Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Growing Old Gracefully: Embracing God's Purpose in Every Stage of Life
92 Plays2 years ago
In this sermon, we'll be delving into the theme of growing old gracefully. Aging is a natural part of life, but how can we navigate this season with grace and purpose? Join me as we explore the wisdom of Scripture and discover how we can make the most of our later years. From finding meaning and direction to leaving a lasting impact, we will uncover the key lessons from the life of Jacob and the powerful message it holds for us today. So sit back, open your hearts, and let's dive into the transformative journey of aging gracefully on Grove Hill Church.
Timestamps:
[00:00:58] Church is a bridge to engage the world.
[00:03:32] Bible shows life examples, teaches important lessons.
[00:07:26] Bible shows growth and grace of godly people.
[00:12:57] Joseph's request for Benjamin puts Jacob at risk.
[00:14:16] Mission: make others miserable; growing up pains.
[00:18:44] Protesters criticize US history, ignoring recent past.
[00:22:42] Challenges with aging, caring for others.
[00:26:13] Jacob's life: deceit, fear, love, betrayal.
[00:27:37] Joseph convinces Jacob to move to Egypt.
[00:30:51] Jacob blesses Joseph's boys, invoking God's protection.
[00:34:54] "It's because God is good; we're going."
[00:37:41] Life isn't over; contribute wisdom, help youth.
[00:40:00] Care for one another; surrender to God.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction: Focus on Jacob
00:00:00
Speaker
If you got your Bibles, want to turn over to the last portion of the book of Genesis. We are in the next to the last week of our walk through Joseph's life. It's going to be a little bit different today, probably not where you expected us to go, primarily because we're not going to be talking about Joseph as much as we're going to be talking about his father, Jacob.
Church and Cultural Engagement
00:00:21
Speaker
But before we do that, or as we do that, beginning the message this morning, I was reminded this week, our staff was doing some training together, watching a video of something really, really important. In our world today, you can kind of break
00:00:35
Speaker
issues up into several categories. There's political issues, cultural issues, moral issues, ethical issues. And what we have done in the church is we have somehow convinced ourselves that one of the things that we need to do is to not rock the boat too much, not
00:00:54
Speaker
not rattle the cage of the world out there, let's not be divisive. So we have taken ourselves and we have stepped ourselves back from the culture and we have kind of disengaged from some of the most important issues there are out there. And as part of one of our quiet times this week, Lisa and I came across this quote and a very awakening, I awakening quote for me, and it's this reality
00:01:19
Speaker
The church is not a refuge to which we go to run to to get away from the world. The church is instead a bridgehead to engage the world with the truth of God's word. In other words, we don't come here to hide out in a holy huddle and protect ourselves from being contaminated by the world. Instead, we're supposed to be in the middle of the world, taking the gospel to the world, sharing it with the world and helping them to address the political, ethical, moral, cultural issues that we just talked about.
Biblical Foundations of Cultural Issues
00:01:46
Speaker
So as we look at that, as we examine that and we look closer, what we realize is that all of those issues, the political, the ethical, the cultural, all those things, they literally come back to this truth and that is that all of them are biblical issues. Every single one of them grounded in scripture and going even further, digging even deeper, they are Genesis 1 issues and taking it even further, they are Genesis 1-1 issues.
00:02:12
Speaker
For those of you who are less familiar with the Scriptures, Genesis 1.1 says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the reason we know that all of these issues are grounded in that reality is because two things are importantly created in that statement. Two identities, two realities. Number one, that there is a God.
00:02:32
Speaker
If you believe there is a God, if you believe the Holy Scriptures that they are true and right and correct in all of their presentation, then you've got to begin at the very beginning and go, okay, it says that God created, so there must be a God.
00:02:44
Speaker
The second reality is this, that God created all of this, and because he's not a God of chaos, he's a God of structure and order, then he created us with a purpose and a plan for our lives. So what that means is when you get more and more acquainted and familiar with the Scriptures, as you get more acquainted with what the Bible tells us and teaches us, you realize that the Bible in every way speaks to all of life.
00:03:09
Speaker
If God created everything, that means that every atom, every cell, every molecule bows to his will. He has complete control over them.
00:03:18
Speaker
And because he does, then he has given everything in life a purpose and a
Church Silence and Impact on Abortion Debate
00:03:24
Speaker
design. There's a reason that it was created, a reason that it exists. And so we apply those things to the realities of our life. We talk about issues that our world is addressing, our country is addressing, even our community is addressing. Now, instantly, some of you who are less familiar with the Bible might be going, okay, so there's not really a Bible verse in there that says this.
