SPEAKER_02: Fifty years ago, this spring, I brought this boulder into the pulpit, and I preached my first sermon to a very large crowd of about twelve.
SPEAKER_02: And I didn't get anyone saved that day, but I did get a few amens.
SPEAKER_02: So I praise God for that.
SPEAKER_02: According to today's standards, it takes 50 years in order to make something an antique.
SPEAKER_02: Thank God I'm not the only antique here.
SPEAKER_02: Um today this is a serious subject.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm taking a cue from a pastor I envy and respect a great deal, man by the name of Charles Hagen Spurgeon.
SPEAKER_02: He once said that humor is the bait fish with a hook in it.
SPEAKER_02: That he hopes the people who take it will be brought to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: He also said that humor from the pulpit will keep a lot more people awake in the pew.
SPEAKER_02: So I want to open up with a little levity.
SPEAKER_02: George Burns, who is an well, if you don't know what George Burns is, ask someone with gray hair, they'll tell you.
SPEAKER_02: He was an admin tennis player.
SPEAKER_02: He said, you know, up until 35, you can play singles.
SPEAKER_02: And from 35 to 50, you need to play doubles.
SPEAKER_02: He said, the last time I played, there were 28 people on the court.
SPEAKER_02: While touring a rest home, the children, one child asked and asked the resident, How old are you?
SPEAKER_02: She said, I'm 98, very proudly.
SPEAKER_02: Her eye got really big, and she said, Did you start at one?
SPEAKER_02: So, how do you know you're getting old?
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's usually everything hurts.
SPEAKER_02: And when it doesn't hurt, it doesn't work.
SPEAKER_02: You know you're getting old when you've got nothing left to learn the hard way.
SPEAKER_02: You know you're getting old when you wake up in the morning looking like your driver's license picture.
SPEAKER_02: You know you're getting old when you're at the breakfast table, you hear snap, crackle, and pop, and you're not having cereal.
SPEAKER_02: You know when you're getting this one gets to me.
SPEAKER_02: You know you're getting old when you step off the curb and you look one more time just to make sure the street is still there.
SPEAKER_02: You know you're getting old when getting lucky means you're finding your car in a parking lot.
SPEAKER_02: You know you're getting old when you've given up all your bad habits and you still don't feel good.
SPEAKER_02: Uh you know you're getting old when you're over the hill and you don't ever remember being on top of the hill.
SPEAKER_02: You know you're getting old when you sink your teeth into a steak and they stay there.
SPEAKER_02: And my favorite one, you know you're getting old when you sit down in your rocker and you can't get it going.
SPEAKER_02: I knew I was getting old yesterday when I stood before the mirror and tried on my first pair of suspenders.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you know, the Bible is a great book of stories.
SPEAKER_02: It's many more things, but it is a great book of stories.
SPEAKER_02: And it's stories that basically deal with three categories: what was, what is, and what is to come.
SPEAKER_02: Um, there are a number of ordinary stories.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, most of those stories with uses words like begat and begotten.
SPEAKER_02: There are a lot of biographical stories: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, on and on.
SPEAKER_02: There are the miraculous stories, and those are the ones I'm drawn to.
SPEAKER_02: Creation, uh, the flood, the exodus from Egypt, and then there's stories in uh history.
SPEAKER_02: Um the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom battles that they fought, and then the stories of the New Testament, the life of Jesus, or the life of the apostles, and the life in the beginning of the church.
SPEAKER_02: But it is the miraculous stories that have always gained my attention.
SPEAKER_02: When I started first reading the scriptures after I accepted Christ, the first miraculous story out of the creation I read about was a man by the name of Enoch.
SPEAKER_02: Enoch's a wonderful story.
SPEAKER_02: Brings back to mind a story I told several decades ago about a wonderful young lady who was coming back from a Bible conference, flying back home, and as the jet reached its altitude and the seatbelt sign came off and the cart was going around, she opened her Bible and she started to read.
SPEAKER_02: And the gentleman next to her said, What are you reading?
SPEAKER_02: She said, I'm reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Do you really believe everything that's in that?
SPEAKER_02: She said, Yes, I do, word for word.
