The Fountain of Youth

Alright, the title of my sermon, as I said, is The Fountain of Youth. Ponce de Leon in 1513 came to the area known now as St. Augustine. Florida, anybody been to St. Augustine before? Only a few. Wait a minute, there's half the hands are up there. Beautiful beaches, wide beaches, plenty to do. Even when I was there, they even had a fountain that said it was a fountain of youth. Well, I drank that seven or eight years ago, and I still aged. So obviously it didn't work. But he came and he believed or said that he was looking for the fountain of youth as he had heard these stories. He'd heard these tales. He didn't find it. Alexander the Great in the fourth century was conquering most of the known world. When he heard about some magnificent land and water that you might be able to swim in, and it would make you younger and stronger. Well, he didn't find it. We have snake oil salesmen, as we call them, who will try to sell you on some elixir that will make you look younger. Maybe you've seen the commercials on TV of makeup. You put this certain stuff on your face and all of a sudden you look younger. They call them crows feet. I haven't looked for crows feet, so I haven't really bothered to buy anything like that. But if you are going to the Feast of Tabernacles this year in St. Lucia, a beautiful island of St. Lucia where he can attest to. You lived there for how many years? Your whole life. Were you born on St. Lucia? Oh, okay. Yes. He can tell you about a volcano that's no longer active on top, but it has a mud bath at the bottom of it where water comes in and there's this mud that when you get in it, you can rub it all over your skin, all over your body, and it's supposed to make you 10 years younger. Well, I did that. Nobody said I looked any 10 years younger. Still looked like I was in my 60s years ago. But it did feel good. Have you done that? See, you would look twice as young as I was if you just used your own stuff in St. Lucia. But it did make your skin... I was amazed I was going to make fun of it, but it did make my skin feel a whole lot better. If you decide not to go to St. Lucia for the feast this year, you can go to Tobago, the island of Tobago. It's a twin island, Trinidad and Tobago. Tobago, there's a reef there called the Buku Reef. Anybody been to the Buku Reef? Oops, I thought I saw a hand, but no. She was just wiping her face. Buku Reef, they'll take you out to this reef and you can get in the water and they say when you get out of the water, you'll be 20 years younger. They are able to sell a lot of tickets going out. I don't know how many people wanted their money back. But these are kind of the modern day fountain of use.

If you could go back and have 20 years, go back in time, would you? How many people would go back? There's a few, but most of them, no. No, no, no. I'd go back if I knew what I know now, but I don't want to go back as dumb as I was 20 years ago. In the book of Isaiah and also the book of Kings and Chronicles, it tells about a king, King Hezekiah, that God gave him. He's tired of listening to me already. I just started. Neil, you started that. He said he's not talking to you. Yes. God gave King Hezekiah 15 years extra. Because he was only 39 when he was sick and was going to go to sleep. But he prayed, and God gave him 15 more years. If God decided to give you 15 more years from when you were going to die, would it change your mind? What would you do? Would things change in the next 15 years, or would you just continue to do what you've been doing for the last 15? We all think about it, don't we? Perhaps there's been a sickness that you've had, and a doctor says you only have so many months or years to live. And then something comes along and says, no! How excited would you be? I want to look at this because in Genesis 3, they don't have a screen for this. In Genesis 3, we come to New King James Version, a New Living Translation. In Genesis 3, in verse 23, it says, So it's possible to live forever according to the Scripture. The Tree of Life was guarded.