00:03:46
Speaker
black and white no some of the lessons we take from the bible are from the examples of people who live life there's not like a direct teaching that says this but we infer this from the the lives of these people joseph is a perfect example some of the things we have learned over the last few weeks by digging into his life and examining his life a little bit but we do have examples that teach us things like this abortion matters abortion matters
00:04:13
Speaker
And as a church, not this church, but the universal church, because we've removed ourselves from the conversations going on in the culture, we have not had enough impact. We are currently reaping the consequences of a church that's gone silent.
00:04:26
Speaker
So what does that mean? Well, next week, I think it's next week, in Ohio, they're voting on the reality of putting abortion, the right to abortion. By the way, there is no such thing as a right to abortion. There is no founding document of any country in the history of the world that gives a right to abortion. That's the right to murder somebody that's not found anywhere. We have created that in our modern vernacular. They are trying to put the right to abortion into the state constitution of Ohio.
00:04:56
Speaker
But here's where it goes even further than conversations we've had in the past. They not only want to make it a right, they wanted to make a right up to the day of birth. Up to the day of birth. Now, just a month or so ago, if you were following the news, following the secular media, there were those on the progressive side of things, the more woke conversations that were going on, who were saying, oh, nobody in America in their right mind argues for that.
00:05:21
Speaker
Nobody does that. Nobody on the Democratic Party argues for abortion up to the day of birth. Well, hello, somebody didn't give them the memo because here it is. The second part of this issue, as it's going to be voted on, takes parents, the right of parents, away from minors who are considering abortion. In other words, a child at 12 years old can go get abortion without their parents' permission. Can't get their ears pierced without their parents' permission, but they can get an abortion without permission.
00:05:50
Speaker
Now, before you dismiss that and go, oh, Ohio people are good people, that would never happen. They would never allow the government to take away the right to parent their children. Let's go across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. In Europe,
00:06:06
Speaker
many times what happens there becomes reality here, maybe years, maybe decades later, but it becomes a reality here. This past week in the United Kingdom, a little girl who had gotten pregnant at the age of 11, I don't know if it was by sexual abuse or by her choice, her lifestyle, whatever, I don't know what led to her pregnancy, age 11, she's pregnant, her mother comes along and says, we value the life of that child regardless of why it exists.
00:06:31
Speaker
I'm going to help raise that child. The government has refused to allow her to have that child and is demanding she have an abortion, despite the parents' wishes. And if it can happen there in a Western democracy, you better believe it will be here next if we don't start engaging the culture. We've got to start engaging the culture. Now, OK, you're thinking if you've paid close attention to the worship folder this morning and looked at the sermon title, you're going,
Aging Gracefully with Wisdom
00:06:57
Speaker
OK, how does he jump from this to aging gracefully?
00:07:01
Speaker
I'm glad you asked. Because I do believe that the Bible has much to say to us about this as well. Not again in a verse that says in hesitations 1-1, thou shalt age gracefully. Just want to make sure you're paying attention. There is no hesitations 1-1 for those of you who are flipping trying to find it.
00:07:23
Speaker
There is no verse that says thou shalt age gracefully. But what we see is the example of godly men and women who over time grew in their grace, grew in their mercy, grew in their understanding of their relationship with God. In fact, to me, one of the reasons why I have confidence that the Bible is real is because it does not hide the marred and damaged images of its people, its heroes. It tells the full story and says, hey, this guy really messed things up back there, but God's grace got him to hear.
00:07:53
Speaker
And so today we're going to look at the story of one of those people, a guy by the name of Jacob. Jacob is Joseph's father. If you've been with us over the last few weeks, we've been tracing the life of Joseph. And we are to this point now where we are going to examine him just a little bit. I want to encourage you to come back next week. We're wrapping up the series, but it's got a surprise ending, one that you probably have never seen or anticipated, maybe. So I encourage you to be back next week. But today, let's look at the life of Jacob, father of Joseph.
00:08:21
Speaker
They say that some people grow old gracefully, while others of us just grow old. And that's the truth. That's a reality. And Jacob is the epitome of this kind of lifestyle. His life at this point when we pick up the story is one of sadness and a lot of self-pity. In Genesis 47 9, this is what happens. He has been
00:08:40
Speaker
He's been brought to Egypt by his son Joseph, who is now second in command of all of Egypt. His son encourages him to come to bring the family, let him take care of them. And as he arrives, he gets the opportunity to meet Pharaoh, who at this time is the most powerful man in the known world.
