A Good Death

Transcript

I'm going to start our class this morning by showing you a a picture um can you guys see that this uh this picture represents the weeks in the life of an IND individual who lives to about 90 years old each of those dots represents one week of life I remember as a uh as a teenager sitting in a Bible class that was uh being led by brother Bob Lloyd and Bob had a adding machine taped does anybody remember remember adding machines Chris raises yeah yeah so Jen you were an accountant right so you were probably pretty good at that thing right you love adding machines well Bob had this adding machine tape and it was for those of you who are uh too young to know what that is it was like a roll of uh I guess you could say it was almost like a roll of toilet paper right and he pulled out an arm arms length of this tape it's about I don't know 2 and 1 half 3 in wide and he pulled it out to his arms length and he tore it off and he held it up and he said this section of tape represents your life you guys remember did anybody remember this story and then he said okay so if this is uh if this is your life and you are 15 years old which I probably was at the time he then tore off you know 115th of a 100-year lifespan say and he said this is how much life you have lived already and God is asking you to give him the rest of your life and so he held up this adding machine tape and then he said in exchange for that God is willing to give you the following and then he grabbed the rest of the adding machine tape and started scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and it was a demonstration that our lives are so short in comparison to all that God has promised us eternal life and that was a that was a a object lesson that really had a meaningful impact on me at the time and in some ways it's even more meaningful now because when I look at this chart and I know that you really can't see it very well but you know for 15 years this brings us to that section in yellow way up at the top and right now I am down here and so so many of the weeks of my life have already been spent and that caused me to think about um elderhood and so that's really all that's really the only picture I wanted to show today um and and I guess that what I where I'm going right now is when we look at our Ecclesia and we look at our families there is a huge number of us who are now entering our older years many of us who many of us have parents who are in the last years of their lives lives some of you are in the last years of your life and the question is how do we view those years you know if you think about it like I look at uh you know I look at so many of us you know we talked about um Judy Salomon last week you know Judy Judy has been in the hospital she's home now I think of my dad which I think of your dad having died not long ago and and your mom um we've got Brenda you know we've got Nancy Rice we' got so many people who are sort of entering those last years of life and for a lot of folks these last years years can be really challenging I want to read for you um from The Message Bible and um what we're going to look at is uh we're going to look at Ecclesiastes chapter 12 from the message see if I can find it how many of you have read the message any anybody use this version it's kind of an interesting version It Was Written uh it's a translation slash paraphrase um and it's um I think it's very eye opening written sort of in a in an emotive way we're going to look at Ecclesiastes chapter 12 this is sort of at the end of Solomon's life and this is how he sort of viewed things um sorry guys where's the message is the message not on this version yeah would you read uh chapter uh Ecclesiastes chapter 12 or let me let me read it I'll I'll just read it and um that way everybody can hear thanks Jason says honor and enjoy your creator while you're still young before the years take their toll in your Vigor waines before your vision dims and the world blurs and the winter years keep you close to the fire in old age your body no longer serves you so well muscle slacken grip weakens joints stiffen the shades are pulled down on the world you can't come and go at will things grind to a halt the hum of the household Fades away you are awakened Now by bird song hikes to the mountains are a thing of the past even a stroll down the road has its Terrors your hair turns Apple Blossom white adorning a fragile and impotent Matchstick body yes you're well on your way to Eternal rest while your friends make plans for your funeral I mean isn't that like you know you read those words and you read them from a version like this and it and it's um it's heart rening heartbreaking and for a lot of our members you know we are entering those years of life you know I I think this uh this whole this this whole thought process for me started um not just as my mom and dad who are at home because the winter years are keeping them close to the fire right um but you know this whole thought process started for me years ago and let me ask you guys the question like at what age does one become old so what did you say 30 yeah yeah right so at what age what age do you think of people as old 7 all right good answer good older than me right so Mark you know you know this like for years I used to play in a men's basketball league every Monday night year after year after year you know once the summer was over the first you know first September in the year basketball would start and I would show up and it was the same group of buddies and we play at the qualters middle school every Monday night and then I got an elbow in the nose and got two black guys when I was about 49 years old and I was like you know what I am just too old for this right and every year like one of my buddies would drop out and and would be replaced by some young buck you know some kid that was you know 18 years old could run fast jump high and I just realized like I'm getting too old for this and so I stopped playing and then when I turned 50 I was like you know what I'm gonna make a comeback and so I took a year off and at 50 years old I I signed up again and when I showed up at the court you know everybody's like oh it's great to see you old man right and my b body could not do the things that I thought it could do you know I I thought that like I I could do this and I was like a step behind and that was like the last time I played basketball my comeback was short indeed and I realized like I'm getting old the other day I was looking at some photographs of all of my cycling buddies and I'm like when did we all become old like I've been riding with the same group of guys forever and to look at pictures of us now we're all a bunch of stinking old men and it happens so gradually you know you don't realize it now we just read from the message Jason here you can take this back thanks for that um we just read from the message and it really gives an idea as to like how some folks can view aging as this time of ineptitude of this time when you know we become decrepit when we are embarrassed by loss of memory or by our inability to keep our balance and it's just part of the process right and I'm just curious you know if what your experiences are as you look out at older people you know I don't see any of our olders really here here today but like what are the things that are we should be encouraging our elders about what you know so for a lot of folks we can get a sense of what they might be thinking as we read from Ecclesiastes 12 in the message and I guess my thought is we've got you know if you think of the weeks of the year you know the we the weeks of Our Lives we got a lot of people who have got just uh you know 10 years or less left and what are the things that we ought to be talking to our elders about what are the things that we would like to hear from our elders so let me just pause there and and just ask you know does anybody have any experience or any thoughts about growing old does anybody uh um anybody have anything they'd like to share about uh experiences they've had you think of Lilian Scott she just kept going and she would just say I'm just a humble servant of the Lord so I just think of her all the time when things are tough or whatever and say I'm just a humble servant of the Lord just a humble servant of the Lord yeah that was Lil Scott Michelle's grandma Yeah Yeah Yeah Michelle and Deb you guys had some wonderful wonderful grandparents yeah Chris you going to say something just just contrasting uh say the Christian Life versus some of the experiences I've witnessed in the the world uh lack of purpose as older people uh grow on and age uh if they lose a purpose in life uh is you know they become very aimless and and seem to have no Direction uh so certainly the Christian Life where uh We've served the Lord and and we try to do that right to the very end it gives you Direction and purpose you know and I think think some of the perhaps we don't realize it and of course I came out of the world and still have a lot of family in the world uh but the Hedge that if you want to use the word the Hedge that's put about us with good upbringing in Christian understanding is to know who our God is and I think Steve in your occupation uh as a financial counselor to many people the god of the world is their money and uh you'll see with a lot of folks in the world where uh boy it gets to be a real issue with uh trying to hold on to things and uh to feel their protection and their uh security is all bound up in their uh money they have in the bank and so forth so I think this is something that we uh you know we've learned to trust in the Lord and it all this training comes into play in the latter of your life all going to be tested and put to the proof you know at that point in time so so Chris you're drawing a contrast between you know aging as a brother or sister uh who has a a purpose that goes beyond this world uh and contrasting that with those who have no hope perhaps or or hope in of you know in in what uh one one writer wrote count fit Gods you know money power these sorts of things I'd like to I'd like to read and first of all I'd like to recommend an article a series of Articles to you that was in the Christadelphian last year uh back in May and June how many of you know brother Dev Ram sharam number of you so Dev wrote a series of articles on uh it's entitled on having a good death on having having a good death I really recommend them it's in h the May and June issue of the Christadelphian and I'd like to uh you know picking up where Chris left off I'd like to read a paragraph or two from what Dev wrote he said generally speaking people see the Final Phase of their lives as a time of weakness Frailty decrepitude humiliation and finally dissolution death they experience it at a time when they're at their lowest level of value and contribution a burden to others and to themselves and then Dev says but for us as Believers this this last stage need not be characterized as a time of weakness or uselessness we are comforted by the knowledge that death is not the end for us we close our eyes and sleep and reopen them at the Lord's feet seeking his Mercy in Grace being confronted with the things that we've done in our lives yet confident in his love for us and his forgiveness and his desire for us to be in the Kingdom so Dev is just as you did Chris like Dev is showing a contrast and often times when we have no greater purpose the last part of our Lives can just be a feeling of uselessness but for those of us who have a hope and have a faith I think the emphasis here and the emphasis that we see throughout scriptures is that there is a great value that we can offer to our God and to our brothers and sisters throughout the entirety of Our Lives whether we are in the last squares of our weeks or not so you talked about Lil Scott right I remember Sister Peg Peg Eagles here right she's long since fallen asleep but she made a comment once and she said you know there are not a lot of things that I can do anymore Kathy you're smiling you know what I'm going to say what am I going to say but I can pray right but I can pray and I just think that the power of prayer is such a strong thing and and to think of our elders who are you know maybe not here today because the the winter days have kept them close by the fire right but to think of our elders at home praying for us is is wonderful and if you are in that position in life you know I think you need to realize that there is a great strength that we can experience from your prayers I'll just share a personal thing um as some of you know my sister was out from California last week or week before she was here for two days and and our family all got together um um we had dinner together one night and we were standing in front of we've got a little kitchen island and all the food was out on the island and I said uh you know often when we have dinner at my house I'll I'll offer the prayer and I said to my dad dad would you like to pray yeah and you know it's just such a a wonderful prayer you know from from my dad about our family family and about our faith and about his faith and his hope and I was so strengthened by that right so what I'd like to do um right now is is I'd like to think about these last weeks of our lives right you know for some of us we've got 10 years less 10 years left or less right or our parents have 10 years left or less and the question is what can we do to make the most of these weeks that are remaining like if you think about it like how many more times might we see Elder X in her Pew before she falls asleep how many time more weeks will we have an opportunity to shake the hand of brother why and have a conversation with him how many more times will we be able to see our parents right these are things that I think many of us are are grappling with and we can look at this with sadness but we can also look at this with great opportunity so turn with me