Hope for the Mature in Christ

Roc Corbett - Hope for the Mature in Christ - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EGjkmFTdYk

Transcript:
(00:00) It's a very special Sabbath day here in the Tacoma area. There's a Sabbath gathering nearby for the families with young children. We're so very glad that they can have a Sabbath like that for them. And I'm sure there's a lot of fun up there on the mountain.
(00:23) And here we are, mostly older folks gathered at this location. Hello to all my old friends. And not all of them. I've got other old friends in other places, too. Remember, no running in here during services. Okay. Nancy and I used to live in Montana and served two congregations there for many years, Missoula and Callispel, Montana. There was a period during that time of about 10 years when there were no children in one of those congregations.
(00:56) It was all old people except Nancy and I were the youngest and we were both in our 40s at the time. Um Nancy's five years younger than me but I was still in my 40s too. Most were in their late 60s to early 90s. And so it was a very mature congregation. What a great group of friends we were. They were so friendly and loving and generous and showed such great hospitality, faithful and mature Christians with great faith. You wanted someone to pray for you. There were several among them that you could always
(01:38) count on. It was like a family and we just so thoroughly enjoyed it and really appreciated what God had given to us there. It's different sometimes bringing a Sabbath message to older people, to older mature Christians who know their Bible so well. They already know much of God's word. And many of them had decades of being able to learn and live this way and experience the living that God had called them to to learn how to do. So I tried to bring inspirational messages to help them appreciate God and
(02:17) Christ and to look forward to the kingdom of God. I thought that's what I should do. And so sometimes my efforts backfired and they were good friends but sometimes I didn't understand some things that I came to understand later. tell you a little story and we're going to put some slides up to illustrate this just a bit.
(02:42) One Sabbath I was giving what I thought was an inspirational message about the awesome universe that God has created. You know that verse in Psalm 8 where it says, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars which you have ordained. What is man that you are mindful of him?" All the slides up.
(03:15) Okay. So, our young man is going to put up the slides. So, uh, I want you to see these because it really helps to understand the story and it helps connect you with our older friends who were there in Montana at the time. And so, I was speaking to them, projecting pictures of some of the things that God has created in great and vast universe.
(03:43) And I was so inspired. I'm just going on about them. and they're looking at the pictures and and so I showed them different ones and to me it was like how can you not be inspired by these things that we see and I think to some degree they were and I'm just like in cloud9 almost except it's galaxy 9 and and I'm thinking about these things even to this day there's there's a website called astronomy picture of the day And I've relayed this to some of you and keep that one up if you will till I finish the story. An astronomy picture of the day. There's
(04:26) every day there's a new photograph. Uh sometimes taken from the vantage point of Earth, sometimes looking deep into space with some of the amazing amazing telescopes that we have. Some of you also share that interest and look at that. But for me, it's a way just to be inspired before I get into the work of the day.
(04:46) So, I was showing them these things and I thought that they also would get it like I did. And I was right up to a certain point, but not entirely because I didn't understand something about them, about the people that I was speaking to, my friends who were old. I didn't realize the limitations that some of them faced as older people.
(05:14) even the dimming of the vision. And so one of the ladies, she's a very sweet lady, she was a very dear friend, and she said it best. She's looking at the pictures and she says, "It looks like scrambled eggs to me." And I'm going, "Okay, so sometimes pictures don't tell the whole story, do they?" And we have to connect with people where where they are. So it's a lesson for me.
(05:49) And I still like astronomy and I still show the picture. So you can take it down now. It's important brethren to understand the needs of those we serve. And in the congregations you have all the different age groups from young to old. And sometimes it's not the awesomeness of the physical universe that provides the inspiration for what a person needs. Sometimes it's the words that we read in the pages of scripture.
(06:21) And the effect of those words in our hearts, in our minds is much more inspiring and glorious than the pictures that are taken by cameras. We'll see that in the scriptures that we consider together today. Another story, my old friends in Montana.
(06:48) I wanted to connect more directly with the needs of their lives at the time, my older friends. So, I gave a sermon titled Aging with Grace. I thought that's a good subject. You know, they're aging. Let's age with grace. But I was remember in my 40s and they were like 80s 90s some of you might be able to match those numbers.