00:08:57
Speaker
He is king of Egypt. Egypt is one of the great military powers at this time, got a great empire going. So here's this most powerful man. Jacob walks in to have a conversation with him, and this is what Jacob says. My pilgrimage has lasted 130 years. My years have been few and hard, and they have not reached the years of my fathers during their pilgrimage.
00:09:22
Speaker
You've got this opportunity to speak to the most powerful man in the world, and you know what he does? He whines. He says, my life's been hard for 130 years. Now, some of you are laughing, but this is some of you. This is some of us. You ever sat down at the coffee table at the diner and somebody says, hey, how's your day going? Well, my bike's not feeling too good, and I ain't seen my children in 17 days, and my taxes are going up, and you can't say one cotton-picking thing that's good about the world, right?
00:09:51
Speaker
Your outlook is discouraging, it's frustrating, it's depressing. If you're here and you're 45 years old today and over, you need to really pay attention because this is about you. If you're 44 and under, you need to pay attention because this is going to be you.
00:10:07
Speaker
This is what happens. This is just what changes about our lifestyle. We have this tendency to get a little grumpier and older and meaner, persnickety. That's the word. That's a Greek word for you, persnickety. You get a little persnickety and all of a sudden everything in life is blah.
00:10:26
Speaker
And when you get asked about it, you don't hesitate to all over everybody and you bring everybody down. Now what you might not know about this culture because Pharaoh's in charge and he's a powerful man. You never walked into the presence of a powerful man and we were discouraging it all. Okay, so Pharaoh literally had the right to look at him and go you're depressing me cut his head off. Or you're depressing me throw him in prison. He bores me. I don't want to hear this.
00:10:53
Speaker
I mean, he had 130 years of life to recount and he was about to spill it all to Pharaoh. So I want to look at the last years of his life because he was in a season of pity at 130 years old. He had believed that his son for 23 years had been dead, his favorite child. He believed him to be dead because his brothers had lied about him.
00:11:14
Speaker
And we know from the story that part of Joseph died with him the day that he heard the story of, excuse me, part of Jacob died with him the day he heard about Joseph's death. His burden, bitterness turned into what was basically making him an old grouch. Go back to chapter 42. This is where Jacob is still in Canaan. Jacob is still in that
00:11:36
Speaker
Stage of believing that his son is dead the famine has reached his family It's a worldwide famine or at least the known world at that point That that famine has touched his family in ways that has touched every other family. So he's feeling that But he doesn't talk to his family. He doesn't enjoy his family He's still got lots of people around him, including ten sons who are still alive He doesn't enjoy relationships with his family. Instead. He snaps at him. He growls at him. He moans at them
00:12:06
Speaker
and he does everything he can to share his misery with them. Genesis 42, verse 1-2 says when Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, why do you keep looking at each other?
00:12:19
Speaker
Listen, he went on, I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us so that we will live and not die. Some things get translated out of the Hebrew. Don't get translated incredibly cleanly into English for us. But if you translated this in a better way, it might be. Why are you just standing around looking stupid? Do something useful. OK, this is pretty much what he says to his sons. Do something with your life. We're dying here. Go find some food for us again.
Legacy and Cultural Engagement
00:12:48
Speaker
Again.
00:12:49
Speaker
nothing but ill temper and bitterness from an old man who's right now discouraged about the outlook of his life. In fact, when the brothers return after their first visit, and it says that Joseph, their brother who's still at this point hidden in his identity, says to them, bring your brother Benjamin back. Jacob looks at them and says, do you want to make me lose all of my children?
00:13:14
Speaker
Do you hear what he's saying? He's looking at his surviving kids and going, well, if Benjamin dies, then I don't have any other children. You guys don't count. You don't matter to me. How's that for family relations? That would make for an awkward Christmas dinner, right? So Jacob has this mentality that because Joseph and Benjamin are gone, there's nothing else that matters to him in life. Now, later, after reuniting with Joseph, he would say something entirely different.
00:13:44
Speaker
But at this point, his outlook is grim. This is a reminder. Genesis forty seven nine, that verse where he criticized everything. There's two things going on in his life. OK, he he does have lots of self-pity. He does have a whole lot of the way I call the ambulance kind of thing, you know. But there also is the strength about Jacob. There is the strength that needs to be commended because of who he was and what he turned out to be in the latter part of his life. So let's talk a little bit about his self-pity.
