy giving out hugs to people who needed them. A little over six years ago, I began serving as pastor at Hagerman, and I very quickly developed a close friendship with Brick. And I realized right away how blessed and privileged I was to have Brick on my staff and just to know him and spend time with him and to learn from him. Brick was a good, good man and a dear friend, and I will miss him incredibly. Not long after I came to Hagerman, we were talking in the office, and somehow the subject of our ages came up. I was 28 at the time. And Brick said, “I can’t believe it! I can’t believe that my pastor is young enough to be my son!” Well, over the next several years, Brick really was like a spiritual father to me. One day, we were talking in his office, and Brick was wrestling with exactly what his role needed to be as a staff member, because he was kind of the utility guy. Whatever needed doing, he was the go to man. And I told him that his most important role was he was like Paul and I was like Timothy. He was so often the teacher, and I was the student.
One of the things that I will really miss about Brick is that he was an awesome teacher. He had incredible insights into God’s word, and he always had a unique way of communicating God’s truths. One of the last opportunities I had to hear Brick teach was back in November, we had a meeting for the ministry leaders in our church, and Brick taught them about some insights he had gained from the book of Joshua. And he was so excited as he told them about the hopes and dreams he had for our church. And he talked about how the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, and how the leaders had to have courage and step into the water in faith. And he talked about how the people had to consecrate themselves to be ready for what God was going to do. And he talked to us about how God stopped the waters and the people saw God do another incredible miracle to allow them to enter the Promised Land.
But, here’s what I’m getting to. After the Israelites had all passed over on dry land, Joshua was to appoint one man from each of the tribes of Israel to go into the dry river bed and gather large stones to bring to the bank and set up as a memorial. “And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, ‘In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, “What do these stones mean?” tell them, “Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.” For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.’” What was the purpose of the stones? They were set up as a reminder to the people for generations to come that God had done something incredible there, that the people had seen the hand of God at work. And that’s what I think today is about. It’s about remembering how we have seen the hand of God at work through the life of Brick James.
Now, if I’ve counted right, you’ve heard from ten men so far today, either in person or by letter or video, ten men who have each set up a stone of what Brick did in their lives, of how they saw the hand of God at work through Brick.
And now, I’m the eleventh man. Now, I could spend the rest of the day today setting up stones to honor what God showed me through Brick’s life, but there are four really important ones that I want you to remember.
First, Brick was a friend. Prov. 18:24: “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” That’s the kind of friend Brick was. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard from over the last month who have told me, “Brick James was my best friend in the world.”
Many of you here today represent people who were touched by Brick’s friendship. Brick was a friend because he genuinely cared. Brick was the kind of friend who was there through thick and thin, through good and bad. I remember Sept. 11, 2001, sitting in my office with Brick and Tim, watching television footage of the collapse of the twin towers and us just crying together. And one of the things I really remember from 9/11 was the bravery and the sacrifice of the New York City firemen and police officers who ran in when everybody else was running out. That’s the kind of friend that Brick was. In situations when your life was crashing in around you, in circumstances where other people were running away, Brick was always the guy running in, always the one helping to carry you out when you didn’t feel like you could go on. There was a point in my life when my world was collapsing, and if it hadn’t been for Brick, I would not have made it.
Brick was an encourager. He just always knew when you needed a hug or an encouraging word or a note. Even as I watched Brick in the hospital, people would come in, and he wound up being the one encouraging them. I have a stack of notes in my desk that Brick wrote to me. And the other day, I was looking through them, and I came across this one. Read it. I looked on the front, and there are tear stains from where Brick was crying for me as he prayed for me. He was a friend.
The second thing I want you to remember about Brick is that he was faithful. 1 Cor. 4:2: “The one thing required of servants is that they be faithful…” Brick was faithful. You could always depend on Brick. Brick was an incredible servant. I’ve seen him washing dishes, painting walls, making meals, getting on the floor and rolling around with kids, holding the hand of someone who was dying, decorating for Vacation Bible School, counseling with clients until late in the night, not giving up on people when most others would have given up. He was a faithful servant. I always knew I could depend on Brick. Several years ago, when Brick had his first brain surgery, he had the surgery on a Tuesday, and he was in church worshiping God on Sunday morning. He was faithful.
He was a faithful husband. He loved Dorothy and he was always thinking about how he could show Dorothy how much he loved her. And so many of us have learned about what it means to be a faithful spouse from Brick. This last October, we did a marriage retreat that Brick led, right before his last surgery. And he planned it and worked out the agenda for what we were going to do. But Brick wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to go, but he knew that it meant a lot to Dorothy and that she really wanted to go. So he came. And I think that those of us who went will always treasure that weekend because of what we learned, not by Brick’s words, but by his faithfulness.