(07:15) I just wanted to teach them about how we should approach moving into being in those stages of our life called old age. And but they were there already and afterwards after the sermon which felt good to me afterwards I realized it didn't have the effect that I intended. One of the older members said that he wasn't aging with Grace, he was aging with Hazel. I go, "Oh, okay.
(07:50) " And so that shifted the entire conversation and they seem to enjoy telling lots of stories aging with Hazel or their husband or wife. So, brethren, I learned from my older friends. Some of them were 40, 50 years older than me at the time, and they understood things by experience that I only knew by study or by observation. And their needs were different than mine at the time.
(08:23) And they needed food for the season of life they were in. So, that's what I want to bring to you today. Few weeks ago, I was looking online at the schedule and I'm looking and say they've got camp out with the young ones and we're going to have the older ones here. It's an opportunity. This is someone I could talk to you now that I'm in that group, now that I'm in my 70s as well.
(08:51) I've grown older since I was serving in Montana and now I understand more about this time of life that many of us are experiencing and the scriptures provide the food that we need in due season as we age and as our lives progress. So today I want to share with you a few passages of scriptures and there's so many but I picked a few that speak of spiritual maturity and that's evident in the room and I know there's nothing new that I'm going to be speaking to all of you who are older but there are a couple in the
(09:30) younger age bracket here too that uh might learn something new today. Let's begin in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 9 and 10. By the way, I know some of you find it difficult, this is connecting with our older friends.
(10:00) Some of you find it difficult to turn to all the different passages during a message as like where is it and how can I find it? And so for some I printed my notes out with the with the scriptures there too all printed out to save you the time of turning so that you can read and follow along without having to keep looking.
(10:25) And if anyone else would like those in the future when I'm speaking let me know and I'll print a copy for you and make it make it easy for for all of you as well. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9 it says, "But as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.
(10:48) " So this is focusing us right away on the future of something that God has prepared for those who love him. For who? For you and for me and for all of God's children. But God has revealed them to us through his spirit. For the spirit searches all things, just the deep things of God. What I realized back in those times in Montana as a young elder serving the people there, those older faithful members, those men and women who are so very precious to God, to Christ, and they needed more of the deep things of God.
(11:29) The pictures from the space telescopes, sure, that's inspiring, but that's just something to look at. They needed some of that deep understanding that comes from God's word and by his spirit in their life. They needed messages about the things which God has prepared for them.
(11:54) And they needed to hear again and again and again that even as their bodies and their minds became more frail, God was mindful of them and of their future. and they needed messages about faith and hope and love. That's where I began to turn my attention to serve where they were and how they needed God's help.
(12:24) So, let's let's look at some of the important things that in various aspects of God's inspired word for us in Psalm 71. There's a passage here and and all the passages I'm focusing on today are written to and about mature Christians, people who are in the scriptural definition in their old age. And what a blessing to be here and not uh to be somewhere else here in our old age as Christians.
(12:55) In Psalm 71, it's written as a prayer for an older person praying to God, asking not to be forgotten, not to be forsaken. It says in Psalm 71 and verse 9, "Do not cast me off in the time of old age. Do not forsake me when my strength fails." And so here this is a psalm about people in our age bracket, isn't it? It's uh it's something very important.
(13:39) And and the writer, it was a David, let me turn back in my book and see in Psalm 71. I want to make sure it says a psalm of no it doesn't give the title the author there of this particular psalm it's a psalm written by someone who was already don't forget me don't cast me away you know so often in our society this happens when people grow old and it's at the point where their family is either not close or cannot take care of them and many people are put away into a care facility somewhere.
(14:28) I've visited dozens of care facilities the last many years of serving and sometimes you go in and you see a lot of people who are very very well taken care of and so glad to be there. It's such a blessing for us that NY's parents are in a place where they receive the good care and they appreciate so very much where they are.
(14:58) But even there where they are, there are others around them who are all but forgotten, all but abandoned and who have no family to come and visit or at least not very often. So this is a prayer for older members of God's church in our time to have this kind of relationship with God. Verse 14 is kind of the dominant theme of this this particular psalm is this Psalm 71:14. But as for me, I will always have hope.