00:14:14
Speaker
He's a miserable old man. His mission in life is to make sure that everybody's just as miserable as he is. And the problem for Jacob and for many of us is that we have to learn the inevitabilities of life. That's what I'm going to call them this morning, the inevitabilities of life. So what do I mean by that? Well, it isn't right that we grow up and our kids forget us, right?
00:14:40
Speaker
I mean the kids who used to depend on you for everything, food, drink, entertainment, common sense, those kids, the ones you invest years in, suddenly they grow up, they have kids of their own and they move away and you're hearing from them once a week and then once a month and they only call you when they have things that they need, those kinds of things.
00:15:01
Speaker
We're torn a little bit in that season of life. It's inevitability, but we're torn. Why? Because in part, we want to be in our kids' life. They are our flesh and blood. They are our descendants. We want to be engaged with them. We want to see kids and grandkids. We want to be a part of things that are going on there. But at the same time, there's a part of us that knows and recognizes our one assignment as a parent is to help them grow up to be the parents that they are, to make them independent adults who can go out on their own. So we kind of get
00:15:30
Speaker
torn between those two places in our lives. It isn't right that by the time we figure out life and figure out the rights and wrongs, the ins and outs of life, our kids think we're irrelevant and they don't need to listen to our wisdom, right? Any of you ever had your kids tell you you're irrelevant? Just me? Not words. I like that response.
00:15:54
Speaker
I mean, I literally had my son tell me one day, that's nice, mom and dad, but you guys are irrelevant. And at this moment, I had an existential problem. Do I kill him or do I let him live to know how wrong he is about how irrelevant we are? I mean, that's the mentality that most of us have. But I would argue that for many of us, we haven't engaged the culture enough and we are seeing the consequences of it.
00:16:22
Speaker
That point where we think we're smart and the world around us looks like we're crazy? Sociologists are now telling us, hang on for this, this is going to blow your mind. Sociologists are now telling us this is the dumbest generation that's ever existed. Okay, now follow me. Don't get too excited and pat yourself on the back. Why? Because these same sociologists are saying, ever since the beginning of time, man's been getting dumber and dumber and dumber. Why? Because if you go back all the way to the very beginning,
00:16:49
Speaker
Those guys were solving huge worldwide problems with limited information. They were building pyramids without cranes. They were building sphinxes without bulldozers. They were building canals without giant machinery. They were solving problems of illness and sickness without the benefit of microscopes and things of that nature. And have you gone to a Burger King lately and given somebody cash and asked them to give you change?
00:17:16
Speaker
They can't do it without the cashier's box, right? The cash register, they just can't do it. Just yesterday or this week, I've been telling my friend Elvis, I like to share this kind of stuff with Elvis because he's a grumpy old man. I only say that because I'm growing to be what Elvis is too, so we relate to each other very well.
00:17:39
Speaker
I shared this video with him. It's about 12 minutes long. I said, you know, you got to watch this. I couldn't watch the whole thing in one sitting because I was like ready to just flip out because it's this guy in New York City. He is interviewing young people, young adults, mind you, that are in New York City protesting. OK, it's number one occupation of most of the people that age, but they're protesting.
00:18:02
Speaker
And he goes up to them, he's asking them questions, okay? And this is no joke, and this is not even remotely half of the questions. But here are the kinds of questions that they could not answer. How many dimes are in a dollar? What are the names of the two countries that border the United States? In what state is Utah? Who fought in the Civil War? And my personal favorite,
00:18:31
Speaker
How old is the United States? When did it get started? And I would give you $10 if you could guess what year this poor woman guessed. You heard it already, cheater. 1995. Now does anybody get the irony of this? The reason they're protesting is because they're telling us how horrible and awful the United States of America is and what its history has done to the world. But she thinks our history goes back to 1995.
00:19:01
Speaker
Okay? So why do I say all that? It's not to point a finger at them, it's to point a finger at us. You and I can't change what's going on right now in our country, but for those of us who are of this older generation, we have the ability to change what happens for the next generation. We have the ability to change things, to turn things around, and at a point when you and I have the greatest amount of freedom in our time since we were in diapers,
00:19:31
Speaker
At a time when we have more life experience than we've ever had, when we have accumulated more knowledge than anybody else because we actually used to read books, we check out of life and call it retirement.
Adapting to Life's Changes
00:19:46
Speaker
And by the way, retirement's a principle that's nowhere found in the Bible. Now, can you put a hold on your career and step away from it for a little while?