SPEAKER_02: You mean to tell me you believe that thing about what's his name?
SPEAKER_02: Jonah, the big fish, that he was swallowed and he lived there three days?
SPEAKER_02: She said, Yes, I do, every word.
SPEAKER_02: That's preposterous.
SPEAKER_02: How can you know that?
SPEAKER_02: She said, Well, when I get to heaven, I'll ask him.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Well, what if he's not there?
SPEAKER_02: Well, still you can ask him.
SPEAKER_02: Remarkable stories.
SPEAKER_02: I think the most remarkable for me are the ones that tell the lot about the lives of those who lived well, who crossed the finish line.
SPEAKER_02: Now, Enoch, and you might well get your fingers ready.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna be traveling through the book today.
SPEAKER_02: Open your Bibles to Genesis 5.
SPEAKER_02: We'll start at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: Of a band by the name of Enoch.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know a lot about it, but we know how we crossed the finish line.
SPEAKER_02: Genesis 5, when Enoch was 65, he became the father of Methuselah.
SPEAKER_02: After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived a close friendship with God for another three hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_02: So he was a decade younger than I was, and he had his first son, Methuselah.
SPEAKER_02: Then after that, he had other sons and daughters, and Enoch walked with God for another 300 years.
SPEAKER_02: Just stop a moment and take that in.
SPEAKER_02: He walked with God for three hundred years.
SPEAKER_02: Methuselah had a father and other sons and daughters that walked with God for three hundred years.
SPEAKER_02: How did he do that?
SPEAKER_02: Look at the end of the story, verse 23.
SPEAKER_02: Enoch lived 365 years walking in close fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_02: Then one day he disappeared because God took him.
SPEAKER_02: A soft-spoken young preacher from the last century said and described the story that God had called Enoch out in the late afternoon.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Come on, let's go for a walk.
SPEAKER_02: And they went for a long walk so long that they were closer to God's house than they were to Enoch's.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Why don't you just go with come home with me tonight?
SPEAKER_02: And so he did.
SPEAKER_02: And he wasn't no more.
SPEAKER_02: Talk about crossing the finish line, walking with God for 300 years.
SPEAKER_02: That's four of my lifetimes.
SPEAKER_02: And I look at this stage of my life and the troubles I've had and the difficulties I've experienced and the struggles.
SPEAKER_02: And it always, it always impresses me that he did that, not for 75, but for 300 years.
SPEAKER_02: How did he do that?
SPEAKER_02: Then there's another story.
SPEAKER_02: Turn over to Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_02: We all know this one.
SPEAKER_02: His name is Moses.
SPEAKER_02: Born after midnight, according to Jewish uh history, during the darkest days of the Hebrew people, getting up in the morning, going out and cutting the straw, winning down the clay, stomping the bricks, coming back to the ghetto of Goshen, resting, getting up in the morning and doing it all over again, day after day after day after day after day, with no end in sight.
SPEAKER_02: Moses grew up hearing his name as the Redeemer of Israel.
SPEAKER_02: So one day he took it upon himself in his own fleshly way to get the job started.
SPEAKER_02: And he did so by killing an Egyptian.
SPEAKER_02: And then that didn't work out, so he ran for his life.
SPEAKER_02: And he ended up in the desert of Midian and keeping his father-in-law's sheep for the next 40 years.
SPEAKER_02: And the time comes when Moses sees a burning bush that doesn't stop burning.
SPEAKER_02: And here stands an 80-year-old barefoot Bedouin, completely oblivious to the idea of being used for something important.
SPEAKER_02: And he hears God in the universe say, I have chosen you to lead my people from Egypt.
SPEAKER_02: And Moses jumps at the chance to do this right.
SPEAKER_02: In that sense, he said, Lord, here am I sendary.
SPEAKER_02: But God has his way, God gets his man, God's plan.
SPEAKER_02: So at age 80, God launches Moses into the most significant 40-year experience of his life from age 80 to age 120.
SPEAKER_02: And at age 80 and following, just think of what he had to deal with.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, Jesus had to deal with 12 men.
SPEAKER_02: Peter with his untamed mouth, James and John, the sons of thunder, Thomas the Doubter.