How do you feel? You feel pretty good. You feel young, even if you're older. Do you realize that age catches up with you, as they say? Yes. And the next thing you turn around and you're 10 years or 20 years older. Tiger Woods! Everybody know who Tiger Woods is? Yes. You've seen Tiger Woods play golf. Man, he has a pretty swing. One of the best swings I've ever seen in my life. And so, my wife for my anniversary, I guess, last year, she got me a certificate at a golf club to use whatever I wanted, and so I chose to have a lesson or two. So I went there, and in my mind, I looked like Tiger Woods and my swing. And I hit the ball. I thought a long way. The instructor said, well, they're going to change my stroke, so forth, and keep this up, and concentrate on this, and change three or four things. And so I thought, okay, still hit the ball well. Then the instructor said, well, here, let me take a video. Why you are hitting drives. I said, man, I just felt so good. And he showed me the video. There was an old man hitting. It wasn't Tiger Woods at all. He didn't look anything like Tiger Woods' swing. And that's what I had been looking at. Because I realized I'm old, and I didn't realize it until I saw it. Now, for those who are younger, Joshua, you will find out that 20 years passes very quickly. And 30 years. And I am brought to the realization that I'm not going to find the found abuse in this lifetime. That my days are numbered. But isn't that what Moses says in Psalm 90? It's the only Psalm he wrote. It says, number your days. Isn't that interesting? I met a guy not long ago who went to his 50th class reunion, high school reunion. And I said, well, how was it? He said, I didn't like it very much. A bunch of old people there. He said, I didn't think I looked like them until the pictures came out, and I looked just like them. Well, and how many more years? Three more years? I won't be at my 50th class reunion. I've never been to one yet, but it'll be the 50th. And I remember the day I walked across that stage and received my diploma. And it seemed like about 20 years ago. Now, time just flew. And it's going to go faster. So what's really important? Let's look at a couple places. But I must ask the question, what is your perspective? What is your perspective on life? You're just going to live it, and it's going to come, and I'll have the good, and I'll have the bad, and... I'll enjoy life, or I won't enjoy life, or maybe somewhere in the middle. Because we all have a perspective. What is old?

It used to be when I was 30, 50 was old. Now that I'm 60, 80 is old. I look and AARP, you remember that's for old people? Fifty years of age is what it started. But then I go online and I look at it, and it says that you can join AARP when you're 18. So Joshua's older than he thought. This is not your life. Yep. That made me feel younger this week.

Go with me to Psalm 90. Let's go to Psalm 90. Psalm 90, because this is a perspective of Moses. We're going to look at some perspectives and see kind of where yours might be. We can learn from others who have been there and done that. Even though I was too dumb when I was 20 to realize my father was 20 years older than I was. It saved me a lot of trouble and made me a lot of money if I had to listen. Let's go! Psalm 90, I'll be reading from the New Living Translation here. It says, a prayer of Moses, a man of God. It says, Lord, through all the generations you have been our home. Hmm. It's a good way, a good perspective there. Before the mountains was born, before you gave birth to the earth and to the world from the beginning to the end, you are God. There is a God. And he made it all. And he's a creator. Verse 3, you turn people back to dust, saying, return to dust, you mortals. Hmm. Because we are. For you a thousand years or as a day, as brief as a few night hours, you sweep people away like dreams that disappear. They are like grass that springs up in the morning, and in the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by the evening it is dry and withered. How many had plants that did that yesterday and the day before? I have to water our shrubs and our plants because by the end of the day, they look like they are about to die. You ever thought you were like that plant? This is what it is trying to tell us. We are kind of like that. Verse 7, we wither beneath your anger, we are overwhelmed by your fury. He is saying, don't get on the bad side of God. How did he know? He did it. His brother did it, his sister did it. I want your people around him to do it. So, just don't get on the bad side. You spread out our sins before you, our secret sins. Because with God, there is no secret sin. He knows them all. He sees them all. We may think we hide some of them. We are really good at thinking we hide some of those sins. But you see them all. We live our lives beneath your wrath, ending our years with a grown. I didn't used to groan when I would get up out of a chair. Sometimes I groan. Why is he saying that? Because this body is wearing out. Some of you can say it's already worn out. For those of you that your body is not worn out, thank God. Enjoy it. That's one of the points of this message today. For a small amount of time, you have the fountain of youth within you. Make the most of it. Because it's not going to end well. You're going to get older. You're going to have problems. In today's world, there's sickness all around. Matter of fact, it's so depressing sometimes. I just read that 35-38% of everyone who is alive today will die of heart attack or problems with their heart. Blood pressure, stroke, one of these things. And then another third...