00:19:57
Speaker
But I believe the command of God as we get older is to engage even more with the generations that follow us. He's given all of us this stuff for a reason. So, regardless of what your age is, if you wake up tomorrow morning and in the stillness you listen to see if you're still breathing, if you find that you are in that moment, that means that you still have purpose.
00:20:23
Speaker
Because the Bible is very clear that all of our days are numbered, and God knows the extent of our days, and because of that, if He's given you one more day, that means He wants you to use it for a reason.
00:20:34
Speaker
He wants you to use it for a reason. So young person, your goal may be to go out and influence your friends for Jesus Christ. Your goal may be to go get an education so you can go out and change the world. Your goal may be to get ready for that season where God may call you to be a pastor or a missionary or have some kind of influence that way. Those of you who are young parents, you cannot underestimate the power of five minutes invested in your own children.
00:21:00
Speaker
You can spend a week at your job, but you won't change the world like you will spending five minutes with your own children and grandchildren. So spend time with them, invest in them. Can I encourage you to do something else? Realize it's just important that you spend five minutes learning from the generations before you. There's a reason why Proverbs tells you to seek wisdom because it's such an important thing. And it also in the same passages says gray hair is an honor, right?
00:21:27
Speaker
And here's what happens, guys. We spend so much time because we're convinced in this culture. Eat your kale. Work out all the time. Go get your hair dyed. Get the Botox. Do whatever you got to to stay young. Guys, you are aging just as you sit here. And there's nothing you can do about it. So what should you do about it? Embrace what's going to change about your life and use it for God's glory.
00:21:56
Speaker
There came a day where I woke up one day and looked at my wife and said, I can't play church league softball anymore. Just can't do it. I will be in traction for a week. But what can I do? I can go coach little league baseball and make a difference for a bunch of young guys. I can invest in the next generation and help them to understand this is an incredible game. I love it. I love the game of baseball, but it's not life. There are more important lessons that you need to learn. Some of you right now, I know you're going,
00:22:27
Speaker
Really, you don't know my body and how it feels right now. Yes, I do. I have to do many yoga sessions to get out of bed in the morning just so I can walk to the bathroom without hurting myself.
00:22:38
Speaker
I understand that things are changing, your body is changing, problems come, your mind may not be as crisp as it used to be, your handwriting may not be as clear as it used to be, because we got a group of older adults right now in our congregation, not all of them older adults, but older adults who go every Wednesday to the nursing home down in Lewisburg and bless people because they can't get out and be a part of what's going on here.
00:23:01
Speaker
We have a great group of older adults who are taking the time to write cards and letters to people and visit people and engage people that way. Somebody came up to me after the first service and said, do you know about the story of Corey Ten Boom at the end of her life? And I said, not sure what you're referring to. She said at the end of her life when she was bedridden, she asked people to come in and string prayer requests around her bed so that she could die praying for people. Do not believe that you are out of this life until God calls you out of this life.
00:23:31
Speaker
You know, just when you're starting to lose your superpowers, that's what they are, right? You know, you're a superman, superwoman. Just as you're starting to lose your superpowers, your body finally figures out what it was created for, right? Just at that moment where you're going, hey, I should have traveled more when I was younger, your body says, you ain't going nowhere. Your bladder's too small, your back's too bad, you ain't getting on a plane. But I disagree.
00:23:57
Speaker
I disagree. There are some of you who could take the challenge that Ron and Claudia Carlson have gotten done. They realize, hey, we're at a point where our kids don't have to have us here close by. We're at a point where we aren't tied to this location. We aren't tied to this. So we're going to go somewhere else and help change the world for the kingdom of God. And so they relocated to Argentina. Some of you are going, I could never be that far from my kids. So pray about it on those days when they're driving you crazy. Maybe you'll feel different. But here's the truth.
00:24:26
Speaker
Here's the truth, in this day and age with social media, your kids are as close as the click of the button on the computer, where you can zoom and have conversations with them. You and I literally can get on a plane in a matter of hours, be across the country and be in face to face with family members if we needed to. Think about the people before us who've gone and done these kinds of mission journeys, our mission investments in places where literally it took seven months for a letter to make its way back and forth.
00:24:56
Speaker
Most of the excuses we make aren't really very valid. And I'm pretty sure God's heard them all. So be reminded, we can't feel sorry for ourselves. Those inevitable changes, they're gonna come, but we must embrace them. I love this quote. By the time a man finds greener pastures, he's too old to climb the fence. And that's the way some of us feel. And these inevitable changes can sour us on life, but we have to adapt.