SPEAKER_02: What about the relationship between the tax collector and the zealot?
SPEAKER_02: How would that go?
SPEAKER_02: And he dealt it, he dealt with it for three and a half years.
SPEAKER_02: Moses had the same thing, only he dealt with two million people for a period of 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: Culminating when he's coming down Mount Horon with the tablets.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, Howard Hendricks, one of the probably the premier professors at Dallas Seminary, said if Moses were coming down today with the tablets, it'd be tablets of extra strength, etc.
SPEAKER_02: And he realizes that they're not waiting for him.
SPEAKER_02: They have a golden calf and they're dancing in orgy style.
SPEAKER_02: And he throws the tablets down and he boldly walks into the camp and he burns down the golden calf into ashes.
SPEAKER_02: And he puts it in the water and he made two million people drink it.
SPEAKER_02: Forty years of anticipation, 40 years of obscurity, and 40 years of a whining people who are never satisfied.
SPEAKER_02: And after 120 years, they reach the borders of Canaan, the promised land, and there God lays him to rest.
SPEAKER_02: Deuteronomy 34 is a record of his death in verse 5.
SPEAKER_02: So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, just as the Lord had said.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord buried him in a valley near Beth Peor in Moab.
SPEAKER_02: And to this day no one knows where that exact place is.
SPEAKER_02: Moses was 120 years old when he died.
SPEAKER_02: Yet his eyesight was clear, and he was strong as ever.
SPEAKER_02: 120 years old, still boldly climbing and walking and guiding, still obeying.
SPEAKER_02: 120 years.
SPEAKER_02: No glasses, 20-20 vision, and he's still pumping iron.
SPEAKER_02: And he's crossing the finish line.
SPEAKER_02: When I get up in the morning and stand up, I'm just happy when I can put my pants on without losing my balance and falling down.
SPEAKER_02: And at 120, he's ready to keep going, but God calls him home.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's another.
SPEAKER_02: One more book over, Book of Joshua.
SPEAKER_02: Joshua 14.
SPEAKER_02: Here's another servant, not as old as Moses, but a bit older than Enoch.
SPEAKER_02: He's 85.
SPEAKER_02: His name is Calan.
SPEAKER_02: Now Caleb and Joshua had been best friends and bonded brothers for 45 years.
SPEAKER_02: Ever since they spied into Canaan and gave a good report about taking the land.
SPEAKER_02: Caleb was part of the wilderness wandering for 40 years.
SPEAKER_02: He was part of the uh crossing into the into the promised land.
SPEAKER_02: He was part of all the battles that went on.
SPEAKER_02: And here in verse 6 it says, This was the time when they were passing out the land according to God's law.
SPEAKER_02: A delegation from the tribe of Judah led by Caleb, son of Janepha, the Kenzanite.
SPEAKER_02: And he came to Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb said to Joshua, Remember what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, about you and me when we were at Kadesh Barnea.
SPEAKER_02: I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_02: And I returned and gave an honest report.
SPEAKER_02: But my brothers who went with me were frightened of the people and prevented us from entering the promised land.
SPEAKER_02: For my part, I wholeheartedly follow the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: What's that all about?
SPEAKER_02: Moses sent twelve spies, one from each of the tribes, into Canaan to find out just what's going on there.
SPEAKER_02: And two of them came back, Caleb and Joshua, and they said, It's easy, God's with us, we can take this place.
SPEAKER_02: And the other ten said, Uh-uh, we are grass hoppers, we have no chance.
SPEAKER_02: And they prevailed.
SPEAKER_02: And since that time, they spent 40 years wandering.
SPEAKER_02: And in that 40 years, they became brothers and best friends.
SPEAKER_02: But now the time had come to dippy up the land.
SPEAKER_02: And look at verse 10.
SPEAKER_02: Look at what Caleb says.
SPEAKER_02: Now you can see, this is Caleb talking to Joshua.
SPEAKER_02: Now you can see the Lord has kept me alive, and well he has he promised for all of these 45 years since Moses made the promise, even while Israel wandered in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_02: So now what?
SPEAKER_02: Caleb looks at Joshua and he says, Okay, I'm moving to Florida.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get me a rocking chair, I'm gonna visit the grandkids, and I'm gonna take it easy.