to uh Psalm 71 this is a Psalm of David at the at the end of his life and and here in Psalm 71 David speaks about um the challenges of being old so if you're there I'm going to have you uh we'll we'll start in the first verse it says in you oh Lord I've taken Refuge let me never be put to shame you know I think for a lot of us for a lot of our elders there is a period or a sense of Shame about getting older you know I'm not the man I used to be I'm not the woman I used to be I don't have the strength and the Vigor I don't have the mental acuity that I once had and they feel embarrassed or shameful about those things but that not need not be the case David says he goes on and he says in verse 9 he prays do not cast me away when I'm old do not forsake me when my do not forsake me when my strength is gone flip over to uh the 14th verse but as for me I will always have hope our strength might dissipate our mind might get weaker but our hope is there brothers and sisters and David says but for me I will always have hope I will praise you more and more as sister Deb as sister Peg said you know I might not be able to do a lot of things but I can pray and I can praise God I will come and Proclaim your Mighty acts oh Sovereign Lord I will Proclaim your righteousness yours alone since my youth oh God you have taught me and to this day I declare your marvelous Deeds even when I'm old and gray do not forsake me oh god Till I declare your power to the Next Generation your might to all who are to come and I think this section here in verse 18 is really important because what we see in the Bible when we are looking at the end of the lives of many of these great men and women in the Bible is that they often before they die have an opportunity to speak to the Next Generation Moses in chapter 31 of Deuteronomy says remember the days of old and he counsels his congregation God's congregation to remember all the great things that God had done for them and similarly we in the later parts of our lives have this opportunity to share with our children and our grandchildren and with our friends and our neighbors and the people who sit near us in our pews all that God has done for us one Wednesday night I think it was one of the last times but I talked to your dad um he joined Bible class and he was talking about how to recognize God's work in our lives and he said you know for me it's to look backwards it's to Look Backwards at my life to look at all the dots of weeks that I have gone through and realize that you know what that time when I met Gail God was working in my life that time when you know I entered the Waters of baptism because brother XYZ had encouraged me to do so God was working in my life you know and that was an that to me is an example of an elder who is sort of declaring the goodness of God to the Next Generation and so again once again you know if if brother or sister you are in those later years you've got this wonderful opport opportunity to do what David says here to proclaim the mighty acts and to to proclaim the righteousness that is yours alone I'll pause there comments thoughts anybody else have any experiences of folks sort of sharing words to them in the later part of their lives mark um I actually have two um I've always well I won't go into that but um when my mother was really sick she would have bounces where she would be herself again and we were always so hopeful that the prayers were being heard and she was going to recover but deep down I knew she wasn't but we always had that hope but when she was in the last week of her life or the last week actually before she lost the ability to speak I remember sitting with her in her bed and I started to cry and she looked at me and she said Son why are you crying Don't Cry For Me She Goes My Eyes will be opened again and I'll see my savior and I'm going to see you again again and then similarly with John Claude a few of us went up to the hospital to visit him um a day or two before he fell asleep and he said the same words almost to a tea how he almost seemed excited to be at that point because he knew he would see his Savior and I take great comfort from both of these people and I pray earn ly that when my final days are here that I will have the same strength that they have had um and it's been a big influence in in my last well my mom's been gone quite a while probably 15 years with with the two of those those two folks so yeah thanks for that you know I I I I forget we we're in this but as we get older you know we we tend to go from you know I at myself and Steve talks about basketball and I look back at Men's weekend last year when we played street hockey and it went from me looking at well I'm going to go get that ball that's way up by Steve but my mind wanted to do it but my body said no yeah and after taking one good hit you know my body just hurt so I said well instead of running up and down this court I'm just going to stay in this place and guard this 10×10 area in front of me zone defense zone defense uh and that's kind of Our Lives you know when our service starts in the Lord we have all this energy and ability and youthfulness to serve with all our Vigor and all our strength but as we grow and get older we may not be able to do a lot of the service things the but the physical things you know like the shoveling the a little older brother Scott we won't be able to do that forever if the Lord delays but one thing we do acquire as we get older is wisdom and that's what you know my dad he'll be here shortly Lord willing you know is passing on in his later years of life wisdom um and I think the the ver in Ecclesiastes you know the the duty of man is to obey God to fear the lord and that's the wisdom they're passing on to us yeah to strengthen us as we approach our Our Last Days thanks for that so Mark you know you you started by talking about um your mom and jeanclaude and in both of those uh examples you gave you had um you had taken this step to be with them with your mom you drove into Boston to be with jeanclaude and I think that's a a great lesson for us that we need to proactively reach out to our elders in these last years of life to give ourselves the opportunity to hear their words of wisdom as you say and to give them the opportunity to Proclaim claim the goodness of God in all that he has done in their lives turn with me to uh Genesis uh chapter 48 Israel Jacob is at the end of his life and if you stop and think about Jacob the deceiver and all of the challenges that this man had in his life challenges with faith challenges with family relationships challenges with his health we find him now with this opportunity before he dies to speak speak to his heirs and what I'd like to do is I'd like to just pick up and read a little bit about what he says so we're in chapter 48 he's meeting manasse and Ephraim his grandchildren Joseph's boys and we'll look at uh we'll look at verse 10 uh verse 8 when when Israel when Jacob saw the sons of Joseph he asked who are these they're the sons God has given me here Joseph said to his father and then Israel said bring them to me so that I may bless them verse 10 and as we read verse 10 think about Ecclesiastes 12 that we read from the message right now Israel's eyes were failing him because of old age and he could hardly see so Joseph brought his sons close to him and his father kissed them and embraced them so like Mark who had gone to the hospital to see Jean Claude or had climbed up into the bed next to his mom in her last days Joseph goes with his children to see Jacob his father to see Israel Israel sees his grandchildren Israel in verse 11 said to Joseph I never expected to see your face again and now God has allowed me to see your children too when Joseph removed them from Israel's knees and bowed down with his face to the ground and Joseph took both of them Ephraim on his right towards Israel's left hand and manasse on his left towards his father's hand um to toward Israel's right hand and he brought them close to him but Israel reached out his right hand and put it on ephraim's head though it was younger and Crossing his arms and he put the left hand on manasseh's head even though Manasseh was the firstborn and he blessed Joseph and said and here's this speech that that Israel is is giving in the last days of his life when his eyes can no longer see when he is about to to die and he said May the God be for whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day may he uh all this day the angel who has delivered me from all harm may he bless these boys and to me this is really a remarkable thing because you know I think if you were to think about Israel's life Jacob's life there are a lot of things in his life that he wouldn't be happy about looking back and perhaps that's the case in our own lives that in our own lives we can look back with regret on decisions we made actions we did harm we caused but even though those things happened Jacob is able to acknowledge that God has been with him all his life he's able to acknowledge that the angel has protected him all his life Mark brought out uh Ecclesiastes you know we read Ecclesiastes 12 where you know Solomon is talking about how terrible the end of life can be but when we come to the end of that chapter this is the this is the the whole of the matter fear God and keep his Commandments right there was almost like a change in Solomon and similarly with Jacob You know despite all the things that he did wrong he's able at the end of his life to make right with God and so if we are in those last weeks of the light of Our Lives now is an opportunity to make right with God and perhaps make right with those whom we might have harmed or whom you know things might have not gone well and I think that's part of what Joseph does here what what uh Jacob does here um comments here's what uh yeah Chris uh I was looking for the verse Steve and I can't find it but I it's either when Jacob first hears that Joseph is still alive or when he first sees uh Joseph it says in Israel uh then went forward and you see the transition from him being referred to as Jacob and then all of a sudden the spirit of Israel revives when he sees Joseph and so he is I think looking back in his life now and once again the reality of God working in his life and seeing how all these things have worked ultimately to the good uh and that his faith is restored so you know we see the transition again at different times in Jacob's life he's referred to as Jacob and Israel and this is one of the events where uh at the end of his life again the spirit of Israel returns to see God working in his life yeah that's good here's what brother Dev wrote Dev said when we share with our children the impact and presence of God in our lives a presence that we often forgot doubted or fail to perceive then we show them what it means to grow in faith as a Believer we encourage them to hold on through thick and thin trusting in the presence of a loving and faithful God a father whose care has been demonstrated in concrete ways in the work of his redeeming Angel so yeah Jim say right along lines with what Dev just just said which is you know as you get older there are certain advantages that you have that you don't have when you're younger and one of the things is that you have to slow down and when you H you know when you're younger and you're viral and you're busy and you're trying to raise a family you're trying to make a name for yourself and all that kind of stuff you almost get too busy to be able to recognize God's presence in your life whereas when you get older or when you get sick uh you literally have the time to be able to stop and and and reflect and then like you say have the opportunity hopefully to be able to uh spread those things to those who are younger to sort of give them you know say hey you need to stop and smell the roses you need to stop and appreciate what God has done for you this is what I've learned from being forced to slow down so I think I think there are certain advantages um that we have as we get on in years I'm reading a book right now uh written by a woman by the name of Louise Aronson it's entitled elderhood um she describes Our Lives typically when we think of Our Lives we think of childhood and adulthood but her suggestion is that there ought to be a third category there's childhood adulthood and elderhood and one of the things that she mentions in this book Jim is that for a lot of people the happiest times in their lives occur at the beginning of elderhood when the hustle and bustle of Life of raising children of you know working a career of doing all of these things that are sort of stretching us thin become a thing of the past and now we can we have an opportunity to focus on what's really important to us I think that goes along with what you were saying Jim this is one of the things that she mentions so in our classes over the next two weeks what I would like to do is I would like for us to sort of carry on with this theme of elderhood to honor the elders that are among us and to remind us that we've got a great opportunity to reach out to these Elders to learn from them the the what wisdom they've accumulated over the years what um you know what their experiences are are one of the things that we'll talk about I hope is uh sort of different things that that we might consider doing in our Elder years as it relates to being peacemakers as it relates to um sharing guidance and we'll do that by looking at many of the last speeches of Elders in the Bible we look briefly at the last speech of Jacob we referenced the speech of Moses but we can look at first Samuel and see the last speech of David we can look to the New Testament we can consider John 17 where Jesus is about to go to the cross and he prays and he speaks to God and in the presence of us we can hear the things that were most important this plea for Unity among the e clesia among the brothers right these are the things that were important to Jesus we'll look at the things that were important to others like Paul and Timothy so that's that's what I hope to do and in the meantime I I think if you are an elder watching this uh think about conversations that you'd want to have with us things that you can share with us and if we are looking to our elders find opportunity to make the most of the days that remain