00:25:24
Speaker
We
Jacob's Transformation and Hope
00:25:25
Speaker
have to adapt, we have to roll with the punches. There's gonna come that day when your doctor's gonna look you in the eye and say, your cholesterol's too high, you gotta give up ice cream. That's a traumatic moment for me. I mean for us. I mean, yeah. And that's when you have to be bullheaded like Elvis and say, nope, not gonna happen. I'm gonna enjoy my ice cream. Listen, I'm the same way. I wanna go
00:25:50
Speaker
Man, I just want to go out living my life to the last second for God's glory. Not sitting back waiting to die. And I think that's what happened with Jacob. I think that's what Jacob understood when he got to this place in Egypt where he's now with his family. Yeah, he'd had a bad life, but something changed inside of him.
00:26:13
Speaker
Now, in his defense, it was a pretty bad life. If you think about Jacob's story way before we get to this point in Genesis 42, Jacob had cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright. He then literally had to go on the run because he was afraid that Esau was going to kill him because of what he had done. While he's on the run from his brother, his mother, who he loved very dearly, died.
00:26:36
Speaker
He finds and falls in love with the love of his life, a woman by the name of Rachel, and he works seven years just to win her hand only for his father-in-law to trick and deceive him into marrying the homely sister Leah. And that's literally what she's described as the homely sister in the Bible. So he turns around. He works seven more years just to prove his love for Rachel and to win her heart. And at the end of those seven years, he gets cheated out of the wages. But he does get the girl.
00:27:06
Speaker
only to find later on in life that as she's giving birth to the child, second child that he loves so dearly Rachel would pass away in childbirth. His daughter Dinah was raped by a neighboring community and that entire community was wiped out by his sons in retaliation. The heaviest blow probably was the day that his sons lied to him about Joseph's death and for 23 years he lived life believing that his favorite son was gone.
00:27:37
Speaker
And then finally, as if that wasn't all enough, we hear the end of the story where Joseph reaches out to Jacob and he says to him, I want you to relocate the whole family here to Egypt because I can take care of you here. So Jacob picks up everything and he moves to a foreign land and we all know how much old people hate to move. Right? A few years ago, my wife and I, the kindness of our hearts said to my mother,
00:28:01
Speaker
Why don't you come up here and live with us? We can help take care of you. Give my older sister a break because she'd been providing care for years. Come on up here and stay with us. Oh my word. I loved my mom very dearly. She stayed with us for a year and at the end of that year I decided in the name of world peace it was probably better to let her go back to where she had lived and to be closer to my sister who had taken care of her. About halfway halfway through that
00:28:30
Speaker
time together as my mom had tried her best at 70 something years old to try to keep up with our calendar. Remember we had four kids all in the teen years, things changing us on the go, all kinds of things happening around us, that kind of stuff. About halfway through one night she looks at me with tears in her eyes after we've been arguing and says, just sit me out on the curb. And I said, seriously mom, you think I'm going to do that? I have a status as your favorite child to maintain.
00:29:01
Speaker
I said, let's start talking about lead and you go back. Life gets hard. We have to roll with those punches. Jacob's life to this point had been what it seemed like, seamless disappointment after disappointment. Now, admittedly, he brought a lot of this evil on himself because he made bad choices.
00:29:25
Speaker
but we should commend him for staying committed to God because what we see at the end of his life is this toughness about Jacob, this strength about Jacob, the kind of strength that helps you get through the scenarios I've just listed for you. Jacob was no quitter, and my encouragement to you today, church family, is don't be a quitter. Do not quit when God still has things for you to do. So let's talk about the end of his life.
00:29:53
Speaker
You fast forward 17 years. He's 147 years young. Jacob's family has flourished. It has grown in 47 chapter 47 verse 27. We read this.
00:30:05
Speaker
Israel settled in the land of Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property in it and became fruitful and very numerous. We're told in the story of Joseph that at 130 years old when Jacob relocated to Egypt, there were 70 people in his family. And scholars estimate by the end of the 17 years, the end of Jacob's life, that there were literally thousands of Jacob's descendants in Goshen. Talk about being fruitful and multiplying. They had been successful at this point.