SPEAKER_02: I paid my dues.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: No, that's not what he says.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 11 he says, Today I am 85 years old.
SPEAKER_02: Now I don't know if that's a literal translation, it was his birthday, or if he's just giving his general age.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, I am strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey.
SPEAKER_02: And I could still travel and fight as well as I could.
SPEAKER_02: So give me the hill country that the Lord promised me.
SPEAKER_02: You remember that as scouts we found the descendants of Anak living there in great walled towers.
SPEAKER_02: Those are the giants.
SPEAKER_02: But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them from the land, just as the Lord had said.
SPEAKER_02: People bypass that, they don't really stop and think about it.
SPEAKER_02: 85.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, I've got things to do.
SPEAKER_02: Give me the mountain land.
SPEAKER_02: Send me, I got giants to see.
SPEAKER_01: I've got things to do, people and people to see, places to go.
SPEAKER_01: I have some words I'm gonna show you on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: You got them up there.
SPEAKER_02: You go.
SPEAKER_02: You see this book?
SPEAKER_02: This is called a concordance.
SPEAKER_02: Every book, every word in your Bible, in my Bible, is in this book.
SPEAKER_02: In Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek with the definition.
SPEAKER_02: Those words are not there.
SPEAKER_02: I'm retired over the hill, rocking chair, paid my dues, and taking it easy.
SPEAKER_02: None of those words are there.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because that's not God's plan.
SPEAKER_02: It never has been, it never will be.
SPEAKER_02: My good friend Joe Woody, many of you know her, she said something to me almost a decade ago, if not more, that I've never forgotten because it hit home.
SPEAKER_02: I wish I could say it with her twain, because she had a great voice.
SPEAKER_02: But she said, if you ain't dead, Gotti done.
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't get any clearer, and no more to the point as that right there.
SPEAKER_02: Enoch 365 years.
SPEAKER_02: Moses 120 years, Caleb 85 years.
SPEAKER_02: Not one of them ever thought they were old.
SPEAKER_02: Age doesn't make you old.
SPEAKER_01: Thinking old makes you old.
SPEAKER_02: I run to this sometimes with some of my friends and family.
SPEAKER_02: When they find out what I'm doing, uh, that I still work, that I'm still doing things, I still ride a motorcycle.
SPEAKER_02: I'll just tell you that as a caution if you see me on the road.
SPEAKER_02: And they know I climb roofs, climb ladders, I I climb up and crawl through attics, and I crawl in crawl spaces, and and they don't say it outright, but they make comments.
SPEAKER_02: But what they mean is, aren't you a little old for that?
SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I like the I like the phrase Clintis would use.
SPEAKER_02: Man's got to know his limitations.
SPEAKER_02: That's the truth.
SPEAKER_02: You know, 30, maybe 35 years ago, there was nothing for me to climb up on a wall 30 feet in the air and walk a two by six and just walk.
SPEAKER_02: The other day, about two weeks ago, I was up on a scaffold about four feet off the ground, and I tripped and I fell off the scaffold.
SPEAKER_02: The only thing, the first thing that popped into my mind as I was going is this is gonna hurt.
SPEAKER_02: And I hit the floor and it hurt, but I got up and I thanked God.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I actually repented because I had a couple things I said in my mind, and then I thanked God and I got back to work.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I had to use a little more coterizone cream that night, but that happens.
SPEAKER_02: This is what it's all about.
SPEAKER_02: But I would never be up 30 feet on the two by cents.
SPEAKER_02: I won't give up.
SPEAKER_02: I left the determination of a really excellent preacher, Charles Windall.
SPEAKER_02: I re I remember hearing the very first sermon he ever preached on the radio.
SPEAKER_02: He was 41.
SPEAKER_02: He just turned 91, and the man is still preaching.
SPEAKER_02: I say, God bless him.
SPEAKER_02: One more old guy.
SPEAKER_02: And I use that term with all the respect.
SPEAKER_02: And Larry, if you're listening to this at home, you know I mean it with respect and love.
SPEAKER_02: I call him an old guy, that's Paul.
SPEAKER_02: But he calls himself in Philip in Philebey, he calls himself Paul the Aged.
