"Extreme Makeover-Home Edition: My Boom Hasn’t Burst"
(Psalm 71:1-24)
Main Idea: Fears of becoming older are overcome by confidence in God’s always being faithful.
This morning we begin a new series called "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." A few months ago I invited some church members and our ministerial staff to help develop sermon ideas for the last six months of 2005. One of the areas of need that was suggested was the concern over issues in our homes and families. So because of that discussion over the next four weeks we’re going to talk about things in our families’ lives that need attention. You might even call it a "makeover." We are going to talk about the concerns of aging, being a young parent, the struggles of parenting older children and what it means to be a member of God’s family as the church.
The purpose of the very successful television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is to give to a very deserving family a new home in a week. I realize that the issues that face our lives are not ones that can be solved in one single week or a single sermon. Even this reality show can’t solve the real problems of the family they are serving. For example, tonight’s show is a makeover for the home of Colleen Nick, whose daughter Morgan disappeared on June 9, 1995 from Alma, Arkansas. The show can’t bring Morgan home but it can show Colleen that someone cares and that’s what this series seeks to do. So, as the hunky host Ty Pennington would say, "Good Morning!" –let’s get started on our own Extreme Makeover Home Edition!
Today we’re going to talk about becoming older and the fears that come with that. We want to see, though, that the fears we have are overcome by confidence in God’s faithfulness.
I had an interesting experience a couple of weeks ago when Kathy and I checked into a hotel in Clinton, Mississippi as we visited our church kids at camp. When the desk clerk asked for my driver’s license, my AARP card happened to be on the opposite side of my billfold. So she asked for my number. So for a few bucks off the room I yielded my pride and for the first time I used my AARP card! I started thinking later what kind of people might have an AARP card:
I am a child of the Baby Boom. The first wave of Boomers turned 50 in 1996 and every 7.5 seconds someone else is as well. There are over 77 million of us out there and we are armed with the capacity to spend $2 trillion dollars a year! In fact, just so you people under 40 know, those who are over 40 control 91% of the net wealth in America (we own you!). The fastest growing age group in America is women age 85 and up. There are 70 million grandparents in the US who spend $35 billion a year on their grandchildren.
Yet with all of the rise of money, population and influence, there are, as well, real concerns that are faced as we become "grayer": we have no assurance that Social Security will last, health benefits are questionable, loss of a job because you are an economic liability is common. Along with those, are the physical problems that come because our bodies and our minds are naturally wearing down.
It’s fascinating that the same concerns that many feel today are the same ones the Psalmist felt thousands of years ago. Psalm 71 is a psalm that identifies the fears of becoming older but it also affirms confidence in a God who is always faithful. The psalmist is saying, "I may be headed toward the finish line but I’m not finished." Another title for this psalm is "A Psalm for a Baby Boomer" and it says to me "My Boom hasn’t Burst yet" or to quote theologian George Jones, "I don’t need your rockin’ chair!"
While there is a huge amount of energy, life and resources to be found in those who are aging, there is as well a very real sense of fear. The truth is that becoming older confronts us with fears we struggle to face. The psalmist knows those fears and throughout these twenty-four verses causes us to see them as well. Let’s look at some of them:
Those are just some of the fears that those becoming older struggle to face. Robertson McQuilkin frames those fears poignantly in an essay called "Let Me Get Home Before Dark." He writes:
"It's sundown, Lord. The shadows of my life stretch back into the dimness of the years long spent. I fear not death, for that grim foe betrays himself at last, thrusting me forever into life: life with you, unsoiled and free.
"But I do fear. I fear the dark specter may come too soon— or do I mean too late? That I should end before I finish or finish, but not well. That I should stain your honor, shame your name, grieve your loving heart. Few, they tell me, finish well… Lord, let me get home before dark.
"The darkness of a spirit grown mean and small, fruit shriveled on the vine, bitter to the taste of my companions, burden to be borne by those brave few who love me still?