00:30:35
Speaker
More important, Jacob has transitioned from being this cynical old grouch to now being this hopeful, beautiful saint. His body is giving way to time. He's about to die. He's about to bless Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And with his hands on their heads, he gives them their blessing and then he turns and he utters these words as a blessing to Joseph their father. He says,
00:31:01
Speaker
The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all harm, may he bless these boys and may they be called by my name in the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow to be numerous within the land. This is the opposite mentality of the Jacob we saw 17 years before. For the first time in the Bible,
00:31:30
Speaker
God is referred to as a shepherd by Jacob. What a beautiful, intimate picture of a God who loves, a God who guides, a God who protects. And even more so, he says, the angels have redeemed me from all harm. You see, what Jacob realized then and what changed his mentality about his life to this point was this truth that I think all of us must embrace. There's always purpose and struggle and suffering, always purpose.
00:32:00
Speaker
and struggle and suffering. His spirit had changed for a lot of reasons. He now had been reunited with his favorite child who had magically resurrected from the dead. For 17 years, he sat in peace and prosperity and has watched as his descendants have grown.
00:32:19
Speaker
Meanwhile, while they're sitting there in Goshen, God has put them in a place that's full of peace and prosperity. Literally, for 400 years, the people of Jacob's descent will not have to fight a single battle because they were protected by the strongest army in the world, the Egyptian army.
00:32:36
Speaker
Under their care, they also were exposed to one of the richest, most vibrant cultures in the world at that time. Great universities, great cultural, great arts, great prosperity, all those things. All of those were great little things that helped Israel become more prosperous, more benefited, more blessed than they would have been had they stayed in Canaan. So we get to the end of Jacob's life and he's about to die. And he makes Joseph vow that he would bury him in Canaan.
00:33:07
Speaker
In verse 27, he says, Israel settled in the land of Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property in it, became fruitful and very numerous. Now, Jacob lived in the land of Egypt for 17 years and his lifespan was 147 years. When the time approached for him to die, he called his son Joseph and he said to him, if I have found favor with you, put your hand under my thigh and promise me that you will deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt.
00:33:35
Speaker
When I rest with my ancestors, carry me away from Egypt and bury me in their burial place. Joseph answered, I will do what you have asked. They involved his body in the book records that they mourned Jacob's life for 70 days in Egypt, not just his family, the entire nation. What a tribute to a life well lived.
00:34:01
Speaker
And in fact, what is recorded in the last chapters of the book of Genesis is what is definitely truly the most elaborate funeral procession in the history of the Bible. Because it says not only did Jacob's family go with him to Canaan,
00:34:16
Speaker
But Israel, I mean, Egypt's officials and elders and top government people all went along. So literally this procession going from Egypt up to the promised land is hundreds, maybe thousands of people, even when they got to the promised land. The people who lived there at that point looked at them and said, this is somebody important because all of Egypt is mourning for him. There is no human name that appears in the Bible more than Jacobs.
00:34:46
Speaker
God even took his sinful acts and used them for good, not only for him and people around him. But this is not because Jacob is good. It's because God is good. You see, when Jacob dies, it's been a century since that night where he had the dream and saw the angels. It's been a century since the night he had his first conversation and heard the voice of God.
00:35:09
Speaker
He has cheated, schemed, deceived, and run like a coward all the way through his life, but our good God loved him anyway. In the same way, the final moments that you and I will be given on this earth, when we realize how far short we are of what we really were meant to attain, we will have the confidence of knowing it's not because of who we are that we get to go where we're going, it's because of who God is that we get to go where we're going.
00:35:39
Speaker
And where are we going? Well, the Bible does not leave that as a mystery. Hebrews 11, verse eight. By faith, Abraham, who was Jacob's grandfather, when he was called, obeyed and set out for a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance, he went out even though he did not know where he was going. By faith, he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise. This is the land of Canaan, which would eventually be his families, not his, but his families.
00:36:07
Speaker
living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob. Co-heirs of the same promise. What is the promise they're referring to? The promise that God had given Abraham that he would not only be a very bountiful nation but they would be given their own land and that from his descendants would come the Savior of the world. I love this last verse. Verse 10. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose architect and builder is God.
00:36:35
Speaker
You see, Jacob knew he would go to that city, not because he was a good person. And I just want you to hear this today. You will not go to heaven because you're a good person. Good people die and go to hell every single day. Good people cannot achieve what only God has done for us. Jacob will have the promise of heaven not because he is good, but because God is good.
00:36:58
Speaker
We must suffer here. Our days are going to be few and evil.
Elders' Role in Community
00:37:01
Speaker
But when we come to the end, my prayer is that they will be full of faith and hope and we will understand the lesson that Jacob applied to the end of his life. That is that hard times aren't so hard when we understand there's a purpose that God is given. So this sermon today has not been like a credibly evangelistic sermon.