Transcript

and for those you who weren't here last week we we spent last week really talking about our lives and in particular that stage in our life when we come to the end many of us uh in this congregation I think in Cranston um and you know in all in all aspects of life I mean we get to that point where we are in the last years of our our lives for many of us in this room that's the case right many of us have uh have uh parents who are uh you know who are coming towards the end and so I thought that it would be an important uh subject to to talk about and last week what I did is I started by showing this picture and this picture has a number of uh it has actually 52 dots in each row representing each week in one's life and the and uh the rows that go down the left hand side start at age zero you know the first day of life and end at age roughly 90 now I know Steve that your dad just turned 90 years years old is that right yeah and sy's Mom turns 90 years old next month and I know John you had your 90th birthday not too long ago and you know and when we look at this what we see on this page here are is a representation of our life and I got a text from somebody after class I got many many texts and and notes last week about the class and one of them was uh somebody who said that they have seen this where people will actually put this chart on a wall and they will actually put a dot on each week of their life to show you know conceptually how much time they have lived and how much time if the Lord remains away they have left and for them it's a it's a way to um maybe motivate them to make make the most of every opportunity and you know I just for me that was just a a real helpful way to sort of conceptualize things so let me just stop there are there any any thoughts anything that anybody wants to add after we had that uh you know looking at that at that chart there okay um the other thing that we did last week is we read uh a passage from Ecclesiastes and this was uh Ecclesiastes chap 12 which is uh Solomon at the end of his life sort of describing the challenges of of life and we read it from the message version of the Bible and I'd like to just uh see if we can hit that up again because I think it does um put things in perspective for us okay um I ran into this trouble last week too all the different uh apps that I use didn't have the message on it here we go yeah Ecclesiastes chapter 12 Sandy do you want to everybody wants to just learn there and I and I hope it's okay if I know there are a number of people who weren't here last week and I just thought it might be helpful to recap a little bit so if that's okay so here's Ecclesiastes 12 from the message and the reason we're going here is because I think it gives some concept uh some context to what life at the end for some might feel like so here the writer of Ecclesiastes says honor and enjoy the Creator while you're still young before the years take their toll and your Vigor waines before your vision dims and the world blurs and the winter years keep you close to the fire in old age your body no longer serves you so well muscles slacken grip weakens joints stiffen the shade are pulled down on the world you can't come and go it will things grind to a halt the hum of the household Fades away You're awakened Now by bird song hikes to the mountains are a thing of the past even a stroll down the road has its Terrors right so I mean this passage sort of gives you an idea as to you know how things can be challenged in at the end of life um brother Dev ramram in his uh article on having a good death from the Christadelphian last month said this he said generally speaking people see the Final Phase of their lives as a time of weakness Frailty decrepitude humiliation and finally dissolution they experience it at a time when they're at their lowest level of value and contribution a burden to others and to themselves and so last week we talked a little bit about that and how you know many people who don't have faith really fight and push back against this idea um but devb says but for us for believers this last stage needs not be characterized as a time of weakness or uselessness we're comforted by the knowledge that death is not the end for us we close our eyes and sleep and reopen them at the Lord's feet seeking his mercy and Grace being confronted with the things that we've done in our lives yet confident in his love for us in his forgiveness and in his desire for us to be in his kingdom and I just think that that's such a wonderful contrast between you know coming to the end of your life without faith and coming to the end of your life having faith i' like to have you turn with me to um Second Corinthians um we're going to look at chapter 4 and this is a passage that may be familiar um and it talks about the trouble and the travails that we experience so 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and I'm going to have you look at the uh the 16th verse to start we'll just look at a couple of verses at the end of the chapter and I guess this is the exhortation to our oldies right and I use that in a in a loving way right um therefore we do not lose heart though outwardly we're wasting away yet inwardly we're being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us in eternal glory that far outweighs them all now I say you know as as we read this it says our light and momentary troubles and and sometimes the troubles that we experience in life seem anything but light right they can they can feel overwhelming at times and I think that what the what the author what Paul is doing here is he's sort of having us like look at the big picture look at the perspective I started last week by talking about this example um that I remember from my childhood with brother Bob Lloyd um Steve you might remember this remember Bob Lloyd's adding machine tape right you know he pulls out the adding machine tape and he holds a length of it and he says this represents your life you guys are 15 years old you know you pull off a little bit this is how much God wants from you and in exchange and then he pulls and reels out you know feet and feet and yards and yards of adding machine tape and and in contrast you know our lives are so short in comparison to the glory that will be revealed in us the the length of the Kingdom The Eternity and I think that's what Paul PA is saying here in in 2 Corinthians 4 our light in momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all so we fix our eyes not on what's seen But on what's unseen for what's seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal and I think this is the uh this is the great this is the great comfort of living in faith that we have a hope that goes beyond that you know when we close our eyes for that last time we can be confident that when we awake again it will be at the feet of our master and I think that should give us great hope so as we you know come to the last days and years of Our Lives I think we can focus on what we can focus on this subject of and I'm going to put it in quotes having a good death having a good death what does that mean a good death and I think one thing that we can remember is from the Psalms where psalm 16 1116 says precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints God views our deaths as precious when we endure to the end right when we hold on to the faith when we when we achieve the end and that's a word that I think is worth um exploring achieving I think we can in fact achieve a good death it's not something that simply happens to us it's something that can be achieved and I want you to think about um the Transfiguration let's look at it uh it's uh Luke Chapter n so if we go to Luke 9 we're going to read about the Transfiguration and I want to read it from the King James version or the ESV or something other than the NIV we'll we'll or the message um so let's look at the King James so Luke Chapter N9 and we're going to pick it up on the in the uh 30 31st verse I think it is lost my Place Luke 9:28 okay and it came to pass about eight days after these sayings he took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray and as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was altered and his reignment was white and glistening so you guys know the context right this is is Jesus this is Jesus before his death going up onto the Mount of transfiguration in verse 30 says and behold they there talked with him two men which were Moses and Elias Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem and I just think that's a really interesting word you know that it's something that's accomplished it's something that didn't just happen it's something that was done with forethought and with preparation and I think that's something that we can think about as we near the end that we can with some limitations certainly we we can uh um rise above the the frailties and the difficulties of of the later years in life and focus on achieving a good death I'm curious if anybody has any thoughts on that here's what uh here's what Dev said um I guess the before I read this let's just ask the question you know if we're talking about achieving a good death what should our Focus be in our last days what should I'm sorry Dad future the future okay here's what here's what Dev wrote he says true chronic pain depression memory lapses and other ill attendant and other ills attendant upon the aging process might act as a serious constraints on the extent to which we make something useful of the last stage in our lives okay so we understand he says true there are complications right you know if we're losing our you know our our faculties if we're always in constant pain it's going to make it hard but if we have some vestage of our wits available to us and the willingness to make our death an accomplishment rather than a defeat then God will help us giving purpose and focus to our last days so he says that you know having a good death at its heart is honor ing God in our last days it's about elevating God above our fears our aches our pains our losses it's about elevating God and prioritizing God and speaking of God to those that we're going to leave behind and that's some of what we looked at last week when we looked at for example the speech that Jacob gave to his boys before he died comments anybody yeah Dad hold on I think of our brother Jack Rundle yeah who uh demonstrated to me uh just prior to his uh his death uh the level of confidence and strength and commitment that he tried and I say successfully demonstrated uh for those who are left behind he was so uh appreciative of the hope that he had achieved during his life uh as sick as he was that seemed to be uh not the Paramount thought or fear that he was experiencing but it was the the Future Hope of eternal life the return of Jesus which uh which permeated his entire thought process which made yeah his last days much more bar able uh and uh certainly uh demonstrated to those of us that are still here what a life in yeah yeah what a life of Faith and Hope how it results yeah um I want to read to you something that uh sister Nancy Rice uh um wanted to share um she said about last week's class she said you mentioned to think about conversations to share with others one day when I and this is Nancy writing she said one day when I was at roach Brothers in Quincy shortly before it closed I was putting a few um bottles in a machine for Redemption and I had seen an older man and there collecting cans as I was about to leave the man appeared and asked me what was what I was smiling about we were still wearing masks at the time and I was surprised at his question my answer to him was the first thing that came into my mind I'm waiting for my Lord to return he did not reply but seemed pleased with my answer that day has been etched in my mind I thought of what we read in Hebrews 13:2 Nancy quotes be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares When We Were Young The Glorious Day of Our Lord is return uh the Glorious Day of our Lord's return seemed far when we are young the Glorious Day of our Lord's return seemed far away she says the older we get it feels like it's just right around the corner and when these things begin to come to pass then I look up and lift up your heads and you're know that your Redemption draw near so that was uh those were Nancy's thoughts about um you know the conversations that we might share she uh she also had Linda drop off this manila envelope and can anybody guess what was in this manila envelope that's a good guess but that's not the answer look at this it's Bob Lloyd's adding machine tape okay so for you young kids this is what an old-fashioned adding machine tape is and uh let's just reenact brother Bob okay here is your life and if you're 15 okay that's what's left if you're 50 that's what's left if you're 61 this is what's left if you're 90 maybe this is all that's left but in exchange Bob says that God will give us all of this and as a kid I remember him sort of you know rolling this thing down the aisle and you know there it went right thanks for that Nancy yeah how about that yeah thanks Mark thanks Mark okay Nancy thanks for that that was fun okay um so you know last week we looked at uh we looked at Genesis chapter 48 and let's just dip in there again very quickly this is uh Jacob at the end of his life and um I'm going to have you look at Genesis 48 verse 15 and here his son Joseph comes before him and Jacob blessed Joseph and said this is Genesis 48:15 May the god before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked the God who