"No, Lord, let the fruit grow lush and sweet, a joy to all who taste; Spirit-sign of God at work, stronger, fuller. Brighter at the end. Lord, let me get home before dark.
"The darkness of tattered gifts, rust-locked, half-spent, or ill-spent, a life that once was used of God now set aside? Grief for glories gone or fretting for a task God never gave. Mourning in the hollow chambers of memory, Gazing on the faded banners of victories long gone? Cannot I run well until the end? Lord, let me get home before dark.
"The outer me decays—I do not fret or ask reprieve. The ebbing strength but weans me from mother earth and grows me up for heaven.
"I do not cling to shadows cast by mortality. I do not patch the scaffold lent to build the real, eternal me. I do not clutch about me my cocoon, vainly struggling to hold hostage a free spirit pressing to be born.
"But will I reach the gate in lingering pain—body distorted, grotesque? Or will it be a mind wandering untethered among light fantasies or grim terrors?
"Of your grace, Father, I humbly ask… Let me get home before dark." ("Let Me Get Home Before Dark," by Robertson McQuilkin, president emeritus of Columbia International University)
We all want to get home before dark.
The beauty of the Psalms is that they are brutally honest. In Psalm 71 the writer has confessed his fears and anxieties about becoming older but he blends that with his confidence in a God who is always faithful. It is this confidence that will overcome his fears, and ours, as we grow older.
The first thing that the Psalmist uses to overcome his fear is his confidence in God’s consistent presence (Psa. 71:5-8, 17). While the writer is looking back on his life the one thing he sees clearly is that God has been present in his life from the earliest moment of his existence. In fact the Hebrew uses a metaphor for God’s attention to him in verse 6 that describes God as if he were a midwife cutting the umbilical cord at his birth. He is confessing that he has been dependent on God even before he was born while he was being formed in the womb of his mother. Then in verse 17 he moves from his birth to his maturity in life, calling God his teacher or instructor from his childhood. His testimony is that God has been his strength all of his life so there is confidence that now God would not abandon him.
As I have pastored God’s people over these 30 years, one thing that I have witnessed is the concern of persons who are older feeling that God has abandoned them. Many years ago a very devoted, faithful Christian woman named Ruth had suddenly discovered that she had cancer. In a matter of days her situation became critical and she knew that her life was leaving her. In a desperate moment this wonderful, godly woman grabbed me by the shirt and said, "Oh, Brother Bruce, tell me I’m saved! Tell me I’m not alone." After being surprised, I began to calm her with the assurance that the God who had kept her through all of her life was with her now.
That assurance is one that we all take and accept by faith in God’s word. Over and over again in God’s Word he assures us of his presence with us. Jesus makes the same promise to us in those marvelous words, "I will never leave you or forsake you" (Matt. 28:20). With words that are constant, certain and sure God affirms to us that just as he was with us at the beginning or our life, so He will be throughout all of our life! Our physical capacities do not affect His power or His presence. In spite of all the things we may feel, God’s consistent presence is certain!
Another thing that gives the Psalmist confidence to overcome his fears is the confidence he has in God’s continued purpose (Psa. 71:18). In the verses preceding verse 18 the writer repeats over and over again of his commitment to testify to the mighty acts of God. In verse 14 he says he will praise God "more and more." In verse 15 he will tell of God’s righteousness "all day long." In verse 16 he will proclaim God’s "mighty acts" and his "righteousness." In verse 17 he says he will declare God’s "marvelous deeds." Then he comes to a climax and says in verse 18, "God don’t put me aside ‘till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come." He is saying that he has been a witness all his life praising God, telling of God’s greatness, proclaiming his mighty acts and declaring his marvelous deeds and, to top it off, he feels that his purpose for his life isn’t complete until the next generation hear his testimony to God’s greatness!