(15:39) I will praise you more and more. So in this prayer for an older person to God, the middle verse is this. I will always have hope. And that's what we all need, isn't it? You'll always have hope. You know, in a literary sense, if you look at some of the psalms, and there are 18 of them like this psalm that are structured in such a way that it's it's it's like a poetic structure. You have a five line, fourline stanza.
(16:15) Then you have the theme, the middle verse, and then it's a five, four stanza again to put the whole thing together and make a very, very interesting kind of arrangement there. Many of the psalms are inspired that way. And you see that theme right in the middle of the psalm. This one is to have hope. As for me, I will always have hope.
(16:40) And I think that's the theme that I'm trying to convey today to all of us to always have this kind of approach in our understanding and our relationship with God. Messages of hope are so very important. And I came to realize that as I served those faithful people in Montana. It's a lesson that I learned from my old friends. In 2 Corinthians 12 verse 10, we see a statement.
(17:12) And and notice again what it says in verse 9 of Psalm 71. It says, "Do not forsake me when my strength fails." And that happens in our old age, doesn't it? In 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 10 says, "For when I am weak, then I am strong." You know, before services, I was talking with someone.
(17:36) He was doing some construction work around his property and and we talked about how you have to lift these large pieces of lumber by himself and do this and and we were sort of chuckling that, yeah, we used to be able to do those things so much easier. Remember when? And we've got the memories and the stories, but now we don't have that physical strength that we had then.
(18:04) But what do we have? Hope spiritual strength. When I am weak, then I am strong. Some of the strongest people I've ever met in my life are really old people because their faith is strong because they believe because they have hope because they've experienced and because they've ex they've received from God the blessings that he's promised them and because they hope for those things that he's prepared for them.
(18:37) And there's a very strong element of spiritual strength that develops over our lifetime. And it would be very rare for a young person newly called to have the kind of faith and strength that one would see in a Christian who'd lived five, six decades in the faith and growing and understanding. We grow stronger. we understand more.
(19:11) We grow closer to God and it all becomes so much more real to us. It's good to remember how God has taught us all the years of our life. In Psalm 71, there are couple other things that I'd like to mention. Psalm 71, that psalm about hope, verses 17 and 18, it says this. Oh God, you have taught me from my youth and to this day I declare your wondrous works.
(19:45) Now also when I am old and gayheaded, you th is he writing about me or you? Now also when I am old and gayheaded, oh God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to everyone who is to come. And so you see here kind of a glimpse and it's developed in many other passages of scripture too.
(20:14) The the way older people are in empowered by God to serve in the church is to proclaim God's strength to those who are younger than us to encourage them and say you can go through this and you can come out stronger for it. You may be going through a difficult trial but God is there to help you.
(20:42) I experienced things like this and God helped me and he is helping you and will help you. And so this is one of the great ways that we can serve is to encourage each other, the younger ones. And now they're not here this Sabbath or enjoying the time together. But next Sabbath and every Sabbath afterwards, when those young people are here, when you visit with them in their homes or yours, encourage them, help them, teach them these things about God.
(21:13) Show them that God is strong for you and it will be for them. And these are the things that were inspired in scriptures for old people. Now when I am old and gayheaded, help me to do this. Help me to not just have hope, but to have help others have hope too and encourage them. It's good to remember these things.
(21:39) And God is still teaching us. He started teaching us when we were young. He's still teaching us. He's still helping us to learn. teaches us through his written word. So let's keep reading his written word. He teaches us through the hearing of his word. So let's keep coming and assembling and gathering and worshiping together and listening online when we can't attend in person. He teaches us through our trials.
(22:19) We've heard messages about this recently. So, let's persevere in our trials. It's a way to learn. It's a way to grow. He teaches us through the blessings he gives us. And so, let's be thankful and generous. All of these things are ways of God teaching us and helping us so that when we are now old and gayheaded, we can help others to understand this too. He teaches us as we pray.
(22:50) So let's pray always and he wants us to help other people around to declare his strength and power. Do you see that in that verse? Now also when I am old and gay-headed, oh God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation. He's given us a job to do. a blessing to share with other people.