00:37:24
Speaker
Anytime you want to talk to one of us and our staff about a relationship with Jesus Christ, we would welcome those conversations. All you got to do is call the office or email us or catch us here at the building on Sundays or Wednesday nights. There's always an opportunity for you to talk to us about the good God that we've just heard about. But here's where the conversation is headed today, and that's this. Some of you, because you've passed some mythical line in your life, believe that your life is pretty much done and you're just sitting here waiting to die.
00:37:56
Speaker
I find that nowhere in scripture. In fact, if anything, you are at a place in your life, a place in your journey, where just like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there is much benefit you could bring to the world around you. What does that look like? Well, for some of you, it might be that you could take your wisdom and put it into our Youth or Children's program and go, you know what? Let me teach these kids things I wished I had known. Let me give them the seeds of the gospel that I had never given.
00:38:25
Speaker
never been given myself. For others of you, you break out in highs for anything 17 and under, you don't belong there, okay? So where you may belong is on some team, some committee, some place of service, out front greeting somebody, or better yet, maybe you could give up one hour a week to find a young couple in our church to go to coffee and say, hey, let me talk to you about marriage. Let me talk to you about the hard road that marriage is.
00:38:53
Speaker
Let me talk to you about how you get through those difficult seasons. Let me talk to you about how your struggles can mean there's purpose at the end of all this. Maybe some of you could say, you know what, I'm pretty smart with money. I've done pretty well for myself. I would love to talk to young couples about how to protect their future, how to protect themselves in the rocky times we see in our economy right now. I'm that kind of person I could help out. I could offer my services. I'm not telling you to get out of client list and start making people your clients. OK, I'm talking about.
00:39:22
Speaker
ministering to the family of God. There are some of you, you know what to do with the saw, you know what to do with a hammer, you know what to do with the screw gun, you know what to do with any piece of equipment, any tool, and there's young couples around here who just could use somebody to help replace a shutter or fix a leaky faucet. There are widows and single women in our church who don't know one end of a screw gun from the other, but they sure could use their health.
00:39:47
Speaker
There's all kinds of places where you and I can invest in one another and invest in the kingdom of God. And when we talk about being family around here, we truly mean we are family. We look out for each other. We care for one another. We understand that there is something that we owe each other because we are brothers and sisters in Christ. So this morning, what you may need to do is you just need to take your spouse by the hand and go and stand right here at this altar and just say, God,
00:40:17
Speaker
I've kind of checked out of life to this point, but right now I'm reminded that the rest of my days belong to you. Use them however you see fit. Maybe there's somebody that God brings to mind as we have these conversations and you want to come up and you just want to pray for them. It may be a family member that you know that you need to invest in. It may be a neighbor down the street that sits alone at night with the lights off.
00:40:41
Speaker
Depressing, discouraged, frustrated, and you could take just a few minutes out of your week every week just to encourage them. Maybe there's a single mom down the road who sure could use a helping hand because it gets a little overwhelming trying to raise kids on your own. And you could give her an hour every week just to go take a hot bath and not have to answer the phone and let her have a few moments just to recoup herself and prepare herself for whatever comes the next week.
00:41:10
Speaker
God wants to use you, and as long as you have days left, you have something to give back to God. Will you pray with me? For the testimony of Jacob, we thank you for the power of his story and what he did to honor you and to bless others. We thank you for
00:41:37
Speaker
how his toughness and his never-give-up attitude affected a son named Joseph and led to many, many descendants who later would give great rise to a great, great nation. Lord, I thank you in this room today. We got people just like Jacob. Tough, strong in spirit,
00:42:02
Speaker
wise because of their experience and their years in this life, they have so much to offer. Lord, would you help us to see each other as family across the aisle, across the street, even across town? To learn to love each other, to care for each other, to give our best for each other, because in doing so, we give a cup of cold water to each other. Lord, this morning,
00:42:29
Speaker
We know times are tough. They get tougher. The Bible says they're going to get tougher still. We really will need each other. We really will want to depend on each other in those seasons. So this morning, would you retrain our hearts to see the last of our days as the best of our days?
Conclusion and Reflection
00:42:47
Speaker
There's this beautiful little verse in the story of Job where it says that you bless the latter years of his life more than the former. May that be the testimony of who we are.
00:42:59
Speaker
It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Will you stand with us as we sing? As we respond this morning.