Brick was a faithful father. He loved his girls, and he was so proud of you. Again, I learned a lot about how to be a good parent by watching Brick. I remember Brick telling us about one time the girls were fighting in the car, so he took a paper bag and stuck it over his head. The girls asked what he was doing, and he said, “Y’all are making bad air. And I don’t want to breathe your air. So, I’m going to breathe my own nice air in this bag.” He was a great dad, and you girls are such evidence of that.
He was a friend. He was faithful. Then, the third thing I want you to remember about Brick is that he was a fighter. 2 Tim. 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
Brick was a fighter. I remember several years ago that Brick and his friend Joe went on a trip to his mother’s cabin in upstate New York. They left their cooler on the back porch and a bear got it. Well, Brick grabbed a stick and took off after the bear yelling at it. I mean, you’ve heard the saying, “He’s so tough, he’d go into a bear fight with a stick!” Well, Brick did. And the bear dropped the cooler and ran off. I think that is so perfect an illustration of the way Brick faced life. He was a fighter. Since the first moment I knew Brick, he had cancer. But cancer never defined who he was. Most of the time you forgot that he had cancer. I never believed that cancer was going to get Brick, because he fought it so hard. I have never seen anyone face cancer with as much courage as Brick did, even to the very end. He never gave up; he never quit; he never lost hope.
But it wasn’t just cancer that Brick fought. Brick fought for his clients. The Bible says that Satan is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. And so many of you who came to Brick for counseling were people that Satan had hurt. And Brick went to battle for you. He went to battle to save marriages. He went to battle to save lives. He went to battle to save emotions. He went to battle to save your kids. You know, I think, when Brick James went into battle that Satan trembled. Because so many people that Satan was trying to destroy, Brick rescued.
He was a fighter. And finally, I want you to remember that he was a man of faith. Brick believed in the power of God to do great things, to transform people’s lives, to work miracles. In the Bible, in the book of Luke, it tells us this story of all these people bringing all their sick and hurting friends and family members to Jesus. And I love Lk. 4:40: “No matter what their diseases were, the touch of His hand healed everyone.” No matter what their diseases were, the touch of His hand healed everyone. I know that Brick believed that verse with all his heart. The solution for the human condition is Jesus Christ. The solution to our hurts and pains and struggles and anxieties and disfunctions and guilt and disease is Jesus Christ.
You see, the Bible teaches that we are all broken people. That everyone of us, at one point or another in our lives, decide that we are going to live our lives our way, and we don’t care who we have to hurt or what we have to do. We don’t care what God or anybody else says. All of us make the choice to live for our selves and to rebel against God. The Bible calls that rebellion sin. The Bible teaches that all of us have sinned. And the Bible says that there are consequences for our sins, things like broken marriages and broken homes, domestic violence, addictions to drugs, alcohol, gambling, pornography, food, things like guilt, depression, anxiety, thoughts of unworthiness, of being unloved. Or maybe just a confusion about who you are and where you belong and what the meaning of life is all about. The Bible says that there are consequences for our sins, and the ultimate consequence is death. Now, when the Bible talks about death as the consequence of our sins, its not just talking about physical death. It’s talking about eternal death as the punishment for our sins.
But there is an answer, there is a way that sinful human beings can be made right with God. Remember, no matter what their diseases were the touch of his hand healed everyone. The solution to whatever your issues are is Jesus Christ. You see, the most important verse in the Bible that you need to know is John 3:16. It says, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our sins so that we could have a relationship with God. That is what Brick believed with all his heart. And that is why Brick is in heaven today.
Last Sunday morning, Brick breathed his last breath here on earth. And I love what Rachel said in the e-mail she sent out. The last week of his life, Brick couldn’t really see. The very first thing he saw was the face of Jesus waiting to receive him. Brick couldn’t hear. And the very first thing he heard was the sound of angels crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty” and the voice of Jesus saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Brick couldn’t really speak. And the first words out of his mouth were, “Thank you and I love you.” Brick’s had lost feeling in parts of his face, and the very first thing he felt was “the touch of his hand healed everyone.”
Would you like to know the Jesus that Brick is now with? It’s as simple as ABC. Admit you are a sinner and ask God to forgive you of your sins. Believe that Jesus died in your place to pay the price for your sins. Confess Jesus as the leader of your life.