(23:19) To all of you, my current old friends. What great friends you are. We can ask God to be with us always. We can talk about God's wondrous works. So fun when we do get together. In some weeks we've had these gatherings on Tuesday mornings and uh for lunch at different homes.
(23:51) We look forward to that and we can share these kind of stories with one another. We we gathered this uh past week at a home and some of our members were there and speaking of their experiences in a far distant country on a different continent and and we were able to be encouraged by them and they by us and these are the things that we share and the things that God is doing among us all.
(24:15) We can share the stories of God's gracious love with the younger members and their children to tell others about how God has helped you. It's interesting. This last week I was talking to someone and and where he's from there is a great deal of poverty and people may only get one meal a day and they they might have more food on hand but they know that if they eat it they'll have to miss that one meal tomorrow.
(24:50) And so he tells us of God's help there that we can say yes I remember in my experience this happened that happened and God was there for us and so we can share these things encourage each other the stories of how God has brought us through and you all have your own amazing stories of God's intervention in Psalm 92. Psalm 92 is a joyful psalm.
(25:19) It's a song for the Sabbath day. It's the title of this song even in the scriptures. Three of the hymns in our himnel are inspired by verses in this psalm. If you want to look them up sometime, it's hymns number 49, 50, and 51. And all kind of tie in with Psalm 92. But notice here something about God's promise and blessing to older people.
(25:48) It says in Psalm 92:es 12-15, "The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." You ever seen pictures, maybe even had the blessing of able to see in person in in reality a cedar of Lebanon and to see how big and magnificent they are. The cedars of Lebanon were the timbers that were used to build the temple in the day of Solomon. Big amazing trees we're talking about.
(26:25) He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. But we've been planted in the house of our Lord. We can flourish. He wants us to flourish. They shall be, it says in verse 14, they shall still bear fruit in old age. What kind of fruit does he want us to bear in old age? I like to stop when I come to verses like that and say, "He's telling me something here.
(27:02) What is he telling me? What kind of fruit is he talking about that we can bear can still bear in old age?" So they shall be fresh and flourishing to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. And so you brethren, we see this that we have been planted in a secure place by God. That place being his church in this family and this congregation or wherever it is that you live.
(27:42) We are planted by him to be here together to grow together to grow old together. And so we can retain the spiritual vigor of youth. Remember when we used to do things and you could think back, we did this, we did that. Remember, and it would take a lot of energy, but it was so fun. In a sense, we can have the spiritual vigor.
(28:10) If we can't do those same things that we did before in a physical sense, we can still have the spiritual vigor to do good and great things that will really, really help people. God lets us know and he reassures us frequently in the scriptures that we can trust in him our entire lifetime. Not just when we're young, not just when we're in the prime of life, but when we're in these older years of life, too.
(28:40) I like what it says in Isaiah 46. In Isaiah 46 and verse 3 and 4, it started by saying, I like what it says there. I like what it says in every page, in every verse of the Bible. Today, it's focusing on being a mature Christian. In Isaiah 46:3 and 4, it says, "Listen to me, oh house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel who have been upheld by me from birth." This is God speaking to his people.
(29:20) Listen to me. He says, "You've been upheld by him from birth." Think back in your life to your earliest awareness of God working for you and in your life and think of how he has been with you and upholding you and guiding you. And maybe we went through some years before we were called and we had a thing or two to repent of and change and he was aware and he knew and he's helping us.
(30:00) He's upholding us since we were born. I mean, some of the stories I heard when I was growing up, and I can reflect back on them now. I know I didn't know him, but he knew me and he knew you when you were a very young child. And now he knows you at the age where you are now. It says, "Who have been carried from the womb." I love that phrase.
(30:35) You see a a new mother with a very small infant and carrying the infant. Sometimes the father gets the blessing of carrying that infant too. And and God is speaking to his people. They're precious to him. He carried us in a sense in a figurative sense. He's speaking to the nation, but he's also speaking to each one of us individually from our youth. He carried us. He was there with us.
(31:05) In verse four, even to your old age, he's still with us. Still here carrying us. I am he. And even to gray hairs, I will carry you. Sometimes we have trials that we don't know if we can make it through. But he says, "I will carry you. I will be there for you." He says, "I have made and I will bear.