has been my Shepherd and my life to this day the angel who has delivered me from all harm may he bless these boys and so this was an example of a man at the end of his life who is having a conversation with his children and is sharing with his children the impact that God had on his life and I think it's you know as I was thinking about this I was thinking about my own life and my own relationship with my my boys and you know when I am standing at the podium you know delivering an exhortation or when I am delivering a Bible class you know you sort of see the best of me but brothers and sisters you know we are all defective instruments in God's service there are times in my life when I did and said things that you know I'm disappointed in myself about and I imagine you all have similar experiences and you know you think about the relation you know if you're if you are married you think about the relationship you have with your spouse your spouse knows things about you know see any knows things about me that nobody else knows and I wouldn't want anybody else to know right but next to my spouse it's my children you know my children have seen me warts and all and yet here is Jacob at the end of his life and you think about his life and you know the deception that he perpetrated in his life and the the just the lousy things he did in life and he's able to say to his boys you know God was with me the angel was with me and I think it it shows us what it means you know how it it shows our children having conversations like this can show our children what it means to grow in faith as a Believer right Dad I remember you saying to me once you know when I was a teenager you know you said look you know you made this mistake but I'm a father for the first time too you know I make my own mistakes you know I'm learning and you know one of the advantages that we have in life is that we gain such great experience and so for you oldies out there you know you might look at this stage of your life and think you know I'm not the man or the woman I used to be I don't have the mental acuity that I once had I don't have the strength and the Vigor I once had I can't give the Bible classes that I once did but what you do and what Mark talked about last week you know Gordon you know Mark talked about like your prayers and and you know the wi wisdom that you've accumulated over the years and the same too with you dad you know it's like we look to you oldies knowing what you've gone through and been through right Brenda right you know you guys have seen it all and you have a level of of wisdom that that is such a benefit to all of us and so last week we talked a little bit you know we people shared some of the memories that they had about Lil Scot or about Peg Eagles and you know these things carry on and these are things that the elders can do and say and have a real meaningful impact on those they will eventually leave behind think about the conversations that we've had in this meeting Hall this meeting house about like things that Doug Eagles once said or that bill cadel once said or that Penny had said or that you know all of these people that have come and gone though they be dead they yet speaketh right we can hear their words and it gives you old these the opportunity to to share these things these these things that are most important to you with your your friends your children your congreg a look at um look at second Timothy so what we're going to look at here is Paul at the end of his life and he has an opportunity to build up his son in the faith Timothy and I'm going to have you look at uh Second Timothy chap chapter 2 and we'll start at the uh at the first verse so again the context here is an old man approaching the last years of his life he is looking to have a conversation with his son in the faith what does he say you then my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrusted to Reliable men who will be qualified to teach others Paul says to him endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus no one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian Affairs he wants to please his commanding officer similarly if anyone competes as an athlete he does not receive receive the Victor's Crown unless he competes according to the rules the hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops reflect on what I'm saying for the Lord will give you insight into all of this you know this these are the words of an old man to a younger man encouraging him to be strong and to maintain his faith and you know when an elder brother or an elder sister shares their thoughts it has an impact on us wouldn't you agree I think we hear those things and they are more meaningful to us let's look at second Peter here's uh not Paul this time this is Peter as Peter comes to the end of his life and he has a similar conversation um we're going to look at uh second Peter chapter 1 M let me see if I can pull it up here okay so we'll we'll read um we'll read we'll start in verse 12 Peter's saying now I will always remind you of these things even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have I think it's right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body because I know that I will soon put it aside as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me right so this is the exact context of what we're talking about here an older man knowing that his time is coming to an end taking the opportunity to have this conversation verse 15 and I will make every effort to see that after my departure after my death you will always be able to remember these things for we did not follow cleverly deived stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty he received honor and Glory from God when the voice came to him from The Majestic Glory saying this is my son whom I love with whom I'm well pleased we ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred Mountain this was the Transfiguration where you know they spoke of Jesus achieving his death and here Peter before he dies shares this important news with the readers of this uh epistle so these are examples brothers and sisters of things that we can do and things that we can say I want to have you turn with me to First Kings First Kings chapter 1 is a chapter that gives us some idea of uh what it was like for David as he reached the end of his life says in verse one when King David was old and well advanced in years he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him remember how we read from Ecclesiastes you know that they they stayed close to the fire right you know Dad I see you got your big warm Park on today right um you know David now is well advanced in years he can't get warm so a servant said let's look let us look for a young virgin a young you know unmarried woman to attend to the king and take care of him and she can lie beside him so that our Lord the king may keep warm and they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful girl and found abishag a shunamite and brought her to the king and the girl was very beautiful and she took care of the king and waited on him but the king had no intimate relations with her now adonijah whose mother was haggith put him forward and said I will be king so he got chariots and horses ready with 50 men to run ahead of him and so what we see here is King David at the end of his life in bed under covers you know being attended to by uh an an assistant a nurse who's caring for every need that he has I get the impression that David is sort of confined to his room that he's confined to his bed I don't know what mental state he was in but it seems to me that he was in a pretty low place and what's happening now is one of his boys is sort of usurping authority he's T he's looking to to take the kingdom take the monarchy from Solomon whose right it was and sort of take this on his own and so what happens is Nathan and bath Sheba come into King David's room and they have a conversation with him and they said look David this is what's happening the monarchy is in danger and what we find is that David Rises to the occasion despite his Frailty despite his his you know what I perceive is depression or or just you know discouragement or whatever is he gets up and he moves forward and he does and says the things that need to be said verse 28 then King David said call in basba so she came into the king's presence and stood before him and the King took an oath as surely as the Lord Lives who has delivered me out of every trouble once again here's that you know this is what God has done for me in my life he's he's sharing he's testifying to to his hearers the power that God has had in his life and he says in verse 30 I will surely carry out today what I swore to you by the Lord the god of Israel Solomon your son will sh shall be after me and will sit on my throne then King David verse 32 called in zadok the priest Nathan the prophet and bethiah Son of JEA when they came before him the king he said to them take your Lord's servants with you and set Solomon my son on my mule and take him down to gyon right and so David Rises up in his old age in his infirmity in his you know trouble and he acts and when we come to chapter 2 we see what David says now to his son when the time Drew near for David to die chapter 2 verse one he gave charge to Solomon his son I'm about to go the way of all the Earth he said so be strong show yourself a man and observe what the Lord your God requires walk in his ways and keep his decrees and commands his laws and requirements as written in the law of Moses so that you may prosper and all you do wherever you go and that the Lord may keep his promise to me if your descendants watch how they live and if they walk Faithfully before me with all their heart and soul you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel David has that conversation to encourage his son to remain faithful to be strong as Moses said to Joshua be strong and of good courage this was a a mantra that was repeated by all those that were about to go the way of the earth be strong and of good courage and this is the exhortation that these men are delivering in their last days and so for you oldies here's your chance right you know you've got the opportunity to have these conversations with your children you know and you might look back on your life and you might say there things I wish I had done differently there are things that I wish I you can share those things right I mean we have a God who forgives but not only do you can can and you know do we see examples where these older brothers and sisters are having conversations encouraging their their children to be strong there are times like in the case of Jacob who we talked about where Jacob gets his sons in and he he lays down the hammer and says these are the thing you know you are on the wrong path and he's providing encouragement to sort of change your your ways correct your ways you know and you might look at you know we might look at our children and see that our children have gone in different directions you know David died I think before he saw Solomon sort of go off the rails but imagine what the disappointment it would have been for David to see his son sort of be this Flander that he was and all the things that Solomon did wrong in his life but you see brothers and sisters you know we might fall asleep in the Lord and awake to find that these children who had left the faith who had walked away had returned to Faith look at yeah Gordon Gordon yeah please the older I get the more frustrated I get because things become even the simplest things become difficult and the short-term memory seems to be a difficult thing to overcome and at times when the frustration increases depression seems to increase and so at this sometimes I thought of the words of Paul when he said it is better for me to fall asleep and be with Christ and I thought of that sometimes but then I remembered what he also said but it was needful for him to continue his course for the benefit and help of the ecclesius and then I think to myself it's better for me to keep going as long as God allows me to for the benefit of my family and the Ecclesia is my family and maybe if by setting some kind of example like being here every Sunday and uh being available to the presiding brother for whatever he needs in prayer or readings Maybe by that way I can set handle and absolutely you and you do Gordon you do and you have yeah so think of um we're going to conclude now and and next week God willing what I'd like to do is uh pick up on uh dev's article again and dev has provided uh several suggestions of things to focus on in our last days and uh I think it's my hope that we'll sort of have some conversation around those things but as we conclude I want you to think now of Solomon who had sort of gone off the rails who concludes ecclesiast you know we read chapter uh 12 the last chapter in Ecclesiastes where he's talking about the Frailty of old age and he says everything is meaningless right meaningless meaningless says the teacher everything is meaningless and if that were the end it would be a pretty disappointing ending but that's not the end and I think that what I see at the end of chapter 12 it gives me hope that you know here is a a boy a son of David who had sort of gone his Wayward way but returned to Faith Not only was the teacher wise but also he imparted knowledge to the people he pondered and searched out and set in order many Proverbs the teacher searched to find just the right words and what he wrote was upright and true the words of the wise are like go their collected sayings like firmly embedded Nails given by one Shepherd he warned my son of anything in addition to them of making many books there's no end and many much study wearies the body but now all has been heard and here's the conclusion of the matter fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man and do you see what we've do you see what s what Solomon is saying there saying the same thing that his father David said to him when David was on his deathbed right so your words matter your conversations can have a meaningful and longlasting impact in life and so uh let's conclude with there

