Aging From the Beginning
Notes
Transcript
Review
Review
We’re going to start out by turning to a hard-to-find passage of Scripture.
Turn to Genesis 1
Two weeks ago we learned that the world teaches us one story about aging, but God teaches us another. The world teaches us that aging is bad. Whereas God teaches us that aging has its own set of God-given blessings.
The world values the first half of life only, whereas God values all of life on this earth from first breath to last.
We must ensure that the way we think about aging reflects God’s perspective, not our culture’s perspective.
Introduction
Introduction
You don’t have to travel the world very long to discover that different parts of the world have very different seasons.
In central Brazil, you have two seasons: Hot and wet and hot and dry.
For many islands in the tropics, you don’t have as much variety. It is year-round beach weather.
But then in some regions of the world - like ours - you have a true four seasons of spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Wherever you have seasons, you have continual change. Our world is always in a continual state of change from one season to the next.
Our lives closely mirror that reality. With every passing day, we are in a continual state of change. This may alarm you, but it shouldn’t, because this is what God always intended for us. He always intended that we be changing, growing, and maturing as we age.
Genesis chapter one shows us that God hard-wired our world and us to be in a continual state of change.
Read Genesis 1:1-5
Before man ever sinned…
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Change was apparent by time
In first first five verses of the Bible, we find that God created time.
When the Bible says in verse five, “And the evening and the morning were the first day”, I see two plausible ways for interpreting that statement.
Either it means a literal, 24 hour day, or it means something else, which is completely subject to your opinion. Either God chose those words on purpose and meant a definite amount of time that we would understand, or He meant something else, which is known only to Himself.
I believe that God intended a 24 hour day - just as He would expect us to understand it.
Read Genesis 1:8, 13, 14
Look at that! God created the sun, moon, and stars whereby man could mark the passage of time.
Change has been around literally since the dawn of creation.
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Change was apparent in man
The other day, Jana pulled something out of storage that I hadn’t looked at for several years. She got our college year books out and began looking at the pictures.
Wow.
Everyone in those yearbooks looked so young - including me!
I can’t remember who it was that said it but I think something was said to the effect, “I didn’t realize they let preschoolers go to college!”
Let’s just say that change was very apparent in us in those yearbook photos!
That’s always been true of mankind.
Read Genesis 1:26-28
It’s all spelled out there in verse 28. Before sin entered the world, mankind would change.
They would have children.
Their children would grow.
Their children would bear children.
And through the passage of time, God’s plan was for mankind to populate the earth, to prosper in it, and to become stewards over the entire planet. But notice what that means: before the fall, God’s plan was that mankind would age.
Have you ever thought about that before? Even if Adam and Eve had never sinned, they still would have aged. The only difference is that they would have aged differently than we do now.
The fact that humans are charged to be fruitful and multiply - to birth and raise children - implies aging; growing older developmentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Though in Eden humans exist in time, time is not an adversary. It simply marks another day, month, or year of God’s faithfulness to their flourishing. - Jen Wilkin, Dust To Dust, pages 10-11
Application: here’s my point: Aging is not the result of the sin curse. Aging is part of God’s design.
Now that truth flies in the face of conventional wisdom.
Our world says that aging is bad, but it is not. Aging is the natural process of change that God has built into us. God’s design is not broken, but the problem is that sin corrupted aging, just like it corrupted everything else that it touches.
So Christian, change your thinking about aging. Aging is not bad. Aging is not broken. God’s design has been rendered imperfect, but God still has a plan for your aging today and His plan is always good.
Before the fall of man, this was how God intended for us to age:
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God intended aging for us to experience a continual maturing in body, soul, and spirit as we walked with God on this earth.
But after the fall of man, aging was corrupted by sin.
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…aging itself is not a penalty of sin. The penalty of sin on the human body is not that it ages but that as it ages, it declines toward death. - Jen Wilkin, Dust To Dust, page 12
Church family, here’s the good news.
Application: Although your body may decline, your soul doesn’t have to!
That is the main point I want you to take with you from this message.
Your corrupted body will wear out and someday it will be replaced with an incorruptible body. But in the meantime, in your spirit, you are renewed day by day.
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For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
Christian, do you see the value of aging? Yes, your body may grow weary, but your spirit can and should grow continually stronger with each passing day!
The world’s false story of anti-aging is motivated by fear: Don’t get old. You’ll be invisible, irrelevant, a has-been, a burden. The Bible’s true story of aging is motivated by joy: Embrace aging. You’ll grow in wisdom, depth, and value. No one is a has-been in God’s family. - Jen Wilkin, Dust To Dust, page 17
Aging will mean bodily decline, but it can also mean stronger faith if you set that as a priority in your life! Which is better?
The false story of anti-aging says: Outward decline signals loss of identity and fear of suffering and death. To age is to diminish. The true story of aging says: Outward decline yields inward growth of spiritual and resurrection hope. To age is to deepen. - Jen Wilkin, Dust To Dust, page 20
Read slowly:
If your identity is wrapped up in elements tied to your aging, then yes, as you age you will diminish. As your beauty or strength declines, as your abilities decline, as your independence declines, you will also. But if you decide that your identity is in Jesus Christ, then in every season of life, you can continually grow as you draw nearer to the Lord.
God’s plan for us includes aging. Let’s embrace God’s plan. Let’s embrace God’s design. Rather than fretting about wrinkles or missed benchmarks at the gym, let’s revel in the joy of walking with the Lord day by day, year after year - something that comes only with age!
Take care of your body as you age, certainly. I’m not saying throw all caution to the wind. But make sure that your priority is upon what truly matters. God has always had a purpose in aging. It is that we might draw continually nearer to Him, maturing in faith, until the day that He calls us home.
Aging From the Beginning.