(31:36) Even I will carry and I will deliver you." We have this, brethren. We can have this hope even in our old age. Even when it seems like I'm not as strong as I used to be. I can't remember the name of that person coming toward me. Happened to me three times today before church. Who is that? But we can have that trust in him. We can know that he is there.
(32:09) God has given us many examples of old people who were strong in the faith. One night long ago, an old man asked God, an old man asked him this question. Lord God, what will you give me? That's a question we ask sometimes, too. We all do and we all should. Lord God, what what will you give me in all the Bible? That's the first direct quote of someone talking in prayer to God.
(32:57) We have Adam and Eve, especially Adam talking to God, saying things and we heard some of those in the sermonet. But this is a prayer of someone who believed and someone who God considered faithful. And that old man is saying, "Lord God, what will you give me?" My older friends in Montana needed to hear the answer to that. What would God give them? What does God give us? And look what happened then on that night when that old man asked that question.
(33:38) Turn to Genesis 15. Genesis 15. We'll read. There's much more story around it, but we'll read verses 5 and 6. And realize this man was as old as some of us, older than most of us. Genesis 15:5 and 6. And then he, this is the Lord, he brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to n number them." And he said to him, "So shall your descendants be.
(34:22) " Verse six, "And he believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness. This is such a significant thing in a relationship with God that's quoted several more times in the scripture. What happened there that night and you might have guessed that I would come back around to talking about stars and we find it here. God told that old man, "Look up at those stars.
(34:51) " And that would help him to understand the promise and the blessing that God was going to give to him. Seeing the stars in the heavens can inspire us, can give us hope and help us to understand the promises of God are very, very sure. Abraham believed, and God kept his promise. And brethren, we are all part of the family that God promised Abraham. Look in Galatians 3.
(35:31) Then, and in this part of the message, I'm just looking at how God answered the prayer of an old man one starry night in Galatians 3 verse 26- 29. says, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." The focus is not on Abraham, but on Christ. And we're children of God.
(36:10) But notice how it explains this. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and hes according to the promise. We're part of the family of Abraham.
(36:39) You know, in our congregation, we have people from different races, different continents, and they come here together and they worship. And we're all part of that same family. And everyone is part of the family of Abraham. And God kept that promise that he gave to Abraham. And with that promise of being children, we also are heirs.
(37:04) And he gives us that hope of that future yet to come. the same hope that Abraham had. We saw that city a far off. He saw those promises and he embraced them and we do as well. Started with an old man asking God, "What will you give me?" And God gave him a huge family. They're still growing that family.
(37:35) In another verse in Galatians, I'll just read it for you. Chapter 4 and verse 28, it says, "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise." Think of each one of us here and every other member of the body of Christ. We are children of promise. God promised Abraham he would have children and descendants and we're part of that. What a great hope that gives us.
(38:09) We're children of God through faith in Christ Jesus by the promise given to an old man looking at the stars of heaven. So now what where do we go from here? What does God expect old people to do as we continue looking for that inheritance that will come? This message isn't just to encourage and inspire us. It's also a call to action for all of us to motivate us.
(38:48) It's more than just reading those things and being inspired by the promises. It's how do we achieve those things? How do we have that relationship with God where he will open those blessings to us and give them to us? My dear friends, every one of you who are older includes all of us. Look in Romans chapter 13. So we're changing this focus now of the message to actions.
(39:26) What do we do? How do we therefore live? Abraham believed and Abraham followed and others as well. What do we do? In Romans 13 and verse 11 it says, "And do this knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. I was baptized in 1970.
(40:05) Some of you before then, many, many of you afterwards, but when we first believed, these things were real and we began seeking them. Now, our salvation is nearer. And then when we first believed, every day we're coming nearer, not to the end of this physical life so much, not to the end of this age, of this world. We're not looking at that.
(40:33) We're looking at the beginning. We're looking at the beginning of eternity. When Jesus Christ returns, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. So that should be our focus. Not how few days we have left, but how many more there will be. And therefore, we should be ready. This is our hope. This is what it's all about for us at whatever age we are.
(41:07) Here in Romans 13, continue in verses 12-4. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. We heard in the first message about darkness and light. The day is at hand. The night is far spent. There's a good horizon coming with light. Says in second John, the the true light is already shining. The darkness is coming to an end.
