Old Hope
HOPE • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I’ve had a very odd experience recently and didn’t know that it was going to come on as quickly as it did it. It’s called feeling old. This bizarre moment when you have to re-think about who you are and how you relate to everyone else. See for a long time I thought I was young and then when I hit my mid-30s I started to realize no one thinks of me as young. I’m the adult. Then I thought of myself as the grown-up, the adult.
But now a very cool thing has been happening. I’ve been working with some great people and they do great at their job, they are my collegues and then we get to talking about age and I realize they are younger than my oldest kid. I come to church and great adults in here with children, but can vividly, like it was yesterday remember when they were the age of the youth in here.
At work, people, my collegues who I have no authority over, treat me with respect and will even hide things from me like they do our bosses, not because I am a pastor but because, I just have to think, because I’m old. Why do I say that, because the teacher’s I think are old, they never hide anything from me, and then when I figure out their age, they are months or just a couple years older than me.
Now, some of you in here think this is hilarious because you are younger than me and your like duh, yeah your old. You use facebook old.
Others of you think I am cute, because you are so much older and went through this experience already. But I have to remind you what a famous comedian said, when your 50 your like Freshman old. You know freshman when they first get on a high school campus and are so confused. That’s me, all of this old is actually really new. Like my doctor saying, yeah you have that injury and it isn’t going to get better, kind of old. That’s new for me.
Why do I talk about getting old?
Because where is the hope in getting old?
Everyone instinctively fights for a long life but what happens when it actually gets achieved. Many of you are sailing passed 70, approaching lives longer and older.
Where is God when the strength of the body fades, when people don’t listen as much as they used to, when enemies come around to steal and destroy, where is the hope? Is God still here for you now or only in the heavens?
And what does this all have to do with those who are so young that your just hoping people don’t realize you don’t know that much but will take you seriously about the stuff you do know. Those of you who are trying to walk with God and seeing really old, as something a long, long way off. Your just hoping you can keep your kids alive and strong enough to actually see that day come.
Today, this hope, this is the reward for what you are building right now, they pay off for the every simple task of faith that you are putting together right now.
1 Lord, I seek refuge in you; let me never be disgraced.
2 In your justice, rescue and deliver me; listen closely to me and save me.
3 Be a rock of refuge for me, where I can always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and fortress.
Ever part of a conversation where you are hanging out, just kind of intense but kind of casual conversation and someone goes, I think God is like,
and then they say something nice, silly, or whatever, it’s just a thought of the top of their head.
The Bible is not like that. For those who accept this by faith as God’s word and then put it as part of your life you begin to see the truth of a God who really reveals himself through his actions in the long ancient past and they still are happening today.
So when this person writes, “in your justice rescue me” it isn’t because he is a guy spewing nice words while people sit on couches.
This is from a person that experienced a God who is just. A God who had their back.
It’s possible to miss how much God has your back. It’s possible to miss how much anyone has your back.
Did you know that most people if they make a mistake, if they screw up, they likely will put the blame on something outside of themselves, like the reason maybe a person was late today was because they hit so many red lights. However, if a person does something they like, if things go there way, if it is good, well then you hear about how good they were. I got the job because I hustled and applied to all kinds of places or made that call after remembering that my friend worked there. I got myself the raise. I graduated because I studied so hard.
My friends someone who really understands, like the writer of this ancient text knows, we don’t control it all. How could I possibly have a friend unless God helped me with my attitude around people. How could I keep going in school, if it wasn’t for the ability to think, I couldn’t make myself think, God gave me this brain. He might have even given me parents or others who really cared about me enough to teach me.
See in prayer, we can tell God to do things we know God will do. We can tell God to love us, because God already loves us. We can tell God to deliver us because we know He is a deliverer. Yet it is good, it is smart, it is healthy to remind ourselves what God is already doing. Otherwise, we will forget. Just like we do when other people have our back but we didn’t pay attention.
Because another thing is coming. What do I mean, I mean that another problem, another difficult event, another financial issue is coming. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another. But if you remember God, you will remember,
That God is in the another. God is still there in the another
4 Deliver me, my God, from the power of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and oppressive.
5 For you are my hope, Lord God, my confidence from my youth.
6 I have leaned on you from birth; you took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is always about you.
I love this, love this. Because in this poetry we learn that the reason the person can tell you that God is a refuge is because they leaned on God since birth.
Now, no one is made right with God on the actions of their parents but this person has been learning about their faith from the very beginning. That is an incredible heritage, an incredible gift some of you are giving to your kids. You are giving it to them so consistently. This gives confidence. See that in the verse. It may take what seems like forever but understanding who you are in Christ, how much His forgiveness, his actions, his loves makes in our lives gives such a purpose and focus to our lives that makes such a tremendous difference for how our lives go. Sometimes though we might not realize this huge difference until we are faced with an enemy. Sometimes that enemy could be a person. It could be a neighbor, a co-worker, even a family member. Haters are around.
