Memorial: Nita Lykins
Notes
Transcript
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
7 For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger,
and your wrath according to the fear of you?
12 So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
INTRO:
This prayer of Moses, a great man of God, is a comfort and a challenge to you today.
Your grief and loss is real.
You’re placing this death event into your view of life and eternity.
What better way to find focus than to look at our everlasting God and his message of life and hope.
Moses leads us into the many facets of time and eternity with the everlasting God as the all-encompassing life, from here through eternity.
1. Life’s Context
1. Life’s Context
As we think about Nita’s life and ministry to her family and friends and the many churches and schools that the Lykins served so well. As we remember her in 2 seasons - thriving and slowly fading from us as she walked through these dimly lit days of Alzheimer’s - we smile about the good days and weep over these final days.
It’s important though, that we come up for air and catch a glimpse of the big picture…
This Psalm gives a context of our LIVES lived out briefly here on this earth before the Eternally existent Holy God revealed in the Scriptures.
In verses 1-2, Moses reminds us of the big picture of life and eternity:
“From everlasting to everlasting you are God” (v. 2).
To acknowledge God, who is, who was, and who will ever be is difficult for our finite minds.
God has no beginning and will have no ending.
When we take our life and place it against the backdrop of eternity, it should cause us to evaluate how we are living, what we are doing, what we believe, to whom we are committed, and for what purpose we are here on this earth.
Because you are seeing your life against the backdrop of eternity, you are able to make better choices.
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
The choices you are making determine the crop that you will harvest.
Here is another reason…
When we think of our lives in view of ETERNITY, it should bring you us a humility.
It is really difficult to be filled with unhealthy pride and an arrogance about our own greatness when you place your life next to the eternal God.
Jesus would remind us: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matt. 11:29).
Moses, the psalmist calls us to live our lives in context of eternity, looking at God who is from everlasting to everlasting.
2. Life’s Brevity
2. Life’s Brevity
LIFE IS SHORT.
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase…it’s especially true with parents as their kids get older, “the days are long, but the years are short!”
A teacher once stimulated her students to think about life and its brevity by placing the figure 25,550 on the board for them to see when they arrived for class.
Soon one of the students asked the teacher why that number was there.
She explained that the number represented the number of days in the life of a person who lives to be 70.
And, since most of you in this room have lived 16 years, 5,840 days are gone, and only God knows how many days you will have in this brief journey on earth.
In our Psalm, Moses uses the picture of grass growing up in the day, being impacted by the noonday sun, then slowly withering by evening.
So life appears as grass growing and withering (vv. 5–6).
James painted a picture of life as “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).
How are you spending your days?
I wonder if we know just how precious today is?.
For those of us in this room who PROFESS a relationship with Jesus Christ as our Savior and LORD, we need to remember that one of the ways we demonstrate that we POSSESS that relationship is HOW WE SPEND OUR DAYS.
In your todays, speak words of love to family,
encouragement to fellow employees,
kindness to the less fortunate.
Do good to others in your todays.
Restore broken relationships.
Heal misunderstandings and confusion.
Bring peace to troubled waters.
Share the good news of Christ and his wonderful love with someone TODAY. Do these things in your todays!
And for those in this room today, who are not Christians yet, while we are all mourning and grieving the death of our precious Nita…let it soften your heart for GOD…
“TODAY, IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS…
…LIKE SO MANY OTHERS
…LIKE YOU’VE DONE IN THE PAST
TODAY, REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL! (Heb 4:7)
There are 2 ways to live each today…
with Christ as the ruler of your life,
or living by your own rule…your own way.
One feels good, seems right, but ends in destruction.
One brings fulness of joy and hope, fulfilled purpose, and eternal life to glorify God and enjoy Him forever!
Life is short…Live EVERY TODAY FOR JESUS!
3. Life’s Difficulties
3. Life’s Difficulties
Third, we note life’s difficulties (vv. 9–10).
Into every life comes troubles, illness, stress, sorrow, and confusion.
