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Let us continue in worship by giving attention to the reading of God's Word as it is recorded in the second book of Corinthians, the fourth chapter. I begin the reading at the verse numbered 13. Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, "I believed and so I spoke," we too believe and so we speak,

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knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner

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nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

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And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his Word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. On this Christian Family Sunday, I would like to think with you about the older members of our families, about those who are the seniors in the

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university of life. I'd like to talk with our older folks and about them. There are, of course, different ways of looking at age. One can look at age philosophically. Jack Benny said once, "Age is a matter of mind. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Some people look at age sarcastically. Bob Hope said, "You can tell you're old

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when the candles cost more than the cake." Some look at it very shrewdly. Agatha Christie, the great mystery writer, said, "I married an archaeologist so that the older I got, the more interested in me he'd be." And some look at age very responsibly. I read of a woman in Indiana just a few weeks ago who, on her 105th

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birthday, announced that she was ready to die because she had gotten all of her children successfully placed in nursing homes. Well, I don't want to talk in these ways. I want to talk to you biblically and I want to talk to you personally. I often think of life as if it were a great park and we have the privilege of

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spending a day in the park. Now, some people leave very early in the day while the sun is still climbing and there's a special sadness about that. Some people live in the very middle of the day when the sun is at its brightest and at its zenith and those goings are very hard to endure. But there are some people who are

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permitted to stay in the park for the entire day until the shadows lengthen and the busyness of life is over and the time of sunset comes. It's the sunset, folks, that I want to think about this morning. There are, of course, more and more of them. In fact, today many people say that to be aged is not to be 65 but

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to be 75 or over. Did you know that there are 125,000 Americans who are presently a hundred years old or older? And they estimate that within 20 years there will be more than a million Americans who have collected over a hundred years. There are more older people alive today than ever before in history and by the

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year 2000, just a decade from now, more than half of the population of the industrial West will be over 65 years old. So there are more people living to the sunset hours and it's about those folks and that life that I would like us to meditate together. Now I approach my theme in terms of a story which was

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shared with me by a grandfather. It seems that he was walking on the beach one day with his little granddaughter and they encountered an old friend of his. Now it was a hot July day and this old friend began to talk but his speech was somewhat confused and finally he said, "I apologize. I must be suffering from a bit

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of sunstroke." Well, they finished the conversation and he went on and this grandfather and his granddaughter continued down the beach and they'd only gone a little way when the granddaughter looked up at her granddaddy and said, "Gee Pop-Pop, I hope that you never suffer from a sunset." Well, there are a lot of

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people today in the sunset times who are suffering and I don't think that ought to be so. The sunset hours are to be times of beauty and not of ugliness. The Apostle Paul sums it for us when he says, "Do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this

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slight momentary affliction which we endure is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory which is beyond all comparison." Paul acknowledges that with the sunset time there do come weaknesses and afflictions but he goes on to say that for the soul this is a time of maturing and of adventuring, anticipatory

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to great glory. So let's think with Paul about the obstacles of age and the opportunities of age. Now age does have its obstacles. You find yourself slowing down a bit. As a matter of fact, your blood does not go through your veins as rapidly as it used to. Your adrenal gland does not produce that which helps you

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meet stress as it did when you were quite young. Your reserves of strength are not as great as they were so that when times of challenge come it's harder to meet them. Also you find when you're older that your gross personal product declines. When we're young all kinds of doors open to us but as we get

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older more and more doors close. When we're young we are acquiring a great number of things but we find as we get older that our acquisitions begin to disappear away. Even our capacity to think is not quite as fast as it was when we were younger. And then there's a certain alienation that comes with age. I

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heard a good lady say about a week ago, "You know I think the whole world is coming apart at the seams. I look at folks today and especially young people and it seems to me they're going to pieces." Well I think all older people in all times have looked at that which went before and then that which they're

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presently undergoing and they see a disorder and a confusion, a kind of separating attitude which is not particularly comfortable. And then for some older people there is a certain anxiety of faith. Some folks have doubts about the love of God and this comes because of their frailty. They begin to