But for those of us who have been in the walk with God for a long time, we have the history of knowing that God has our back. God is our refuge, God is our deliverer, even over our real enemies. And that makes the stories that we can tell
7 I am like a miraculous sign to many, and you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is full of praise and honor to you all day long.
Some of you, just by walking around, some of you when people see you there mouths just drop, because they can’t believe you’re not dead.
That’s the same way as the person who wrote this poem in the Bible. Just by being alive the are proof that there is a God.
Live, and keep on living your life as a testimony of how great God actually is.
But what happens as I said earlier when you actually did it. You kept on living. And now you realize like I am realize, I am old, or maybe you’re like no Bill your not old, I’m really, really old. Whatever, what happens? Where is the hope
10 For my enemies talk about me, and those who spy on me plot together,
11 saying, “God has abandoned him; chase him and catch him, for there is no one to rescue him.”
12 God, do not be far from me; my God, hurry to help me.
13 May my adversaries be disgraced and destroyed; may those who intend to harm me be covered with disgrace and humiliation.
14 But I will hope continually and will praise you more and more.
There was a movie title from a book, “No Country for Old Men.” The movie isn’t important but the title is. As we age our ability to defend ourselves disappears. In nature, in war, in hardship, seniors don’t exist.
You might not even be old and feel that no one can help you now. People at all stages feel abandoned but a person who is really alone, can hear that they have lost all their power, all their hope as the people in their apartment complex,
11 saying, “God has abandoned him; chase him and catch him, for there is no one to rescue him.”
But in this moment, you who have lived long know that you never won a battle on your own. You have not been abandoned by God.
Again this is a prayer of reminding God who He already is, not for the sake of God, but for the sake of our faith and hope. But when many people tell of God providing or the hope that God has they don’t really believe it. Not like this writer. Because many will say that they trust in God and then go do whatever they think will make them feel better or the problem go away.
300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation Relying on Promises without Obeying Commandments
We cannot rely on his promises, without obeying his commandments.… Those who leave the means that God recommends, and resolve to make trial of their power and might (decide to do whatever they want), act as absurdly as if one were to cut off a man’s arms and hands and then order him to work.
JOHN CALVIN
We cannot say that we will trust in God and then impatiently do what everyone else is doing around us. If we trust in God than we honestly trust in God.
Because many of you seniors have lived out what happens when you do whatever you want. When you say that God wants you to do something even though you don’t even know what God is really saying.
You have learned how God fights for you, you have learned the purpose of prayer and worship so that when your enemies come, whether if it is a person out to get you, as the person who wrote this part of the Bible.
14 But I will hope continually and will praise you more and more.
15 My mouth will tell about your righteousness and your salvation all day long, though I cannot sum them up.
16 I come because of the mighty acts of the Lord God; I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.
17 God, you have taught me from my youth, and I still proclaim your wondrous works.
18 Even while I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me, while I proclaim your power to another generation, your strength to all who are to come.
19 Your righteousness reaches the heights, God, you who have done great things; God, who is like you?
20 You caused me to experience many troubles and misfortunes, but you will revive me again. You will bring me up again, even from the depths of the earth.
The funniest thing happened at work this year. A person with degrees and all kinds of smarts came to me and said you know so much I have learned so much from watching how you handle the behaviors of these students.
And that kind of stopped me in my tracks because I learned how to teach my students because of trauma. Of really, really bad days and times. Times where former students did horrible things, people got hurt, sleepless nights, and so many prayers and crying out to God. God did so much through so many that I never thought today might arrive.
Yet today, someone comes alongside and says, “You know so much.”
Seniors, it wasn’t how awesome that got you here. It’s that God is still walking alongside. You know that, I know you know that. It’s why you are here.
You who are in the midst of the traumas now. Hold on to God.
Don’t stay true to yourself. Look at the seniors they will tell you that yourself will fail.
Don’t rely on your strength. It won’t last.
Don’t think the bad days are not coming, that this is the happily ever after. They are coming. But today, take it from the veterans, take it from those who have been there before, take it from those whose spirits sore even when others only see weakness. And know that it God who empowers and sustains.
Which is why worship and praise are the most important part of our week
Ps 71:20 - 24
21 You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.
22 Therefore, I will praise you with a harp for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing to you with a lyre, Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you because you have redeemed me.
24 Therefore, my tongue will proclaim your righteousness all day long, for those who intend to harm me will be disgraced and confounded.
20 You caused me to experience many troubles and misfortunes, but you will revive me again. You will bring me up again, even from the depths of the earth.
21 You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.
22 Therefore, I will praise you with a harp for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing to you with a lyre, Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you because you have redeemed me.
24 Therefore, my tongue will proclaim your righteousness all day long, for those who intend to harm me will be disgraced and confounded.
Is this true?