SPEAKER_02: He bore the marks on his body.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to his resume from 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_02: Five different times the Jewish uh leaders gave me 39 lashes.
SPEAKER_02: Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea.
SPEAKER_02: I have faced dangers from rivers and from robbers.
SPEAKER_02: I have faced dangers from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_02: All of that, and I guarantee you that's not an exhaustive list.
SPEAKER_02: There was much more.
SPEAKER_02: This short, bald, bent man of God sits in a dungeon, damp, musty, and he's writing to encourage a friend in his ministry.
SPEAKER_02: Look at his closing remarks, and this is from our scripture today.
SPEAKER_02: As for me, my life already has been poured out as an offering to God.
SPEAKER_02: The time of my death is near.
SPEAKER_02: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith.
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't that just bring the Christian pride up in you?
SPEAKER_02: And the way it's written in English is different than the original language, because the object is in the beginning.
SPEAKER_02: The good fight I have fought, the race I have finished, and the faith I have kept.
SPEAKER_02: How do you do it?
SPEAKER_02: Here's Brother Paul, still mentoring, still ministering, still encouraging, still following the plan.
SPEAKER_01: No, he's not old.
SPEAKER_01: How do we do it?
SPEAKER_02: Well, I found a list.
SPEAKER_02: If there's one apostle that loved to make lists, it was Paul.
SPEAKER_02: And he made a list in the last chapter of Ephesians when he's talking about the armor of God.
SPEAKER_02: And at the end, the last seven verses, here's his list.
SPEAKER_02: Beginning in verse seven.
SPEAKER_02: Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.
SPEAKER_02: Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: I truly believe that was Enoch's focus completely.
SPEAKER_02: You can't walk with God for 300 with 300 years and not have an intimate conversation with him regularly.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I realized as I was digging into this, how many books I have in my library on prayer.
SPEAKER_02: How many sermons, how many Bible studies I've done on prayer?
SPEAKER_02: And I made me wonder what did they hear?
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I think all they heard was pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray.
SPEAKER_02: And I think now, thinking back, perhaps I should have taken that hour and just prayed with them.
SPEAKER_02: You'd be surprised at how many people spend a great deal of time in prayer, they say.
SPEAKER_02: And they look up and only ten minutes had gone by.
SPEAKER_02: And you read in the scripture how Jesus prayed all night.
SPEAKER_02: How do you do that?
SPEAKER_01: It's addictive once you've started.
SPEAKER_02: John Bunyan, in his magnificent work called Pilgrim's Progress, he said there was a sixth armor.
SPEAKER_02: And it called it all prayer, all hyphen prayer.
SPEAKER_01: All times, all occasions, all believers.
SPEAKER_01: It should be a part of our DNA.
SPEAKER_02: One of the first hymns that I sang when I became a believer was stand up, stand up for Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Stand in his strength alone.
SPEAKER_02: The arm of flesh will fail you.
SPEAKER_02: You dare not trust your own.
SPEAKER_02: Put on the gospel armor and watching unto prayer, wherever duty calls or danger be never wanting there.
SPEAKER_02: Think about it.
SPEAKER_02: Just take a moment to think about it.
SPEAKER_02: What's the very first thing you do when you become a Christian?
SPEAKER_02: You pray the sinner's prayer.
SPEAKER_02: And for all of most of us, prayer could very well be the last thing we do before we go to meet the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But it needs to be everything in between.
SPEAKER_02: At some point, life will, how do I put it, get the better of us?
SPEAKER_02: You know, things will begin to hurt, our health will begin to fail.
SPEAKER_02: We may not be able to walk as best we could, or talk as best we could, or see or hear as best we could.
SPEAKER_01: We may even become homebound.
SPEAKER_01: At some point, we may follow God's plan, but only pray and nothing more.
SPEAKER_02: But it's still part of his plan.
SPEAKER_02: You don't always have to be out witnessing and evangelizing.
SPEAKER_02: It could Billy Graham credited a lot of his success for one older woman who did nothing but stay in her house and pray for him every day.
SPEAKER_02: Paul said the second one is boldness and pray for me too.