(41:44) Think of this as it relates to our own lives. Verse 12-4. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revalry and drunkenness, not in lensiousness and lwdness, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust.
(42:24) This is a call to action for people of all ages, but especially for us who are older now. The night is far spent and the day is at hand and is coming closer and our salvation is drawing nearer with every single day. There is a certainty to the promises that this age will come to an end. This physical life we have is not meant to be permanent and our salvation will be an eternal reality.
(43:00) Knowing that should motivate us to live godly lives. That's what he's saying here. We should have this motivation to live this way. This really applies to us who are old. not to give up, not to uh go dormant in our prayer and study, but to keep taking steps every day. If if we can't walk and we're bedridden, we can still walk in the in the footsteps of Christ in the spiritual way.
(43:35) So, keep walking in the light. Now, it's a time for all of us who are mature to be spiritually awake. Weak. Awake. I like the way it puts it there in 1 Peter 4 and verse 7. I'll read this one for you, too. But the end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers.
(44:08) Think of how this applies to us as we grow old. The end of all that's been here is at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers. We have these kinds of encouragements all through the scripture and we could look at them in a very very positive way and I hope you do. I hope we always will.
(44:34) You know, we read in the psalm, I will always have hope. And we can keep that hope going in our lives in a joyful way. And it's something that will spur us on to produce fruit even in our old age. Turn if you will next to Philippians 3 verse 12- 14. As I was preparing the message, I found so many other verses and and I I told Nancy these things that they wouldn't grow and it's just and I got to go. No, I got to prune this back, cut this.
(45:15) But I kept these that to me seemed so directly addressing the the aspect of hope that we should have and we knew need what we can do now in this time of our life in Philippians 3 12-14 young people need this verse as much or even more I think than the older ones but we all do need it. He says, "Not that I have already attained or I'm already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me." We press on.
(45:56) We keep walking toward the kingdom. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, to have attained to that yet. But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
(46:19) There's a key in there that I have struggled with and I see it and it keeps encouraging me and I keep saying with your help, Father, I can do this too. I can forget in this way some of the things that happened to me, let them go and press forward now and go on to the things that God is holding in store for us. We have not already obtained that goal. None of us have.
(46:52) And so he wants us to keep seeking it, pressing onward, walking in the light. If we're still living, we have more of our race to run yet. We have more battles to fight and to win, to press on toward that goal. And I encourage us all to do that. Think of it in your private time with God. What can I do to do this? to press on to keep on track.
(47:24) In verse 15 and 16 says, "Therefore let us as many as are mature," it connects with the mature people. Sometimes that word is more pleasant to hear than the elderly or the old ones. As many as are mature is all of us who have made progress in our spiritual journey. All of us are have this some great level of maturity already been growing in that grace and the knowledge as we should.
(48:01) As many as are mature have this mind. What mind? Verse 12- 14 to press on. Have this mind. This goal. This is who I am. This is what I will be doing. I've been called to walk this way. I will take that next step to press onward.
(48:27) The views expressed in those verses of heaven are they're so important for us, brethren. There are more steps to take for you and for me for every day of our life. So, we should not be complacent. We shouldn't just give up and drift and say, "Oh, I've done enough and now I can just relax." No, you still you can pray for someone who's sick. You can pray for yourself, for your friends and family.
(48:55) You can thank God for the blessings of each and every day. There's so much we can do. If we have our mind on the things of God, but we don't understand all of his word yet, God will help us. He says in the next verse, verse 16, nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
(49:26) He's saying and back up in verse 15. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. So maybe you have questions. What about this? I don't quite understand that. Well, keep keep reading. Keep searching. Remember what we read earlier. God has taught us.
(49:48) He's teaching us from our youth to our old age. He wants us to learn and grow. But to the degree that we've already attained, let us keep on track. Those who are mature, those who've made progress in their spiritual growth, in their stability. And he constantly in the scriptures so very frequently uh encourages his people this way. You read verses like, "Brethren, I am confident of your salvation.
(50:20) I'm confident that you are on the you read things like this and God encourages us in this way those who are mature. What does it mean that we who are mature should continue to press onward toward the goal? I think it's kind of self-evident but I'll just mention a couple of things. Remember what Christ himself said about this in Matthew.