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think about nursing homes and if God loved them would he allow something like this to happen. You know it's unfortunate that both younger people and older people have a tendency to think of age in terms of frailty and nursing homes. Only 7% of the older people in America actually live in nursing homes. But

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there are a lot of people who've become anxious about things like this and of course anxiety is the opposite of faith. So from a lot of different perspectives there's a blight that falls on the sunset hours. Yet I say to you this morning that this blight is very largely exaggerated and I'm afraid that society

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as a whole doesn't help in this matter because we are as a society generally prejudiced against age. You know in other societies it's not like that. If you say to a Frenchman, "How old are you?" He will say, "I have 70 years." Not I'm 70 but I have 70 years. I've accomplished 70 years. I have the things that can be gained in

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70 years. The expenses and the experiences and the richnesses and the treasures and the costs, all of these things are mine. I know what they are. In the third world the great goal of life is to become old. For when you've become older then you are respected and you are admired and you are seen as the leader

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undisputed in the family and in the neighborhood. It's not like that here. George Burns said not too long ago, "When I was young I was taught to respect my elders. Now I don't have anybody older than me so I don't have to respect anybody." But he said, "I noticed nobody respects me either." And that has become

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a part of our society. Why, for example, when a teenager forgets something do we think nothing at all about it? But if an older person forgets something we say, "It was because of their age." I think I'd get awfully tired of hearing that. And then we have forced retirement, rejecting people at the time when they might be at

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the very height of their powers. You know studies show that people over 65 who are still working have fewer illnesses and miss less days on the job than those who are younger than 65. And even the church shows some prejudice against older people. We focus our programs on the family when many older people are alone

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and single. We set our programs many times at times which are difficult for older people to enjoy them. And almost every church when they're looking for a new minister they won't look for somebody who's 55 or 60 and at the very prime of ministry they want somebody younger. And I even think medicine

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contributes to this attitude. I wish every doctor had the opportunity to spend some time studying geriatrics because I'm so tired of hearing about doctors who have said to a patient, "Oh well, you can't expect things to get any better. You're just getting older." When those doctors know, and we all know if we

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think about it, that health and length of life is not determined by chronology. It's determined by physiology. 85% of the illnesses which we associate with age are present in only 15% of our older people. Why then when we look at an older person do we automatically think of a walker or a wheelchair, of a basket

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or a casket? We're part of the Pepsi generation and there's so many in that generation who have no time for sunsets. There are obstacles and Paul acknowledges this. He calls them weaknesses and infirmities. In the Old Testament they're spoken of more plainly. In the last chapter of Ecclesiastes it talks about

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the nervousness and the arthritis and the declining effect of the senses, eyes and the hearing. It enumerates all of the things that oft times come with age. So the scriptures do not deny that age has its burdens and its difficulties, but the scriptures also affirm that while on the one hand there are obstacles, on the

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other hand there are great opportunities that come with age. Whenever I read these words of Paul about focusing on the things that are unseen and anticipating the weight of glory which is to be ours and how the soul can renew itself every day, I'm reminded of what he said at another point. In Romans chapter 4 when

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he's talking about Abraham he said, "His body is weakened but his soul is growing stronger." How does the soul grow stronger? Well, sure age has losses associated with it but it also has gains. I mean when you're older you have the opportunity to drop those things out of your life that you don't like. You don't have to do them

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anymore. We all have certain things that we would like to get out from under and a lot of times bosses that are uncooperative, responsibilities in the business or other things that have burdened us for a long time, we can unload and when we unload these things we can also begin to fill in some of

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those omissions in our lives, some of those things that we've wanted to do and have never had the opportunity to do. And please, when I talk about doing new things, don't say, "Well, I'm old and so I can't do new things." Ronald Reagan became President of the United States when he was 68. Francis Chichester sailed

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the whole way around the world in a sailboat by himself when he was 64. Hulda Crooks climbed Mount Whitney out in California in 1965 and she's climbed it every year since for 24 years. She just finished climbing it again and her age is 86. Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of England when he was 65.