SPEAKER_02: Ask God to give me the right word so I can boldly explain God's mysterious plan.
SPEAKER_02: That the good news is for Jews and Gentiles alike.
SPEAKER_02: I am in chains now, still preaching the message of God as an ambassador.
SPEAKER_02: So pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him as I should.
SPEAKER_02: Remember where Paul is.
SPEAKER_02: Paul is in prison here.
SPEAKER_02: He's writing the prison letters.
SPEAKER_02: He's chained to a guard for two years.
SPEAKER_02: He's wearing these iron bracelets on his hand twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
SPEAKER_02: And he writes to the Ephesian church and he says, Pray for my boldness.
SPEAKER_02: Not my pain, not my weakness, not my eyesight, not my release.
SPEAKER_02: Pray for my boldness.
SPEAKER_01: What a great example.
SPEAKER_02: Think about the life that we have today.
SPEAKER_02: One of the things that I always admired about the series Star Trek.
SPEAKER_02: Any trekkies here?
SPEAKER_02: Good.
SPEAKER_02: They've gotten rid of all uh money.
SPEAKER_02: So you don't worry about money anymore.
SPEAKER_02: There's no more porn and so forth.
SPEAKER_02: They've gotten rid of all the diseases.
SPEAKER_02: They're taking care of everything.
SPEAKER_02: So if you were a Christian on Star Trek, what would be on your prayer list?
SPEAKER_01: You ever thought about that?
SPEAKER_01: What would you pray for?
SPEAKER_01: The minute you say, does anybody have prayers?
SPEAKER_02: I don't know why it is, but people want to raise their hand and pray for somebody's infirmity.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, Jesus is the great healer.
SPEAKER_02: And we should lift our people that we love up in prayer for their healing.
SPEAKER_02: But how ironic it would be if you prayed for your best friend to be healed of something, and he is healed, but he goes to hell.
SPEAKER_02: That makes no sense.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody here has a family member or a friend, loved one that doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
SPEAKER_02: That should be on the forefront of our mind every time we go to the Lord in prayer.
SPEAKER_02: I don't mean to step on toes because all prayer is important.
SPEAKER_02: But I think we need to put it in perspective.
SPEAKER_02: So what do you want to do with your later years?
SPEAKER_02: Paul says, Well, what about boldness?
SPEAKER_02: If there's one thing I know about old people, because I am an old people, is that we love to give our opinion.
SPEAKER_02: I've never heard of old people that didn't like to talk.
SPEAKER_02: They're not afraid to speak their mind.
SPEAKER_02: Look at what Paul said in verse 20.
SPEAKER_02: I am in chains now, but I'm still preaching the message.
SPEAKER_02: If Paul were alive today and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I was in Walgreens the other day and I preached the breakfast.
SPEAKER_02: I preached the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: I went to the grocery store, I met this lady, I told her about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That was the forefront of his mind.
SPEAKER_02: Because of your years, because of our years, we have the right to speak our mind.
SPEAKER_01: And well, we should.
SPEAKER_01: The next on the list is friendship.
SPEAKER_02: And one I like to talk about.
SPEAKER_02: Those people that take stock in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: He talks about a man by the name of Tychicus.
SPEAKER_02: I bet you there's a name we haven't said.
SPEAKER_02: To bring you up to date, he says in verse 21, Tychicus will give you a full report about what I am doing and how I am getting along.
SPEAKER_02: He is a beloved brother and a faithful helper in the Lord's work.
SPEAKER_02: I have sent him to you for this very purpose, to let you know how we are doing and to encourage you.
SPEAKER_02: But I still email every now and then.
SPEAKER_02: But as you grow older, it becomes more difficult, I think, to make friends.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know how it happens, but someday you wake up and you look around and you don't have as many friends as you used to have.
SPEAKER_02: I've always said, you know, when they ask you, once you come to your fifth reunion, all you're going there for is to see if you're still living.
SPEAKER_02: You go to your 10th or 15th reunion to see how everybody's done with their life.
SPEAKER_02: But the friends start to dwindle.
SPEAKER_02: And we somehow don't know how to make new friends.
SPEAKER_02: And the new friends we do make are either the same age or older.
SPEAKER_02: I was going to do a list.