Transcript

so we've been um we've been focusing the last couple of weeks on um an article that was in a couple of articles that was in the chrisad alphan written by devb ramam and it was entitled a good death and um you know we're really focusing on this idea that there are so many of us in our community who are getting to the end of our lives and so many of us in our community who are seeing our loved ones you know sort of come to that stage in life and it's uh it it's really humbling and it can be a real challenge uh as as we move into elderhood and experience elderhood we find ourselves uh unable to do things that we once did without even thinking we struggle with uh all sorts of things and I thought it would be helpful to bring this article out because it it takes something that many of us are probably thinking about or or experiencing in our lives and it puts it front and center and one of the things that I found so interesting in this article was this expression that Dev uh brought to me brought to us where he talked about achieving a good death and he quot quoted from the Transfiguration where it spoke about the thing it spoke about Jesus uh achieving a death as though it was something that was proactive it wasn't something that he just sat back and allowed to happen to him and I think that's something that we can think about in our own lives that uh you know how do we want to see the end and and in the last two weeks we looked at a couple of passages from uh speeches really talks that uh that Old Testament uh Patriarchs gave you know we looked at uh Jacob and and the things that Jacob said to his sons we looked at King David who was sort of um you know exper Dev uses this word which is not a word that I have used before but he uses this word decrepitude you know which is like such a challenging word but you know here's David in experiencing this decrepitude where he can't get warm and and they bring in this nurse to warm him and to care for him and all of a sudden basheba comes to him Nathan the prophet comes and says look there is a problem and Nathan sort of not Nathan David sort of almost like awoke rose from the dead theoretically you know and and did the things that he had to do and he was able to he was able to sort of move beyond the the immediate challenges that he was experiencing today what I'd like to do is I'd like to um do two things the first thing is I'd like for us to come to John chapter 17 because this is the the speech that Jesus gave now so we've we've looked at a couple of Old Testament passages when we come to John chapter 17 we see Jesus turning his attention now to his disciples and and I just find it really fascinating you know Jesus knows that he is about to achieve this death he's going to experience death and his focus at this point turns from an inward thing to an outward thing he begins um praying to God for his his disciples for his friends and I think in some ways this gives us an idea of one of the things that we can do as we enter our Elder years to proactively pray and we've talked about the things that um you know some of our elders have said and I shared you know Kathy and I shared the story of Peg Eagle saying you know there aren't a lot of things I can do anymore but I can pray and similarly I think we can reverse them that right and so if you are an elder and you are experiencing you know the the feelings of decrepitude know that you know your children that your brothers and sisters your friends here in the community are praying for you to comfort you and this is what Jesus did so Jesus you know he prays for himself yes he does he it says in chapter uh 17 Jesus after Jesus said this he looked towards heaven and prayed father the time has come glorify your son that your son may glorify you for you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those that have given him that you have given him now this is eternal life that they may know you so Jesus is praying to God for himself but so that God would be glorified and in our death and in the in our last years we can in fact glorify God even when we're hurting even when we're struggling Jesus was able to do that and I think he gives us a great example he says in verse six he prays in verse 6 I've revealed I have revealed you to Those whom you gave me out of the world they were yours you gave them to me and they they've obeyed your word now they know that everything you've given me comes from you for I've given them the words you gave me and they have accepted them and I think that so many of us in this room and watching online can think back to those who gave us the words you know who grew up in Christadelphian families who were given the words of Truth by by parents and grandparents and elders and we're so grateful for that and Jesus now is praying to God about those who who God gave him and those who he gave the word to he says in verse N I pray for them I'm not only praying for the world but for those you've given me for they are yours and what does Jesus pray you know and I think of like as a parent myself you know one of the things that makes me happiest is when I see my boys getting along and being friends and being unified and together and you know these are these are great parenting moments wouldn't you say and this is what this is what Jesus is praying about when he looks not at his children but looks at his brothers and sisters he prays that they'll be one that they'll get along he says that in verse 11 I'll remain in the world no longer but there still in the world I'm coming to you father Holy Father protect them by the power of your name the name you gave me why so that they may be one as we are one you know he wanted them to get along he wanted them to work together he wanted them to sort of carry on his mission of glorifying God and revealing God to those that they might experience and so Jesus now is sort of preparing for his death and he's doing that by praying not just for himself but for his brothers and sisters he continues and he says in verse 20 my prayer isn't just for them alone he's not just praying for his disciples those that walked with him those three years years during his ministry no he's praying for future Generations brothers and sisters he's praying for you and he's praying for me and that's what that's what we see in this this verse 20 where he transitions now to these future Generations that are to come and Jesus prays for us my prayer is not for them alone I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message that all of them may be one father just as you are in me and I'm in you may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me I've given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one I'm in them and you're in me may they be brought to complete Unity let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me so these were the things that Jesus did as he came to the end of his life it wasn't a focus just on his situation it was a focus on the brothers and sisters the disciples that walked with him and on those that would hear their message and I think that's a great uh a great example of a last speech if you will a last prayer comments anything stand out that you'd like to focus on or yeah he was dying I have fought the good fight I have run the race yeah he was you know saying what he has done and I think of us like would we be able to say yes I have I did my best or I had tried my hardest to please you or you know just to have that positive thought that we could that we have lived a life that would be pleasing and helpful to others yeah thanks that c I want to I didn't set you up for this but um I wanted to read to you um friend of mine wrote a book Kyle Tucker uh wrote a book called The judaizers it was a very meaningful book to me and in it he um he writes a chapter on the Judgment seat of Christ and I'll just read a couple of passages couple of paragraphs from this book if I could he said uh when you read the latter half of Romans 14:10 which says we shall all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ what emotion comes over you so let's just think about that for a minute when we read about that you know when we read that passage in Romans 14 verse 10 and it says we will all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ what emotion do you feel he says for many unfortunately the emotion is one of fear and dread somewhere somehow how the Judgment seat of Christ was transformed from in an incredible hope of the Saints into a feared and dreaded event he said and then he quoted from a uh an artic a letter to the editor that was written to the Christadelphian magazine in 2001 he says dear this is a letter that was written to the editor dear editor so some years ago I sat at the bedside of a well-known very experienced brother as he was dying he was crying because he was terrified of the Judgment seat I tried to show him that having tried to walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Romans 8 as a brother in Christ he was uncondemned and had nothing to worry about the brother had spent much of his time arguing about the atonement but apparently forgot to apply the first principles of it to himself I suggest that possibly those who pray that we will be worthy as we F that we will be worthy also fall into the same category he says none of us will be found worthy only accounted worthy so I think that that's such a a powerful thing to consider that the Judgment seat somehow somewhere got Twisted into this thing that creates fear and dread in some when in fact his historically for believers who have kept the faith who have endured to the end it was something that gave them great hope and great confidence you know so Sandy as as you quote Paul you know I fought the good fight so if we endure to the end as we think about you know so many of us who are you know in those latter years of life I think we should take comfort in that that you were covered in your baptism and that you are forgiven for jesus' sake these are the things that Jesus prayed about to God I pray not only for them but for those that hear their message Jesus died for you and to to to Discount all that Jesus had done I think does him a disservice if we can endure to the end I think what this article this this letter to the editor was saying is that we should have great confidence the letter ended and I'll just read the last paragraph of this letter he says there are those in our community who accept that our sins prior to baptism are forgiven but that we must wait until the Judgment seat to see if our sins since then have been forgiven we're therefore always in their eyes experiencing guilt but never Grace this activity is in my view contributing to a growing tendency to believe that we go to the memorial service to have our sins forgiven rather than to celebrate the provision made for us to have our sins forgiven on a daily basis repentance and forgiveness is a personal matter between each individual and our heavenly father through Christ he says surely we should Express the abrahamic faith and rejoice in the hope of the glory of of God so I think that that's something that um you know sort of follows along with what you were saying Sandy about you know how Paul felt about a good death right thoughts about that fear and doubt can you repeat that ok that's a prevailing feeling that many of us have of fear and doubt rather than appreciation and thankfulness uh and often times it's just as you said it's just putting it into the proper perspective the words that you can comprehend and think about and that each day one should be feel uh satisfied fortunate yeah blessed yeah regardless of what happened yesterday right right the blessing of continual forgiveness yeah right we we are forgiven through our association with Jesus now this is not a uh you know this is not unconditional forgiveness necessarily right we need to maintain the faith we need to endure to the end you know if we if we walk away we will not be forgiven you know if we discount the sacrifice of Christ and say I don't want that I'm going to live a life in the world well that's a different story but if we endure to the end if we hold on to that great and precious gift uh um I think we can be assured of the Kingdom I think because of our human nature a self-centered human nature the focus goes on us sin right and that's what we're always focusing instead of going this isn't about me right this is about Christ right I mean if we reward it like do you think your sins are so great that even the death of Christ couldn't be you couldn't be forgiven it's like no well that's that's ridiculous yeah but I think we we because we're so self-centered it's h i don't know I just keep screwing up and the focus goes on us when the focus has got to be on God's plan and Christ is there for the forgiveness and of course he's greater than than our sinense right right right turn with me to um I think it's Micah the end of Micah so it's Micah chapter 7 I think we've talked about this before but I I I think this is such a wonderful verse as it relates to forgiveness it's uh Micah 7: 18 18 and 19 who is a God Like You Who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance you do not stay angry forever but Delight to show Mercy you will have compassion you will again have compassion on us you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl our iniquities into the depths of the sea right we have a God who will forgive us who does forgive us we have a God who hurls our sins our iniquities into the depths of the sea and yet there are times when we all sort of go dredging right these sins have been forgiven by God these might be you know we can look back at our lives you know we can we can look