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Golda Meir became Prime Minister of Israel when she was 71. Edward Delano rode a bicycle to his high school reunion 3,300 miles from California to Massachusetts at the age of 75. The most significant Pope of the 20th century, Angelo Roncalli, we call him John the 23rd, became Pope when he was

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76. Grandma Moses had her first one-woman show when she was 80 years old. Benjamin Franklin was the decisive personality at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia when he was 81. George Selbach shot his first hole-in-one at golf at the Indian River Course in Michigan when he was 96 years old.

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And I haven't mentioned people like Picasso or Toscanini or von Karajan or Bertrand Russell or Karl Barth. One of my favorites is Eubie Blake, the great jazz composer and pianist. He was giving a concert when he was 92 years old and he interrupted the music at one point to say, "You know, if I'd have known I was

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going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." The fact that you are older doesn't mean that you can't start some new things. So with the losses there are also gains. Here's something else. As an older person, you can set new limits. You know, every age has limits. There are certain things a child can't do.

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There are certain things a teenager can't do. There are certain things a yuppie can't do. Well, just so, you have, just like everybody else, certain limits. But you have a freedom with your limits that's beyond any other age. I mean, you're at the place where you can say, "Where's the beef?" and get some attention. Maggie Kuhn,

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the founder of the Gray Panthers, when she was 76 years old, said, "Yes, I'm limited. I've had cancer three times and I have arthritis now. But I have discovered that old age is a great time to be outraged. My goal is to be outraged at at least one thing each and every week."

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We lost to our membership a few weeks ago. Little Alice Eckert. Alice was well up into her 70s. Here's a dear little lady who taught prisoners who were illiterate how to read, who baked for Meals on Wheels for 17 years, who sewed things for the mission fields, who sang in the choir every Sunday morning. She

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was a terrible singer. But who's gonna tell a dear lady at 78 years old, "You can't sing anymore, honey, so sit down." You see, you have a freedom. I remember one day down here on Ninth Street, traffic very heavy, and Alice Eckert came up to the corner. Cars going everywhere. You know what Alice did? She went like this.

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And walked right across the street. And nobody even blew the horn. So there are limits that you have that are broader than other people's. Use them. And you can have more fun when you're older. And I don't mean special kinds of fun. I mean the same kind of fun that younger people have. Oh yes, they're the things you hear

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about all the time. Hobbies and travel and and art and things like that. But how about sex? You know, we think of our young people as being our sex gods and our sex goddesses. You know, when young people get involved with sex, it's always because they have something to prove. There's a certain ego enhancement

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in it. Everything for them, you see, is a kind of performance. They've got to appear better than anybody else. Well, you're free of all that. Studies have shown that older people can enter into very meaningful sexual relationships. And when they are having sex together, it's not a matter of competition. It's a

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matter of celebration. They don't have to prove anything. They can have fun. Let yourself be stimulated. Go to athletic events where you yell like crazy and get into arguments about things you want to argue about. I must mention, of course, service. The Bible says it's more blessed to give than to receive. And in your

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older years, you have tremendous opportunity to serve other people. Have you ever noticed how most of the volunteers in hospitals are older people? Most of the ladies who volunteer and serve in our cafeteria, and it's very hot down there some days, are older ladies. Most of the people who work in our walk

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in ministry, who deal with the tough people who come in off the street, are older people. Listen, when the Pepsi generation says, "You're too old. Just sit down and rest," look at them and say, "Lie. That's a lie. I want to be used and I want the fun and the joy that comes out of being used. I happen to believe that

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older people are America's greatest untapped resource." And having said that, prove it. And of course, keep growing spiritually. Paul says the soul should be developing every day, and there's various aspects to that. There's repentance, for example. What is repentance? Repentance is confession with

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hope. Here's an opportunity to talk with God about the mistakes you've made and the things that you've messed up and the sins which have been yours. Not to be overcome with guilt, because you know you're forgiven in Christ, but to rejoice because of that forgiveness. It's interesting when you read the letters of

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the Apostle Paul. The older he got, the more sensitive he became to the sins of his earlier years. And though he knew he was forgiven and bound for glory, he talked to God about this. He writes at the very end of his life to his young son Timothy in the faith. He says to him, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save