SPEAKER_02: I started it, but I stopped it because it would take too long.
SPEAKER_02: To write all the names of the people who loved Paul in New Testament letters.
SPEAKER_02: Forty-five people, he mentions.
SPEAKER_02: No, we really don't know how to make friends.
SPEAKER_02: If you ever get a chance to read a book by Paul Toignier, he wrote the book Learning to Grow Old.
SPEAKER_02: He's 75.
SPEAKER_02: And this is just a short paragraph of the book.
SPEAKER_02: He says, one of the secrets of my life and my wife's life in staying young is that most of our friends are younger than we.
SPEAKER_02: Someone once said that it is not easy to form new friendships.
SPEAKER_02: One at the time when no one's young.
SPEAKER_02: If this were the case, then my luck would be truly exceptional.
SPEAKER_02: My closest friends from the period of my childhood and youth are nearly all dead and gone.
SPEAKER_02: My wife, too, has lost many of hers.
SPEAKER_02: But we have lots of new friendships, wonderful friendships of men and women, most of whom are younger than we, and who certainly play their part in keeping us young in heart and mind.
SPEAKER_02: Some of our closest friends we have only known for just a few years.
SPEAKER_02: Learn to infiltrate the youth of our day.
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't mean you have to go out and play football with them.
SPEAKER_02: But you can engage them, invite them to dinner.
SPEAKER_02: Invite yourself to their dinner.
SPEAKER_02: Make it a priority.
SPEAKER_02: Be bold about it.
SPEAKER_02: Hold on to friendships and seek out new ones where we can leave a mark.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's last item.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Peace be with you, dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_02: And may God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_02: May God's grace be eternally upon all who love our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: The last one is love.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a tangible item.
SPEAKER_02: You can't necessarily put your arms around it and your hands on it.
SPEAKER_02: It's a bit more abstract.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord has done and continues to do a work in me on the subject of love.
SPEAKER_02: Both in my life and my marriage.
SPEAKER_02: Because it is the most important thing.
SPEAKER_01: And I will step on some toes.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's the one thing the church has always had a problem with.
SPEAKER_02: He spent several years there.
SPEAKER_01: It was nurtured by Paul.
SPEAKER_01: It was pastored by Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: And at one point, it was even pastored by the Apostle John.
SPEAKER_02: And yet, thirty years after Paul's death, round the year 95 A.D.
SPEAKER_01: The angel at the church of Ephesus wrote a letter and said, You've left your first love.
SPEAKER_01: If you can't love the church, how can you love Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Great leadership, eloquent preaching and teaching does not make a great church.
SPEAKER_01: Great people make a great church.
SPEAKER_01: The love that they have for the body and the love they have for each other.
SPEAKER_01: A great love makes a great church.
SPEAKER_01: Because that love will make them do anything to see Christ succeed where they're at.
SPEAKER_02: Truly, Paul was right.
SPEAKER_02: Love covers a multitude of sins.
SPEAKER_02: And whenever you're at a business meeting or a business function of the church, don't check the love at the door.
SPEAKER_02: Because love is the business you bring in.
SPEAKER_01: Everything else is just fluff.
SPEAKER_01: It was never yours to begin with.
SPEAKER_01: It's his.
SPEAKER_02: It always moved me.
SPEAKER_02: I love that song.
SPEAKER_02: But it was actually a closing to today's message.
SPEAKER_02: Because of all the talk of crowns and rewards and so forth in heaven, every time I think about the entrance to heaven, I picture that moment that I see on Facebook where that girl is reaching out and grabbing a hold of the Savior with that big hard hug hug.
SPEAKER_02: And him saying, Well done, well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_02: If I hear those words, you can have every crown, every reward, everything.
SPEAKER_02: Because that's the only thing to me that's worth it.
SPEAKER_02: And I'll tell you what, I haven't, I have not reached it yet either, but I am going to.
SPEAKER_02: I am going to cross that finish line.
SPEAKER_02: A marathon.
SPEAKER_02: 26 miles.
SPEAKER_02: Christianity is not a sprint.
SPEAKER_02: You don't run as hard as you can and then drop out.
SPEAKER_02: Christianity is a marathon.