back at our lives I imagine and always find something that we are regretful about wish I hadn't done that I wish I hadn't said that I regret that and yet if we have asked God to forgive us for these things God has forgiven us and yet there are times when we just don't want to forgive ourselves and I think the lesson here is that we have to believe and have faith that these sins are in fact forgiven and that God has separated these sins and put them under the depths of the ocean and we don't have to go dredging them up again and again and look at the sin and sort of berate ourselves elves and and live that regret all over again it's one of the joys of a life in Christ that Christ has freed us from these things so as we end our lives as we near the end of our life we can think about the kingdom and I would encourage us all to think about the kingdom is something that we anticipate with eagerness rather than with fear here that make sense I think Dev wrote about that and uh see if I can he says do not go fearfully and anxiously into that good night he's quoting um who was it Longfellow one of Po home business major sorry guys do not go fearfully and anxiously into that good night be strong and of good courage right what was moses' Speech when when he was about to die he said to Joshua I command you be strong and of good courage and so Dev is sort of reminding us of that he's saying hold on to your God and speak of your confidence in him your trust and Reliance upon his words and his promises you know I can't help read those words and Linda think of your mom you know who's got this Kingdom Focus you know Nancy if you're watching you know every time we talk to you you know it's we we we can feel your eagerness for the kingdom um yeah so he says uh Dev encourag us and exhorts us he says uplift the ones you are leaving speaking to those who are at the end of life uplift the ones you are leaving with the knowledge that soon we'll have the opportunity to be together again in his kingdom should we so choose right yeah you think that do you think that one of the reasons that uh we find ourselves in this doubting stage is because uh we hold Christ in such high esteem uh because of his Perfection of fulfilling the God's wishes that uh we have a tendency to compare ourselves with that Perfection of Christ and consequently we jump to the conclusion that we cannot have not uh lived up to the that high standard that Christ was able to and so we consider ourselves unworthy yeah yeah uh unacceptable uh and at the Judgment seat how can we say how can we ex feel so confident that we don't have any doubt yeah I think that I think that's probably um a major reason for right you know when we compare ourselves to Christ I mean we are found wanting so let's everybody turn over to to Romans chapter 7 because you know Sandy quoted the Apostle Paul you know coming to the end of his life and saying I fought the good fight and we know that when Paul compared himself to Christ not only did he find himself wanting but he considered himself the chiefest of all Sinners so this was the this was the exact thought process that Paul was going through dead this was the very thing that that he was struggling with you know he was looking at himself and saying I can't compare to Jesus so we find that in verse 23 so we're in Romans chapter 7 and he says I find this law at work when I want to do good Evil's right there with me for in my inner being I Delight in God's law but I see another law at work in my members of my body Waging War against the law of my mind he knows what he wants to do but he's not doing it right he wants to be like Jesus but he is not like Jesus and he says and it's making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members and he says what a Wretched Man I am who can rescue me from this body of death like he can't do it Compares himself to Jesus and he's just like no not even close who can rescue me it's like the greatest rhetorical question of all time because he's got the answer he says thanks be to God through Jesus Christ Our Lord right yeah we compare ourselves to Jesus and we you know we're not even close but it's because of Jesus Perfection that we have been given the gift we are saved not for our own self sake but for jesus' sake Jesus went through all of this God isn't going to allow Jesus to go through all of what he went through only to say no they're not going to be saved if we put our trust in Christ if we associate ourselves with Christ through baptism if we seek to endure to the end I think we can then exclaim as Paul did thanks be to God through Jesus Christ Our Lord I would encourage all of you to listen to a series of talks that are on the Christadelphian good Christadelphian talks website um and I will if you'd like I can send a link out to everybody but the series of talks is entitled looking forward to the Judgment seat so it's the same concept that that uh Kyle brought up that the brother that was uh writing to the Christadelphian editor brought up in 2001 same thing Dev brought up the same thing that I've tried to share that the Judgment seat for those who remain in Christ should not be something that we fear in dread but should instead be something that we can eagerly look forward to so that when you know God willing none of us here will die before the return of Our Lord right you know I mean it might be that we are blessed to experience that miraculous day that day when the trumpet goes forth and when we hear that trumpet it should our be our prayer that we don't fear and dread it but we lift up our heads with eager expectation because we know that our Redemption draws near this is the mindset that we need to have brothers and and sisters I think as we go into our last years this is how we can prepare to achieve a good death here are um some practical we've got about 10 minutes left and I wanted to cover some of these practical thoughts that Dev had he said um whatever you may have to struggle with physically and emotionally in our last days we can aim to make ours a good death to follow biblical examples declining mental Powers May greatly limit what we feel able to do and the Lord knows that acknowledging the reality of this challenge a list of things that we might be able to do in that time could still include the following and so he says one thing that you could do is put God first put God and his son first not your pains and your ailments it's hard to do as much as you may hurt but try to seek God's help with that in spite of your soreness and your many troubles he might be elevated through your last days you can Elevate God you can Elevate Jesus above your concerns above your struggles it's not easy but it's something that we can seek to do another example is to make your last days a preaching campaign talk about the signs of the times the things that God is doing and will do and you're rejoicing at the Fulfillment of Prophecy today who was it it was n it was your mom Lindy right that that talked about you know experiencing that person what are you smiling about right oh I'm smiling because I'm anticipating the return of Jesus right you know there's an example of that make your last days a preaching campaign engage in a peace process a diplomatic Mission a work of reconciliation Dev says all families and ecclesias need peac makers you right remember brother Mark Hampton's uh great talk about it it's not just peacekeepers it's peac makers the appeals and the counsel of a Dying brother or sister carry a weight that you cannot measure understanding your family and your brothers and sisters as you do encourage them to put away their quarrels and their disputes your broader perspective unlike theirs reduces their differences to their true proportions and with compassion you might trigger healing that is long overdue use your last days as a time of personal testimony this is what your dad did Butch Kristen right I mean he talked about looking back at his life he I you know I've shared this with you but I remember him telling me you know I I can look back in my life and in retrospect I can see how and when God worked in my life right did God work in your life do you now see the many ways in which he was active all the ways through were there events and experiences that can be explained only as the direct hand of God Dev suggests that we should share these things and testify to his greatness and his Abiding Love here's a tough one acknowledge what you broke and seek forgiveness for past wrongs and I think that there's a distinction here between the Forgiveness that we might have with God as it relates to the Judgment seat and the pain that we might have caused others because of things that we've done or said you see the distinction don't leave without addressing the blunders you may you made and their impact upon the people you love all parents make mistakes some of them have lasting consequences children of parents who experience their death without the resolution of hurts and conflicts carry a burden of pain after we leave them they have no place to lay it down and it can poison their lives and their relationships don't let that be the experience of those you leave behind talk through what happened and acknowledge the harm that was done ask for forgiveness and for their guidance on anything you can do to help heal or fix what you broke don't make your apology Dev says don't make your apology entric I feel so bad I feel terrible but make it about and for them I realize that what I did affected you this this way I see how I hurt you so acknowledge what you broke and seek forgiveness for past wrongs admit the effects effects of sin and mortality and the brevity of life you know and as as we age as we come to the end of our Lives you know we're not the man or the woman that we once were with the vibrancy of Life the ability to you know do the things that we once did this is an hour of humility and openness not a time for denying that you were bruised by sin those who hear you will benefit by the admission of the things that hurt your walk things that God had to cauterize so that you could be spiritually healed in your last days you're a living depiction of the final stages of mortality talk about that let those who hear you know how brief this little life is and encourage him encourage them with those wonderful words life is the time to serve the Lord to do his will to learn his word in death there is no power to know far less in wisdom's way to go a couple more minutes other practical things that one might do to quote unquote achieve a good death is say the things that need to be said to clear the air if there are things you need to forgive talk them through and let them go honor God by showing what forgiveness looks like so it's not about the harm that you might have done the mistakes that you might have caused that hurt others but when others hurt you talk it out even if it's just among yourself and forgive honor God by showing what forgiveness looks like next bullet make it a time to do final acts of kindness with whatever material things are left our Ecclesia has benefited financially from those who have died and who have left the Ecclesia or the Bible school or Christadelphian charity of one kind or another with money from their estate these are things that might be done it's a time for us to go toward our final sleep it is a time for us to go toward our final sleep with confidence in the Lord and anticipation of eternal life by his grace so these were the things that we had spent the first half of class talking about make the most of this intense period of private prayer in your life your Gethsemane have you ever thought of it that way yeah Kristen you your hand up Dad you want to pass the mic back I think you've been talking about a lot of this in context that if you you're you know that you're dying um I think we have to take all these action steps to the Forefront because we don't always know when we will pass absolutely that's a great comment Kristen yeah Steve yeah you know see it's almost a gift to know that your time is limited you know um I don't know if Katie's watching but I remember when Katie was going into surgery she had said and share that I feel at peace I'm I'm okay if I die and I think that that's a mentality like you said you have to have and it's how we don't know you know we live each day maybe wondering if we're sick or You Know Anything Could Happen yeah like Kristen said and and if we knew that our days were numbered if we knew that day then we would plan ahead and we would you know who was it that said that we are Heartbeat Away from the kingdom I think said that maybe you did yeah but it's true right Kristen I mean you know we you know I think the context of our classes is you know the the recognition that so many of us are aging and so many of us have parents who are aging and you know we we feel this I guess preparing the Sunday school I just wanted to you know bring it out in the Forefront maybe a little bit you know give us all an opportunity to talk about these things because it's challenging for all of us right I think we have responsibility just for it's as Kristen says it's not just for you know those who are in elderhood it's you know it's a Heartbeat Away yeah we I think we have a responsibility to um to share and encourage you know that's what we should be doing yeah so you know Dev uses this expression your Gethsemane you know it's uh it's you think of Jesus in Gethsemane and the you know The Angst and the travail that he went through and I imagine that as we come to the end it might sometimes feel that way and maybe we model our Gethsemane our last days after Jesus in prayer for God's glory for those that are left behind um and it's a time to pray with your loved ones dad I shared the story of you praying at uh at our house you know a couple of nights ago you know a week or two ago when Susie was here and how meaningful that was for me um Gordon talked about you know the ability to come up uh you know I remember when Gordon wrote I was uh he wrote a letter saying um you know I I I'd like to take my name off the exhorting schedule you know he was retiring right and yet he still serves us he talked about about how he likes to you know come and be a presence and be a good example and offer prayers and we all benefit from that it's a time to pray with your loved ones and certainly it's a time of testing yes these may be hard years full of challenges and many tears bear up and bear through knowing that you are engaged in your last hour of service service a final stage of work for your father and his son make them great do the work endure Hold On Through The Agony and the struggle knowing that these will pass and then the kingdom