When I think of someone who has done this throughout his life I think of Billy Graham. For over 70 years, to 210 million people in 185 countries Billy Graham has proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is now 86, has prostate cancer, Parkinson’s, a broken hip and pelvis, shunts in his brain to fight the hydrocephalus and recently felt he was going to die at the Mayo Clinic. Yet two weeks ago at his last crusade in New York he said what he has said all his life, "You must be born again." And people responded just as 3 million have done throughout his lifetime. (Newsweek, July 4, 2005, p. 29-31)
Here is a man who, with every reason in the world, could have stayed in North Carolina and lived out his days but he had one more chance to tell people about Jesus. He said, "At my age I have one message: Jesus came, he died on a cross, he rose again, and he asks us to repent of our sins and receive him by faith as Lord and Savior, and if we do, we have forgiveness of all our sins" (ibid, p. 29).
The testimony of the Psalmist and the example of Billy Graham is a challenge and rebuke to all of us. It challenges us to remember that God is never finished with us as a witness for Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter how young or how old, we still, as long as we are alive, are to be a witness for him! It also says to us that we should be ashamed after the feeble excuses we give for not serving Christ. Yet more than ever it says to us that if we are willing to be used by Christ that he is ready and eager to use us for his purpose and that part of that purpose is to tell the next generation about God’s greatness. One thing the next generation needs to hear is that the generation before them has something to say! As you become older you never have to wonder, "Why am I still here?" You can have confidence in God’s continued purpose!
There is one last place of confidence that the Psalmist had and that was confidence in God’s comforting promise (Psa. 71:20-21). In verses 20-21 the writer looks back on his life and he knows that his life has not been easy. He says that God has let him experience "troubles, many and bitter." Yet in the midst of his complaint he uses the word "again" two times. Notice what he says in verses 20-21: " You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. You will restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again." He says two times, "You will..." He is affirming God’s promise to him to give him life that is beyond this life that is more than anything he has known in his life. The Psalmist testifies that neither the depths of life’s problems or the reality of death that awaits him can stop God from making the future more glorious than the past!
One of the key parts of my ministry is to serve people through the experience of death. From June 5 to June 30 I performed seven funerals for persons in our church family. When that is such a primary component of your life, it is a challenge emotionally, spiritually and mentally. However, this past week I attended the service for the mother of Jackie McBride, Gladys Rives. As I sat there I began to hear the words of the minister and the words of the songs that were sung and wondered within, "What does this all mean?" Then I heard through my own questions the words, "And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight and the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul." ("It Is Well") I said in my soul, "That is my hope! Whatever may come, this promise is mine that God will restore my life, bring me up, increase my honor and comfort me once again."
Billy Graham said, "Do I fear death? No, I look forward to death with great anticipation. I am looking forward to seeing God face to face. And that could happen any day!" (Ibid, p. 31). Regardless of your age today, that is the way all of us should live our lives, with the confidence in God’s comforting promise that neither the depths nor death are finished with us!
There was a woman filling out an application as a resident for a retirement village and was carefully answering the questions. After "Zip," she printed "Normal for my age." Some of you today may feel the "zip" is past normal and has moved on. The truth is there is a huge amount of "zip" left in all of us as we become older. The fears of losing our "zip," though, are overcome by confidence in God’s always being faithful.
Dr. Paul Brand, physician and writer, made some comments at a retirement center dedication of which he was a new resident. He said, "I remember well when I was at my physical peak. I was 27 years old and had just finished medical school. A group of friends and I were mountain climbing, and we could climb for hours. For some people, when they cross that peak, for them life is over."
"I remember well my mental peak, too. I was 57 years of age and was performing groundbreaking hand surgery. All of my medical training was coming together in one place. For some people, when they cross this peak, for them life is over."
"I'm now over 80 years of age. I recently realized I'm approaching another peak—my spiritual peak. All I have sought to become as a person has the opportunity to come together in wisdom, maturity, kindness, love, joy, and peace. And I realize when I cross that peak, for me, life will not be over; it will have just begun."
Because we can be confident in God’s faithfulness, that can be true for all of us!
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor
First Baptist Church
Jonesboro, Arkansas