SPEAKER_02: And some people, perhaps even some people of this church, they'll run 10 miles, they'll run 15 miles, but then they'll tie.
SPEAKER_02: And then you say, I can't go on.
SPEAKER_02: And they'll sit down.
SPEAKER_02: And their race is over.
SPEAKER_02: They're still going to heaven.
SPEAKER_02: And then there'll be those who literally crawl across the finish line.
SPEAKER_02: Because that is the only thing they're concerned about.
SPEAKER_02: That is the only function in their mind is to reach that and to do it for Christ.
SPEAKER_02: So I want to encourage you.
SPEAKER_02: Keep running.
SPEAKER_02: If you're tired, if you're having problems, talk to a brother.
SPEAKER_02: One of the greatest things I saw was a man who was doing a race who could have come in second or third, but he stopped to help someone else cross the finish line.
SPEAKER_02: Find a brother, find a sister who can help you do that.
SPEAKER_02: They're there.
SPEAKER_02: And all you all you grayheads out here, find a young person in our church.
SPEAKER_02: Give them some of your wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: That's what it's there for.
SPEAKER_02: Encourage them.
SPEAKER_02: Help them along.
SPEAKER_02: I think one of the um most uplifting things I've ever found in our Sunday school class, and most of our Sunday school class are made up of people who look like me, is when youngsters come in.
SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, when I when I first got into the ministry and I was a pastor, when I get up to preach, I'd say, Oh, all you can, all you kids, you can go ahead and leave, go anywhere and you go.
SPEAKER_02: If I were to do that today, most of you 60-year-olds would be leaving.
SPEAKER_02: But when I see a when I see a 30 or a 40-year-old person come into our Sunday school clubs, I'd say, yes, this is great.
SPEAKER_02: I can help them.
SPEAKER_02: We can help them.
SPEAKER_02: Don't ever stop.
SPEAKER_02: The race is not over.
SPEAKER_02: We're right in the middle, and God's there to help you.
SPEAKER_02: Let's go out in prayer as we close.
SPEAKER_02: And I would be remiss because even in a crowd, there's still one or two or three or more who've never asked Jesus Christ to come into their life and take control.
SPEAKER_02: And if you've never done that, all you need to do is just offer in simple prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_02: I don't deserve heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Not in any way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER_02: But you came and you died for me.
SPEAKER_02: For my sins was taken upon your cross, the past, the present, and the future.
SPEAKER_02: And I thank you for dying for me.
SPEAKER_02: And I ask you now, come into my life and take control so you can be Lord of my life.
SPEAKER_02: And I pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for every person here.
SPEAKER_02: And I thank you for showing me that I need to stop slowing down.
SPEAKER_02: I need to start speeding up.
SPEAKER_02: Help me to trust you more from my daily life.
SPEAKER_02: Help me to reach out more.
SPEAKER_02: Help me to be stronger.
SPEAKER_02: Help me to be more bold.
SPEAKER_02: Help me to pray more.
SPEAKER_02: Help me to reach out for more friends.
SPEAKER_01: Help me to show love the way I should.
SPEAKER_01: What a great savior you are.
SPEAKER_01: No, we're not deserving.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm so thankful that you love us anyway.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for glorifying yourself this morning, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_02: Pastor Angela, come up and he's going to uh close us out in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Just stand together with me.
SPEAKER_00: Pastors and deacons will be at the front if you'd like to speak to someone some more, if you want to ask a little bit more about the gospel, about coming to know the Lord as your Savior, or about joining the church, or any other questions you might have.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be down here to answer those for you.
SPEAKER_00: We've been encouraged this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Together we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Please be in prayer for our pastor and he'll be back next week.
SPEAKER_00: Let's have a word of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you so much for this day and for your love and for your word.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for what you do.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the verses that we heard declared publicly this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to keep our eyes fixed on you as we run the race.
SPEAKER_00: Lay aside every burden that would hinder us from running that race.
SPEAKER_00: Those weights which easily beset us.
SPEAKER_00: The prize that's set before us.
SPEAKER_00: Because of you and for you, Lord, help us to live.
SPEAKER_00: Guide and direct us, we go our separate ways.