Jump Start # 1880

Genesis 25:8 “Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was gathered to his people.”

Yesterday morning I preached the funeral for a lady who was 96 years old. I used this text about Abraham’s death to talk about her. I want to share some thoughts that might be helpful for all of us.

All of us have seen changes in our lifetime. The older a person is the greater those changes have been. Sitting on a shelf in my home office is an old candlestick phone. It once actually worked. It’s heavy and kids love to look at it and play with it. It doesn’t have a rotary dial as later models did. With this one, you had to click the handle to get the operator who would connect you. I believe the phone dates about 1910. And then there is my smart phone in which I can take pictures, get directions from Google maps, play games, listen to music, check the weather, send emails, and oh, yes, make a phone call. It’s light weight and fits in my pocket. A lot of changes between those two phones.

For people in their 90’s, they have seen the disappearance of outhouses and hand pumps to draw water. They have witnessed electricity, air conditioning, microwave, dishwashers, TV, power lawn mowers and dozens and dozens of things that this generation takes for granted. Cars today are made by robots. Soon, we are told, cars will drive themselves. It’s hard to even dream what changes will be coming in the next generation. Will there even be phones?

But with all the changes, some things never change.

1. The need for family never changes. There is nothing that can replace mom, dad and the kids. It is sad to see a family of four out to eat and everyone is looking at the screen of their phones. Talk to each other. Nothing will replace that. Nothing beats family time. Worship together. Eat together. Be together. Share stories. Laugh together. No matter what the generation and no matter what technology we have before us, nothing is better than family time. Some of our fondest memories come from our time with the family. Don’t get too busy that you can read a book to a little one. Don’t believe that buying things can replace the joy of your presence. I’ve seen this with our grandkids. Sure they like toys but fill up the ole’ bucket with water and give them an empty cup and they are thrilled for hours, just playing, as long as you are with them. The need for family never changes.

2. The hours in a day never changes. I thought about this at that funeral yesterday. With all the changes that were witnessed in that 96 year old’s life, the number of hours in a day remains the same. She witnessed 18 different Presidents take office. Yet none of those Presidents could make a day longer than what it was from the beginning. All the engineers and scientists that brought all these changes, even putting a man on the moon and bringing him back, they couldn’t stretch a day any longer than what God had made it. Our day is the same length as it was for Abraham Lincoln as it was for the patriarch Abraham. The sun still rises and sets just the same as it did when God first set things in order. All of this reminds us that we only have so much time. I don’t have more time than you do. You don’t have more time that I do. We have the same. We can waste time. We can burn time. But we can’t borrow or make time. The busy person has exactly the same amount of time as the bored person. We can cook faster, clean better, communicate at lightning speed, and do more than folks did in the 1920’s, but, we still have the exact amount of time. Hebrews reminds us that “it is appointed unto man to die once…” And as our verse reminds us, Abraham breathed his last and died. Some day we will take our last breath. Our journey here will be finished. Saying, “I wish I had more time,” isn’t going to happen. You have the same amount of time in a day as everyone else. Maybe we could be more efficient with our time. Maybe we could be more organized. Maybe we waste time watching too much TV. But some things have never changed, time is one of them.

3. The need for Jesus hasn’t changed. We are a pretty smart generation. There was a time, not long ago, when very few went to college. Not today. It’s just the opposite. Very few do not go to college today. We know more about other places. Our news is immediate, from around the world. Yet, with all of this, we have not out grown Jesus. We have not gotten to the point where we have out smarted Jesus. We still need the Lord. Our lives are miserable without Him. We need Him to develop the right character in our hearts. We need Him to forgive us from our sins. Yes, we still sin. That hasn’t changed. We haven’t, on our own, “evolved” away from sin. Society hasn’t gotten better. We still deal with crime. Drugs are rampant. Every night the news tells us of murders. There is not a person who does not know someone who has been divorced. The brokenness of the home. Moderns would have you believe that we don’t need Jesus. That we can get along without all that religious stuff. What they say and what we see simply does not match. Our times are a mess. We need Jesus. We have always needed Jesus. We will always need Jesus. Our hope is not in the White House, the Court House, or, even our house. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ. Lives that will bow to Him. Lives that will conform to Him. Lives that will be changed by Him.

Look what happened in corrupt Corinth. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, drunks, swindlers, covetous were changed. They were washed, justified and sanctified by the blood of Jesus. They did this without an AA. They did this without “Exit counseling.” They did this through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They changed. Moderns tell us that much of this is diseases or the way a person is born and there is no changing. The Corinthians did. They didn’t change definitions of marriage. They didn’t redefine what male and female meant. They didn’t view drunkenness like cancer. They saw these things as sins. They stopped the sins. They became Christians. They worshipped, obeyed and followed Jesus. Their lives had purpose. They learned to see beyond themselves and serve others. They had a real hope in their lives. They developed godly and righteous character. They changed. They became.

Our times will tell us that we don’t need that. We just need to accept people as they are. Broken and miserable will remain broken and miserable. The suicide rate among transvestites is 40%. That’s off the charts for the national average. Something is not right. Trying to make the abnormal normal won’t help matters. We need Jesus.

We will always need Jesus.

As much as life changes, some things never do.

Roger