You're with me. Psalm 90. We'll die of cancer, some type of cancer. Make the most of this life. Because it's not fun getting on the backside of that. Going for cancer screenings, it's not fun. Being diagnosed with cancer, it's not fun. When you get older, you need to go to a dermatologist. And then there's words that you've never heard before. Squamous, basal, melanoma. And then they start cutting on you. I can show you scars. It's not fun growing old. But it's not fun dying either. We must make the most of what God gives us. This is part of the perspective of Moses. Let's go on. Verse 10. Seventy years are given to us. Some even live to 80. That's kind of if you're blessed. So it's kind of there's this book marked at each end. And in there you get 70 or 80 years. What are you going to do with yours? What have you done with yours? That is the thing. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble, even though you're young and so forth. There's issues and problems. Soon they disappear and then basically just like a bird, you're by the way, you're not even remembered.

Verse 11. Who can comprehend the power of your anger? Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve. And then he says in verse 11. Teach us to realize the brevity of life so that we may grow in wisdom. Let's get wise. Realize we're not going to live forever. Make the most of this time and this life. Go with me to Daniel 12. Let's look at his perspective. Daniel. Daniel 12. Let's go to verse 9. It's towards the end of his life. God said, He said, Go now Daniel, for what I have said is kept secret and sealed until the time of the end, many will be purified, cleansed, and refined by these trials. But the wicked will continue in their wickedness, and none of them will understand. Only those who are wise will know what it means. Talking about wisdom there. Down in verse 13. But as for you, Daniel, it's believed he's somewhere in his 80s or even 90 at this time. But as for you, go your way until the end. Your rest means you're going to die. And then at the end of those days, you will rise again to receive the inheritance set aside for you. Has an inheritance coming? There's other things coming. But that helps put it in perspective for us. There will come a time when it's our end. And you can either go there yelling or screaming, and not wanting it, or you can, with great wisdom, realize you've had your time. You've had your time!

Let's go then to this Ecclesiastes that we heard about earlier. Let's see Solomon's perspective on it. See if we can learn anything from that. Ecclesiastes 12, I'll go verse 1. So he's trying to tell his son, Rehoboam, what you should think about life. Verse 1 says, Don't let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. There is a Creator. In today's world, they're trying to eliminate the Creator, and also the book that tells he is a Creator.

And if you're able to do that, then you can live by any rules, and you can do anything you want to do, however you want to do it. It says, Honor him and your youth before you grow old, and say, Life is not pleasant anymore. You can't taste! I remember my grandmother, she was 99, when I, 99.9, when I did her funeral.

She was just a few days away from 100. Her mother lived to be 100. And when I saw her the last year or two before she died, I asked her about life, cause she would sit there and tell me about it, and she said, I just can't taste food anymore. That's why when I got her something, she poured salt like crazy on it. And she said, I can't hardly hear anymore.

And then my eyes, I can't read, I have to have this glass. Wasn't that enjoyable to be 98, 99 at that time? So this is what he's trying to say. Life is not pleasant anymore. Remember Him before the light of the sun, the moon and the stars, is dim in your old eyes. That means you're going to look up there and they're just going to be... It's going to happen. And rain clouds continually darken your sky. Remember Him before your legs, the guards of your house start to tremble. I remember the first time that hit me. I was in Memphis, Tennessee. Gave a sermon on a Saturday, and the next day I took this widow, Mary and I, took her out to eat at a Perkins.

Anybody heard of a Perkins? Okay. We don't have any around here, do we? I haven't seen any. Perkins. And so we went in, we pulled up, and as we're pulling up towards the front, she had a handicap sticker on the front so we could pull right up.

There was this older man, must have been in his 80s, walking out with his wife. And of course, you could tell how he's walking like this. And he had glasses, and he gets almost to the car, and he misses a step. And he tumbled. It's like slow motion. I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't get out of the car fast enough, and you wanted to catch him. But he had no way to catch himself. His reactions were so slow that he hit the ground, and his head hit the concrete.

Hard. And he was dizzy, and so forth. And so by that time I was out, and I held his head and told somebody to call help, call ambulance or something. And so he was trying to figure out who I was, his glasses all to the side. And his wife came over. He was younger than him. And some nurse or something came by, and she's there. And she said, here, let me work. So I kind of handed it over to her as she was coming in. And so we went on in because there was a bunch of people gathered at that time.

That's the first time I had ever, I must have been in my 30s, late 30s, realized that is old. When you really don't have any, once something happened, you can't gain back control. I've been on ladders many times and start to fall or whatever, and I can grab myself or hit the ground and roll. But I realized, someday that's liable to be me. Your legs start to tremble, and before your shoulders, the strong men, as they call it, stoop.