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sinners of whom I am chief." So old age is a good time for repentance. It's a good time for prayer. You can pray for people who are too busy to pray for themselves. You can pray for them regularly and faithfully and fervently, like Moses prayed for the people as they crossed the Red Sea and kept praying until they

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were all the way across. We honored here in the church just a few weeks ago a good woman who's 90 years old and who is a great prayer warrior. And many people can testify to the power of her prayers in their lives. So make yourself a prayer list and work at it. And let your spiritual trust develop. One of the

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anxieties that comes with age is lack of control. That may be such a thing as incompetence, or it may be going into a nursing home, or it may be crossing that deep river to death. That leaves some people to a questioning of trust. But my friends, if you focus on the victory that is to be yours and on the glory, the

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weight of glory Paul speaks of, well that can become something very hopeful and magnify your trust. See, life's like a sea voyage. People who are starting out on a sea voyage, well, they're complained because their cabin isn't as good as somebody else's or they're running around to make sure they know where the

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lifeboats are and they want to make sure that they have good seats in the dining room. But when you get close to home port, you don't worry about those things anymore. You're thinking about the welcome at home that's going to be waiting for you. So sunset folks can focus on the end of the journey which is

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nearer now. And that magnifies trust and it also magnifies peace. If I may change the image from a sea voyage for a moment, when we're born and we come into life, we don't have much to contribute. I mean, we're squaloring, we're red and wrinkled and ugly, we can't do anything. If we were left alone, we die in our own filth. But

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the fact of the matter is, there were some people here before we invaded the earth and they've prepared for our coming, sometimes at great cost and always with great love. And they have known pain as we come into this life and they're filled with pride and they think we're wonderful, even though we really

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aren't. Well, just so. The sunset years are a time when you're getting ready to be born into the kingdom of heaven and none of us are going to take anything very important with us. We're not going to be wonderful when we arrive because we haven't known the purities of heaven yet. Well, when we first get there, we'll

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probably be the ugliest people around. But again, there are those who are there ahead of us and they love us and they'll be waiting with outstretched hands and they'll greet us with great joy. And two of those hands that are extended to us, at least two of them, will have in them nail prints and we'll be with the Christ

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who makes it reality for us. And the memory of that and the anticipation of that gives you a peace of soul that nothing else could do. I know there will be some doubts, but I've discovered that older folks usually have older doubts. And you've lived with them for a long time so you can live with them a little

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while longer. After all, we don't believe our doubts. If we believed our doubts, we wouldn't even call them doubts. I suppose if I were to sum it all up, I would say that I would hope that our older people and all of us when we become older, would be like Don Quixote. You remember that he was much older and he had

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obstacles and infirmities and weaknesses in his life. But he didn't surrender to his losses. He set out on new adventures. He didn't yield to limits. He did things that were outrageous. He jousted with windmills and he saved women who were damsels in distress. And he brought hope to people who were without hope. And he

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knew in his own life a great joy and a great thrill. There was a fun in the challenge that was there. He lived life in a higher key than he'd ever lived it before. And the greatest romance of his life, the beautiful Lady Dulcinea, was part of those older years. And why? Because he had a deep and abiding faith.

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Because he dreamed impossible dreams and reached for unreachable stars. Because he went where other people had not dared to go before. There doesn't have to be suffering with the sunset. And my prayer for those of you who are in those hours and for all of us as we approach those hours is that rather than being dull, we

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will instead sparkle with the splendor of that setting sun. That our swords will shine and our shields will gleam and our armor will scintillate. So may it be for all of us. May we live a long, long life and die young at heart, dreaming impossible dreams that will become in the land beyond the sunset magnificently

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real and forever true. Let us pray. Our Father in days of old, in the days in which the scriptures were being written, and the Psalms were upon the tongues of those who praised and glorified thee, it

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was common for prayers to be sung. And so we sing our prayer today. [Piano music] To dream the impossible dream. To fight the unbeatable foe. To bear with unbearable sorrow. To run where the brave dare not go.

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To right the unrightable wrong. To love pure and chaste from afar. To try... [BLANK_AUDIO]