Moses underscores that no one is exempt from life’s difficult moments.
He describes them as being marked by “toil and trouble.”
But, throughout Scripture we are told that God is the one who comes alongside HIS CHILDREN to bear our burdens, comfort our sorrow, and lead us through difficult places.
Jesus promised Christians (those who have repented, believed the Gospel, and are being transformed into the very likeness of Christ), Jesus promised the Holy Spirit - the Comforter.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Many in this room today KNOW the Comforter is ministering to them in this time.
Steve knows.
Other Family members know.
Our Mission Bible Family and the Grace Baptist Family know.
He promised he would come. He is here, hallelujah!
God’s people know that the only way to access this Comforter - the Holy Spirit - the third person of this triune God revealed perfectly to us in the Bible - the only way is through the LORD JESUS CHRIST.
We all need PEACE FROM GOD…BUT PEACE WITH GOD through Jesus Christ is how that is unlocked!
Recap:
Life only makes sense in light of God’s eternal plan.
Our lives are shorter than we’d like to admit, when compared to eternity.
Everyone is faced with Difficulties in life. Some of it is the consequence of our own sinful selfish desires; but some is simply ADVERSITY - permitted by God to thrust us toward Christ as our only hope in life and death!
Finally, this Psalm points us to the importance of the DECISIONS and the COMMITMENTS that we make…they can have eternal consequences.
4. Life’s Decisions
4. Life’s Decisions
12 So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Moses stated it so simply, “Teach us how short our lives really are so that we may be wise” (Ps. 90:12 NCV).
In your todays, it is wise to decide to orient your life around GOD’S RULE AND CHRIST’S REIGN in your life.
Moses knew the impact of a life devoted to God and his ways.
Jesus Said,
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
You are wise when you make the conscious decision as an act of your will to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life!
God has always BEEN and will always BE.
We came into existence at conception…but we will live forever - our souls will go on after our earthly bodies have faded.
Nita is very much alive…in her right mind…in the presence of the lover of her soul…the LORD JESUS CHRIST!
The family has witnessed her life’s context RELATED TO GOD.
Have you examined your life in view of God?
They have experience her life’s brevity - not only in view of how they thought retirement was going to go…but in view of the big picture of eternity.
Have you considered how you are spending your todays in view of eternity?
The Family walked through great difficulties, but with an unshaken faith in the one who is near the brokenhearted and is a present help in trouble.
How are you walking through difficult days?
…on your own?
…or with the Creator of the Universe lovingly guide you by His Word?
Nita repented of her sins as she put her faith and total trust in CHRIST ALONE. She lived committed to Christ.
What about you?
If, like Nita, YOU are “in Christ” at death, you go to live with him for eternity.
But if you have rejected Christ, then at death you are separated from God’s favor and cast into a place called hell - experiencing God’s justice and wrath for all eternity.
It’s what we all deserve.
It’s what Nita deserved.
But she discovered the love of God…the same love that’s pursuing you today.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Jesus Christ came to this earth as a baby in a manger.
Lived a perfect spotless life.
Fulfilled God’s mission to be the perfect sacrifice.
He died on the cross for our sins - taking our place as God poured out His wrath on His only Son!
He died, was buried, and rose to life on the third day.
Presented His precious blood as the sufficient payment for our sins.
Your debt has been paid, your sins can be forgiven, your transformed, your todays count for eternity - for the glory of God…if you’ll trust Christ as Nita did.
What about you today?
Will you turn to Christ? Will you cry out to God to save you, and fill you with His Spirit so that you can submit to His rule…and live the life that He designed for you…a life that glorifies Him!
When you do cry out to Him - receiving Him into your life, to forgive your sins, and to save your soul forever. You become a child of the King - like Nita.
And when YOUR memorial service / funeral is held some day (soon), we will celebrate that you are with Jesus - in Heaven - where Nita is right now!
Today is the day of salvation.
Do not harden your heart.
Surrender to Christ alone!