Transcript

So, we're going to shift a little bit, but I think there's a connection to what we've been talking about. You know, the last three weeks we've really been talking about the aging process, talking about an article that Brother Dev wrote entitled, Having a Good Death, and we spent a good amount of time, you know, exploring that theme. And what we're going to do today is focus on prayer. And the thought that I have is that for a lot of us, maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but for a lot of times, I must say that I have struggled in my prayer life. There are times when my prayer life, I think, is really solid. There are times, though, when it's hard for me to pray, or when my prayers feel repetitive or stagnant. And so, what I wanted to do this morning is I wanted to talk about a concept that I've been introduced to called guided prayer. And one of the reasons that I think there's a connection between having a good death, sort of the subject of aging and the subject of dealing with infirmities in life, is that our prayer life, in my experience, can be impacted by the things that are happening in my life. So for example, I have experienced depression in the past, and when I have, I've found it really hard to pray. There are times when my concentration, for whatever reason, because of stress or because of the things that are going on, wanes. And I have a really hard time concentrating. Maybe it's just because I'm exhausted. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has begun a prayer at bedtime only to fall asleep before the prayer has been concluded. And maybe that's not a bad way to end your day, right? But what I want to do right now is give some thought to this concept of guided meditation. And I'm going to start by, I'm going to see if I can do this on my phone, actually. How many of you are familiar with the Bible app, the U version Bible app? Dad? Yeah? Jim Sullivan? This is the app here on my phone. And it's not working. Is that, Phil, you're running, I'm sorry, I surprised you with this flip chart. Here we go. So this is the Bible app, and many of you might know it because it includes in the Bible the Robert Roberts daily reading plan. If you have an iPad or if you have an Android phone, you can download this app. It's called U version, Y-O-U version. And it's included here. And if you tap on, you know, the reading chart, it will give you, you know, you can see, what's I'm being exposed, 364 missed days. So I don't use this for the readings necessarily. But you can actually see all of the daily readings based on the reading chart. But what I wanted to focus on right now is this section here under the home page where we have an opportunity to pray. And there is something called a guided prayer. And this is, I'd like to try this together. And when you click on this prayer button, this is an option that you can do daily. And I'm just going to do it now. And it's a way that you can sort of create a morning routine where when you wake up, you might find yourself with a cup of coffee or you might find yourself just getting ready to start the day. This is a way that you can sort of in a guided way offer a prayer to God. So when we tap the screen, it gives us a prompt. This prompt says, seek the Lord in his strength. Seek his presence continually. So this is a quote now from 1 Chronicles 16 verse 11. And when we think about the scriptures and we think about the prayers of David, he often spoke about meditation. The words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in my sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer, for example. And when David was speaking about meditations, he was often speaking about meditating on the Word, the Word of God. And I think that's what this is trying to help us do. It's trying to help us meditate on particular passages of scripture. And in this particular day, we are considering 1 Chronicles 16. Seek the Lord in his strength. Seek his presence continually. And then it says, God is able to support us when we're weak and strengthen us when we feel weary. And the prompt now is to spend a few minutes focusing on how strong and powerful God is. And it's asking us, and I'm asking you now, to take a moment to give God praise for whatever comes to mind. So sit with the verse for a few minutes. Pray to God, talk to God, and let him know what you need. So let's just do that for a moment. And then what this passage, what this app does is if you are finding yourself stuck, it gives you words that you might think about and meditate on. God, at all times, let your will be done in me. I know this isn't an easy thing to say. I know that following you requires accepting struggles that are beyond my control. But I also know that your plans are good. And I want to take part in those plans. So today I surrender. Teach me your will. So brothers and sisters, that's one example of a guided prayer. I'm curious what your thoughts are about that. Has anybody ever tried this sort of guided prayer before? Now, one of the things, you know, it was interesting over the last couple of weeks, I received many, many text messages and emails from people about the classes that we were, you know, the conversation we were discussing last, you know, about having a good death. And a lot of them were from our elder brothers and sisters who talked to me about the struggles that they faced as they saw their health declining. And one of the concerns that was sometimes voiced was this concern about memory. And I'm having a hard time, you know, concentrating and thinking about these things. And I think that's what sort of prompted me to explore more this idea of guided prayer. And the concept isn't new. What you see here is these guided meditations that even the Lord Jesus himself used in teaching his disciples to pray. So I want you to think about the Lord's Prayer now for a moment. You can see the Lord's Prayer here in Matthew 6. I think most of us know it off the top of our head, right? But what we've done here is when we think about praying, you know, Jesus' disciples came to him and said, teach us to pray. And when you pray, pray like this, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And we can, and I think rightfully so, recite the words that Jesus gave his disciples. And feel that that is a holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y, a holy appropriate way to pray to God. But we might also use it as prompts. We might also go through this prayer and break it down into the various components of the prayer. And spend a few moments just thinking about those components. So I'm going to give you a couple of, you know, when we think about our Father in heaven, we could begin a prayer by reflecting on the fact that God loves us as a parent loves his or her children. We might think about the fact as we offer this prayer that just as a dad wants to have a relationship with his sons or his daughters, or as a mom wants to have a relationship with her daughters and sons, your Father in heaven wants to have a relationship with you. So when you begin your prayers, you might think about that. You know, what father, when a child comes to him asking for help, is going to give him a snake, right? As Jesus said, our Father loves us. I was talking to somebody about this, and this person admittedly had a very rough childhood, had a very unkind father. And this person told me that it was challenging for him sometimes to think of God as a loving father because his experience was so different with his own father. His father was a hard man. His father was an abusive man. And yet, that's not the father that we have in heaven. We have a loving father. And so when we offer prayers to our God, we might start by using this model of the Lord's prayer. And we might begin, sure, by saying our Father, which art in heaven, but we might also just take a moment to think and to pray and to express in our prayer what it means to us to have a loving Heavenly Father who wants to have a relationship with us. So comments about that? Anybody have any thoughts? It seems to me that if we start by saying our Father, which art in heaven, then this is our Father. Then that eliminates any negative thought you might have about the relationship you have with your earthly father, which may or may not be a good one. It distinguishes that our Father in heaven, the Lord God Almighty, is different, is above indifference. So I think that's a great point. And when we are beginning a prayer or a meditation, we could take a moment and look at passages in the Scripture. They talk about the loving nature of God our Father. And just as we did with this Bible app that pulled up a couple of passages for us to meditate on, we could think about passages that refer to God as Abba, Father. And we could just spend a moment in prayer thinking about those passages, reading those passages, and just meditating on them. Similarly, we come to this expression, hallowed be your name. You know, what does that mean? So here we could take a moment to praise God. You might want to praise God for the created world. You might want to praise God for His love. You might want to praise God for His justice and mercy, for the gift of Jesus, His Son, for God's goodness in your own life. And then think about those things. So the Lord's Prayer doesn't necessarily have to be just a recitation. We don't need to simply recite the words that Jesus taught us. We could use it as a model, and we could use it as a guide in our own prayers. So that's one thought that I have. Your kingdom come, we pray for God to transform the world, to restore the world to this Edenic condition that it once had where God and man walked together. We can pray for the day when Jesus will return, when we can lift up our eyes, and know that our redemption is coming. We pray that God's will will be done on earth. We could pray that we and that the nation and that the countries of the world will do God's will. We could start with ourselves. We could ask God for help in understanding what He wants us to do when we talk about His will being done. And we can pray for our own needs just as Jesus says that we should give us today our daily bread. You know, this sort of seems to indicate to me that Jesus' expectation was that our prayers would be at least daily. We pray for our forgiveness just as we pray that God will forgive those who sin against us. So we can pray for general sins, you know, not loving God enough or our neighbors enough or ourselves enough. You know, is it a sin not to love ourselves? Yeah. You know, or it may be that we don't just confess general sins, but maybe specific ones. We can ask for God's help to become more present or more patient or more forgiving. And then we could consider if there's someone in particular that we need to forgive. So those are some, you know, those are some thoughts as it relates to forgiving our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. We could pray that God will save us in our time of trial, lead us not into temptation. Penny used to say, leave us not in temptation, right, which I thought is really an interesting concept. You know, sometimes, you know, Sandy and I were talking, you know, sometimes life, you know, we feel fragile, right? We feel broken. We feel, you know, challenged about certain experiences. And yet we grow stronger from those things, don't we? I mean, when you think back to challenges that you might have experienced in life and how you have overcome them and become stronger, we can thank God for that. And so these are things that we occasionally need to be reminded of. So we can pray about the things that we are struggling with, the worries that we have, the things that are making our lives difficult, the things that cause us pain, the things that test our ability to do the right thing. And maybe that's what Jesus is teaching his disciples when he says, lead me not into temptation. We pray that God will deliver us from evil. We can ask for God's protection. We can pray that others would receive the same protection. And certainly we pray for the kingdom, recognizing that the kingdom and the power and the glory is God's now and forever. So I mean, that's, I think, a second example, brothers and sisters, of a guided prayer. So what we've looked at is we've looked at the need sometimes to have guided prayers. So if when you are praying to your God, you are struggling to find the words, or if your words are just repetitive and they don't have any particular meaning to you, this may be a way to jumpstart your prayer life again. There's one model that is, that I think is interesting. And I've seen, we talked about this at a Brothers Weekend many years ago. This is the Acts prayer model. How many of you have seen this before, anybody? Jim, yeah, Brian, yeah. So the Acts prayer model sort of breaks your prayers down into four component parts. The first is entitled Adoration, where we express how much we adore our God. This is under sort of Jesus' teaching that we should pray, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. We don't use the word hallowed very much in today's English, do we? But we understand what adoration is. We understand what it means to adore someone or