Haven't you seen people? I have that problem. I need to stand up. Military always taught you to get your shoulders back. Stand up straight. But you tend to wonder, what's the problem? I need to stand up. Military always taught you to get your shoulders back. Stand up straight. But you tend to want to stoop the older you get. He's telling us here, remember him before your teeth, chompers. Your few remaining servants stop grinding.

And before your eyes, the women looking through windows see dimly. Remember him before the door to life's opportunity is closed. And what that means, you go to a job and they know you're too old. We're looking for somebody younger. You may dye your hair, but we still know you're 70 years old.

And the sound of work fades. Now you rise at the first chirping of the birds, but then all their sounds will grow faint. Not because the birds change, because you can't hear them. Remember him before you become fearful of falling and worrying about danger in the streets. Before your hair turns white like mine, like an almond tree in bloom. And you drag along without energy like dying grasshoppers. This is depressing me already. And the caper berries no longer inspire sexual desires. Remember him before you near the grave. Your everlasting home when the mourners will weep at your funeral. This is a reality check. You say, I don't want to hear this. I don't want to hear positive stuff, man. I didn't come here to be depressed today. And then verse 6, we'll end it there. Yes, remember your Creator now, what we just heard in that song. Remember your Creator now while you are young before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Your body, don't wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well. The body is falling apart. The symbolism here. For then the dust will return to the earth and the Spirit will return to God who gave it. Solomon's words to a son. Solomon's words to us, no matter what your age is, I can still get up and walk. I can still get up and go to the gym even though it may not look like it two or three times a week. I want to continue that because even these verses make me appreciate what I do have. Until it comes to a time when I don't have, Mike Hamill and myself took care of an older gentleman who died about three or four months ago. I had been there for six years. Mike's been there helping for a couple years, I guess. He was. And he got this, this described him. And he had no joy in life because he realized he had wasted all those years. He knew God's truth, and he still wasted all those years. And now his body was falling apart. And he did die. I have his ashes at my house. That's life. John 10 and verse 10, Jesus said, You may have a rich and satisfying life. Do you? Do you have a rich and satisfying life?

If you don't, whose fault is it? Well, let's blame somebody.

Because, you see, we have to understand that God has the fountain of life. It's called eternal life. It's not a fountain. He actually gives it. That's why he says in Romans 6.23 that all of you know, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, the gift of God is eternal life. And many of you can attest to that good health is a gift today. We had nurses that were telling us not long ago things we shouldn't do, eat and shouldn't eat. Because it is a gift to take care of that. Go with me to John 11. John 11, here is a story of death. Lazarus died. He's in the tomb. And his sisters confront Jesus. Oh! If you'd only been here, he never would have died. And they're crying, mourners at the house. And then in chapter 11 verse 25, Jesus told her, I am the resurrection in life. Do we realize that? He is the key to resurrection in life. Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying. Even after dying. We're offered eternal life even after dying.

There's a woman by the name of Bronnie Ware. Bronnie Ware. She's an author. Motivational speaker. She's from Australia. Down Under. And she was an ex-hospice care worker for decades. I mean, she came in and worked with people who were dying. So she wrote a book, and in it she gave the top five regrets of the dying. Which I found interesting. I want to know. I want to know what she said because I've been with people. In Puerto-M I didn't expect that one for the number one. But obviously she did. Number two, I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

Number three, I wish I had the courage to express my feelings. Let's really say what's on your mind. Number four, I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. Number five, I wish I had let myself be happier. This woman who was sitting with dying people, and she did this for decades. It's interesting, she pointed out the fact that 78% of U.S. workers are leaving vacation time on the table. Not taking time for themselves. But this is her final words of what many said to her. Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice. Happiness is a choice. What do you want to be? Wouldn't you want to be happy? Happy in life? Who's the oldest person you've ever known? Anybody? How old? How old? Ninety-four. Ninety-four, he couldn't remember. He's a grandma, but you had to remember. Yes? My uncle. How old? A hundred and five. A hundred and five? That's pretty old. Yes, sir. I'm not saying I even felt that in my father's retirement. He had a friend who was a hundred and six. A hundred? He ran twenty miles in the city, but he apparently ran some unbelievable amount there. A hundred and sixty. Wow. One-oh-three? One-oh-three. In the back. My neighbor, one-oh-five. One-oh-five. Yes, in the very... One-oh-two. One-oh-two. Wow. That's pretty old.