(50:45) He said, "Those who endure to the end shall be saved." Endure to the end. You want to do something? Big thing to do right there. Endure in faith, in hope, and love to the end. What does that mean? It's a matter of the spirit. matter of the heart and of the mind. For my old friends who couldn't see the detail in those photos of the galaxies, there was something they could see was in their heart in their mind and they could see that they could understand it and they could therefore endure.
(51:39) In Hebrews 6, we find this encouragement. It's one of those places I mentioned, but I want to read it for you because it's for you, too. It's for me. And there are days when I need to hear this, and I need to read it out loud as though someone who loved me, and God does, was reading it for me. In Hebrews 6:es 9-12, but beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you.
(52:14) Yes, things that accompany salvation that we speak in this manner. I had the blessing and the experience of being with some of my older friends as they took their last breath, as they finished their race. I had the blessing of seeing them as they completed their journey. And I can say as whoever wrote this, whether it's Paul or whoever it was, we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation.
(52:57) Verse 10, for God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. This is how the confidence of their salvation was made evident because they were doing these things that God instructed and gave them and they were doing it out of love.
(53:22) We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. Comes back to that hope. We never give up. We always have hope that you do not become sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. So we do have these things. We can finish this journey well.
(53:50) So brethren, don't give up. Look up once in a while and see the stars. Even if they look to you like scrambled eggs, look beyond the stars. Look to God. Look to Christ. I want to finish in Hebrews chapter 2. And for those of you have my notes, I'm departing from them and I'm going to go to a different finish. In Hebrews chapter 2, we pick up what we started with in Psalm 8.
(54:30) And there it included David's inspiration about when he sees the stars in the heavens, considers the works of God's hand. In Hebrews, it starts with what he said after that. What is man? Hebrews 2 and verse 6. What is man that you are mindful of him? You who created the whole universe. Well, who am I? Who are we that you are mindful of us? Or the son of man that you take care of him, the children and the generations that came.
(55:16) Verse seven, you make you made him a little lower than the angels. And so here we are in this physical body for a short period of time. You crowned him with glory and honor. There's that hope in front of us. Now, we could tie this part in with the sermonet as well. When God made Adam and Eve, he made them a little lower than the angels and crowned him in a sense, in a physical sense, gave him dominion over all the animals and over the earth that had been created. But that was lost. That was a physical thing, too.
(56:05) But now this drifts us, takes us, powers us into the spiritual elements that these words mean to us as well. You set him over the works of your hand. A little while in a different way for Adam, but it's coming now toward the future because remember, we're looking up. We're looking past the galaxies.
(56:31) We're looking into heaven itself when we read these verses. and he put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things under him. And so we're here on this journey. We don't yet see the finish. Those who lived before, they saw it a far off and they believed and embraced those promises and sought them.
(56:55) And that's where we are. Verse nine, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels at the time when he was here on earth. He was made of flesh as we are for the suffering of death. Crowned with glory and honor and lifts us again back to eternity to the great promises that are there that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. Tyus beg his hope is in Christ.
(57:32) This hope is in what God is doing with him and through him. Verse 10. For it was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many children to glory, many sons, many daughters to glory. He's bringing us to a point where these frail bodies will not be what holds us back anymore to give us a new body.
(58:08) Before services began a very special thing happen. A lady drove up was driven up. One of our older members came to services today. His wife was in the car unable to come and I took one of our ladies out to meet her. What a very special moment that was. Two older ladies talking together and I had the blessing of hearing.
(58:44) And one of them says, "And will have a different body." One was saying about the future, about her hope, and the other said, "And we'll have a different body." It's exactly right, brethren. This is what it is about to bring us to glory, to bring us to the promise that God has given to all of us of eternal life was fitting to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
(59:22) Brethren, we we have such great blessings to know this way of life, to be able to look up and whether we can discern what's there in the images or to look in the scriptures and with God's spirit discern what he puts in our hearts. Brethren, we can always have hope and we can continue walking toward that kingdom, walking toward that light and being very grateful for what God is doing in us and through us.
(59:53) And God loves every older Christian. He loves us, brethren.