something. And so here I have, you know, a guided prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, I come before you with a heart full of adoration and praise. You are the creator of the universe, the mighty and everlasting God. Your wisdom, power, and love are beyond my comprehension. I stand in awe of your majesty and grace, and I worship you with all my heart. Now brothers and sisters, I don't know that in my prayers I have been that eloquent. And this is a prayer that I read, and I thought, wow, that really is a, that's a nice expression. And there are a couple of things that I find interesting about these guided prayers. So when we come to the meeting house here, and we offer public prayers, 99% of the time, the brother who is standing at the platform and praying is using prayers in a plural way. We come before you now, God, to pray. Sandy, you were telling me you had heard a public prayer. Do you remember who it was? Brother Aaron McAdams once offered a prayer, and Sandy and I, who's got the mic? Do you have the mic, Dad? Somebody wake Chris up at the back. He had, in his opening prayer, he had said, I come before you now on behalf of all these gathered here. And it was so inclusive, and it just stuck with me that the responsibility and the inclusivity that I felt in his prayer. And I thought that was really special, because it is different when you pray with others, whether it's a meal or your children, than when you're by yourself. Yeah, so you'll notice that these guided prayers use the personal pronoun. It's not we, it's I. Dear Heavenly Father, I come before you. And as a guided prayer, I think this is really helpful. And in the back of my mind as I was preparing this class, I was thinking, wouldn't it be wonderful if our brothers and sisters could share some of their prayers with us? So that we could use their prayers to guide us in our own. And what I want to do right now is I want to, and we're going to go through, we can go through, and let me just show you what I have in mind. So here's the model. We start with adoration. Next we go to confession. And here is a guided prayer about confession. Dear God, I confess that I've fallen short in many ways. I acknowledge my sins and weakness before you. I've allowed pride to take root in my heart. And at times I've neglected to show love and compassion to others. Forgive me, Father, for the times I've failed to seek your guidance and rely on my own understanding. I humbly ask for your mercy and cleansing, that I may walk in your light of truth. Now it doesn't mean that we pray these prayers, you know, sort of by rote. It doesn't mean that this is the only prayer that we would use. But this could be a model that we might read and cause us to think differently about how we might change our own confessions to God. To take the pattern that we have consistently used and maybe say things in a new way so that they don't come across in our minds as cliché. But they have this feeling now of coming anew from our heart. And so this is the model that this is one guided prayer about confession. Another is about thanksgiving. The third section is, you know, what and how do we thank God for everything that he's done for us? And for everything that he will do in our lives. And so picture yourself tomorrow morning, it's a Monday, and you wake up and you are starting your day. Perhaps it's a good thing to create a routine, a morning routine, where you start your day this way in prayer. And we might pray, thank you, Lord, for your abundant blessings in my life. Psychologists talk about the power of gratitude, the power of taking a moment to think about things that you are grateful for. And how that exercise can be transformative in allowing you to experience joy and happiness in life. And I would only add to that to say how much more we can benefit when we take that gratitude for the good things that happen in life. And give thanks to God for those good things. Thank you, Lord, for your abundant blessings in my life. I'm grateful for the gift of life, for the love of my family and friends, for the provision of my daily needs. Thank you for the answered prayers and the times you've carried me through challenges. I'm thankful for your grace that covers my shortcomings and the hope you give me each day. So sometimes when we think of confession, we think about singling out individual specific sins that we might be guilty of having committed. But sometimes it can be more about confessing general things. When we talk about Thanksgiving, we can be specific about the joys that we experience. And express gratitude for specific things that have occurred in our life. Or perhaps it's just when we look back on our lives and we can be grateful for a happy childhood. Or for a loving and warm ecclesia. Or for any of these other things. These are examples that might prompt us again to spark anew a stronger prayer life. And then finally this acts model, so it begins with an adoration, how we adore our God, how we confess our sins, how we give thanksgiving to God. It ends in supplication. This is where we offer specific requests. We present our requests before God. For example, Heavenly Father, I bring my needs and the needs of others before you. Please guide me in making wise decisions and lead me on the path of righteousness. Grant me the strength to resist temptation and the courage to stand firm in my faith. I pray for healing and for comfort for those who are sick or hurting. And I ask for your peace to surround those who are facing difficult circumstances. You know, each week we announce many of those who are in need. You know, we can think of the prayer list, you know, that we might pencil down and put on the windowsill above our kitchen sink or on our desk. And take a moment each morning to think specifically about our friends, brothers and sisters in this room. Brothers and sisters who are not in this room, and mention them by name as we ask God's blessing. Lord, I lift up my loved ones to you. Bless them with your presence, protection, and provision. It's like, how do we pray for our children? How do we pray for our adult children? How do we pray for our neighbors? How do we pray for others? May they experience your love in a tangible way and draw closer to you each day. I also pray for those who have not yet experienced your saving grace. Open their hearts to your truth and reveal your love to them. Use me as your instrument to share the Gospel and be a light in this world. So what we've seen here, brothers and sisters, is an example of a guided prayer. These words don't have to be yours, but they might spark new words within your heart and within your mind. And this model, this axe model, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, these four parts for many of us can be easy to remember. We've got this mnemonic that makes it perhaps easier in times of stress or difficulty or memory loss or whatever it is that is hindering our prayer life to come back. And to offer renewed thoughts and gratitude and requests to our God. Any thoughts? Anybody have anything they'd like to share before we go to the flip chart? Yeah, Chris? Kathy? Kathy? I just wanted to say that also to pray for those that have trespassed against us. I think that's a very difficult prayer, but we're commanded to do it. Yeah. Why is that so hard for us sometimes, I wonder? Because we don't want to forgive, maybe. For me, it's hard sometimes. I think it's hard to do it, and yet I'm sure I've offended other people plenty of times. But I just think it's right up there with what we need to do. Absolutely. Yeah, I think that's what Jesus shared in the Lord's Prayer. So forgive us our sins as we forgive others. And you'll notice that when Jesus concluded this prayer, there was only one thing that he mentioned a second time. And that was the importance of forgiving others. Let's look at Matthew 6. So the prayer is found in verse 9. This then is how you should pray. And Jesus is teaching his disciples, as we said at the beginning, our Father in heaven. So here's sort of this guided prayer from Jesus. And in verse 12, Jesus instructs us to pray, forgive us our debts or forgive us our sins as we also have forgiven our debtors. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And as I said, there's only one thing that Jesus repeats, and it's found in verse 14. He says after he teaches his disciples this prayer, then he repeats. He says, for if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men when they sin, your Father will not forgive your sins. So I think, Kathy, the reason Jesus repeated that particular part of the prayer in his teaching to the disciples is for the very reason you just said. It's like the hardest thing to do for many people. We are to love our enemies. It's hard, but we are instructed to do so. And we are warned that if we don't, the forgiveness that's offered to us will be like that which we did or did not offer to others. Chris? Yeah, I think the concept is don't ask of God what you're not willing to give to others. So don't ask of God your forgiveness if you're not willing to extend that forgiveness to others. If this is our daily prayer, it's a constant daily reminder to let go of those things that we may hold on to. Before Kathy commented, I just wanted to share something that I came to learn recently. And if I'm wrong, certainly we'll discuss it. But in an effort to personalize prayer, we can sometimes go to the idea of even thinking of praying to my Father. And, you know, of course, quickly I began to say, well, Jesus had the right to refer to him as his Father, as the firstborn, but that we should not personalize it to that point that we refer to him other than our Father that we are many brethren. And that he is a Father to many, but he was the Father to Jesus. Why do you think it's important to draw that distinction? Well, Jesus had the right to refer to him as my Father, and for that reason they killed him. Because he was the firstborn from the dead. He was the first of a new creation that God was concerned with. But that we should not bring it to that exclusivity to us that Jesus was the firstborn of many brethren, and we are praying to our Father who is a Father of many at this point in time, not just us. So if anyone had that thought of going there, I mean, that's what stopped me. My progression was that wouldn't that even be even more personal to refer to him as my Heavenly Father? So anyways, but that's a thought, and certainly lots of discussion. Anybody else have thoughts on that? I think of David my Lord and my God, and I understand your point, Chris, and I think that's really great because we have to, we can't separate ourselves from those we're trying to forgive, because God is their Father as well. So when I hear you talking about it, Chris, my mind goes to the Pharisee who is praying out in public. I'm thankful, God, that I'm not like these other men. That if we create God as sort of this exclusive entity to us and for me only, then I think that God is available to all who approach him. And I think with forgiveness too, if we can identify those that we feel hurt by. I think breaking it down to God loves them too. You know, we are to bear with one another. Jim Sullivan, did you have your hand up? Were you going to say something or no? You know, Jesus makes the comment that we had to refer to him as our Father. So that's a pretty personal direction. Yeah, I can definitely see the point. I think that, yeah, okay. Hey, I've run out of time. I feel like I owe an apology to Phil who's been running around like a madman trying to set up the camera, and I'm sorry about that, Phil, but I didn't plan the time particularly well. So what I intended to do was I wanted to focus on this section of adoration. So when we talk about adoring our God, I wanted to spend some time thinking about what does it mean to adore God? What does it mean to hallow God's name? And how do we take that broad concept of adoration and make it more tangible? So I spent some time going through and making a list, and I think that what I'll do, I'm scheduled to do the Wednesday night Bible class, and I think I'll probably take this concept and develop it into our Wednesday night class. But I'll just give you a teaser, if you will. Why do we adore God? When I pray to God, you know, Father, I praise you and I thank you because you are my creator. And there's a passage in Nehemiah that speaks about God being a creator. I thank you, God, because you are loving. We could go to 1 John. I thank you because you are mighty. I praise your name because you are the mighty God. I praise you because you are my light. I praise you, God, because you bear my burdens. You keep your promises. I praise you, God, because you perform miracles. I praise you because you're very patient and forgiving. I praise you because you're giving and you're comforting. I praise you because you're my shepherd and you guide me. And so we're going to look at many, many different concepts. And one idea that I have is that we could likely come up with 30 or 31 specific reasons for praising God. And imagine now, beginning each day and having a list, this being the 2nd of February, I could look at number 2 of 31 reasons for praising God. And I could say, I praise you, God, because you are loving. And I could look at a passage, a verse that talks about the loving kindness of my God. And I could use that as a prompt in my prayer on that day. Focus not on everything, but on that one thing. And then tomorrow, on the 3rd of February, I can look at the list and say, I praise you, God, because you are mighty. And I could read a passage about the strength of my God and what he can do because he is the mighty, almighty God. And then I could think and pray about that one specific attribute that gives me reason to adore my God. And in this way, brothers and sisters, it's my hope that we collectively can strengthen our prayer life through difficult times as well as good times.