I won't get there. Not the way my body feels at sixty-five.

Methuselah in the Bible lived longer than anyone else. Nine hundred and sixty-nine years. That's a long time. See, I don't want to be like Methuselah in this human body. How do you think he was getting around? In a human body, no thanks. Noah lived nine hundred and fifty years. No thanks. If I got to live it in this body. There was a movie. I watch my time. There was a movie. There have been many movies out about people living forever or so forth. Because people are intrigued with this. And we should be, too. Not about just living forever. But how we live now should be important. It was to the disciples. But there was a movie called I Am Mortal. I saw just a little bit of it on a plane. And then I looked it up and everything else. And the key was that they had come up with something to give people. And so you never aged. And you could live forever. In the movie. It's a movie. What was so interesting is what they said. The people actually got bored. They didn't want to do it anymore. And the classic line was, there is no death. There is no living. There is just existing. And I have talked to older people who are in their 90s and 100s. And they said, I'm just existing. I can't really taste. I wish I could just go ahead and die. Mike and I's friend told me, just pray that I could go to sleep and just die tonight and not wake up. I said, that's really what you want? And I was there at his house. And he said, yes, I'm so miserable. So I take my shoes off, as I do, get on my knees. I take his hand and I start praying and he stops me. No, I didn't really mean that. I said, but you told me to. True story, Mike can tell you. He knew him well, too. Are we going to be that way? What is really important? There was a movie called Age of Adeline. I just barely saw it. Someone who else lived. I want you to think about this, because when God promises eternal life, and you're in the grave and he resurrects, as he said he's going to do, 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Corinthians 15. Okay, when you come out of the grave, what age are you? You died. Really? So Methuselah is going to be 969 years? I live forever.

Right. Right. So what kind of body would that body be? Oh, no, it's something to think about, because God has a purpose for us living forever. It isn't just to exist. Okay. He has a whole kingdom plan with us in mind.

Adam and Eve had a chance to live forever, didn't they? They blew it. We have a chance to live forever, as Jesus told Mary at the time. Even though we may die, we can live forever at that time. So it's not the days of our lives, but the life in our days that should matter to us. Are we here to make a difference? Are we here to bring joy to people? Because that's one of the fruits of God's Spirit, remember? Love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, chillness.

So, do we start living today like it's our last day? So that we're prepared for that last day. So that we do not end up in a hospital bed saying, I wish I had seen that. I've experienced it.

A few years ago, in fact, I think the first and second year of my ministry, I called from a woman to get sick. She didn't...nobody knew she'd been to the doctor three or four times. She's 39 years of age. Didn't seem to be healthy, but then all of a sudden she wasn't. They didn't know what it was. And all of a sudden, I was called to the hospital. About midnight, I drove over to Lee Memorial, Fort Myers, to that night. I got there about three in the morning. She was unconscious, and her husband was there. And they said, she's gone. We're just letting her breathe. Do you want to take it off? Do you want to drop her from life support? And her husband turned to me and said, I can't do it. I haven't had enough years with her yet. They'd just been married a few years, maybe four or five. Second marriage for both. He said, I can't do it. I said, is this what she would want? And he goes, no. He said, you tell them. You tell them to take it off. I said, that's what you want me to do. He said, let me bring her kids in. So they brought the kids around. He was there. And the doctor said, he said, you have final say so. And I asked all of them to say their goodbyes. Hold her hand. Kiss her. You know, reflect as a family. They did that. Then I said, take it off. He took it off, and in about three to five minutes, she was gone.

Life can be short. Thirty-nine is pretty short to me. I saw the very same thing with my fifteen-year-old nephew, who was in a bad car wreck. And I was in the room when we had to take it off. Fifteen years old. Life, brethren, is short. But, while ever short it is, God gives you life. Let us leave here today and make that life worth something.

He is our creator. He gives us life. He can take life. Let us make sure we have a life worth living, and that He can look and go, well done. So, my last words to you. Are you waiting for eternity? Being a follower of God. Because if you are, eternity is waiting for you.