Participants: Kathy Matthews, Richard O'Ffill
Series Code: TAH
Program Code: TAH000138
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00:31 Hello again, I'm Kathy Matthews
00:33 and this is Thinking About Home. 00:35 We've been doing a series called Plain Talk. 00:38 And our guest has been and is today 00:41 the director of Men's Ministries 00:43 of the Florida conference of Seventh-day Adventists 00:46 and that's Pastor Richard O'Ffill. 00:48 You're just always with us, 00:51 it's seems like lately. 00:52 It is talking plain, talking plain, plain talk. 00:54 You like that I think. 00:55 And today we're going to do some plain talk if, 00:58 and you know unless you've change 01:00 it the last minute. No, no 01:01 I haven't but you know I heard 01:04 you were from Florida, right. 01:06 You bet I'm from Florida, yeah. 01:07 By the way my wife was raised down there, 01:10 originally from Florida? Yeah. Well, 01:12 and when she was about 8 or 9 years old 01:13 and she went to the academy there. 01:15 So there came a time in my life, 01:17 about 16 years ago we went back to Florida 01:19 because her parents were there 01:20 and her sisters are there. 01:22 You it's just, you know sooner or later 01:24 we started Thinking About Home, 01:25 how do you like that? I like that. 01:28 Do you have any senior citizens now there? 01:30 As we say is the Pope Catholic. 01:33 Oh no. Senior citizens is what Florida is about. 01:38 I don't know if you've been down there 01:40 and noticed the, you see it everywhere. 01:43 I preached in some churches Kathy would 01:46 you believe it, where I think the average age 01:48 was like 70, 70 years old. 01:51 And so old age is everywhere, 01:53 old age is everywhere. 01:55 Is it the golden years, is old age 01:57 really the golden years? 01:58 Isn't it something how they call old age 02:00 the golden years? 02:01 Now this is horrible what I'm about say, 02:03 I'm getting older, I'm questioning that. 02:04 And so you're wondering if you are headed 02:06 toward the golden years. 02:07 Doesn't seem very much gold as it used to be. 02:08 No you are headed to getting old 02:10 that I can say now, is it the golden years? 02:12 You know what I've said? 02:14 I've said whoever called old age 02:16 the golden years must have been the man 02:17 who made a million dollars selling cemetery spots. 02:21 No, no you know I really believe with all due 02:25 respect that old age is the biggest crisis 02:30 of our human existence, yes. 02:32 I think that it's the tragedy it takes, 02:37 it takes power, it makes it weak. 02:38 It takes beauty and wipes it out. 02:41 And in fact my dad and I'll talk 02:46 about him a little later. 02:47 He said Dick, it isn't so much 02:49 that the wages of sin is death, 02:51 he says it's the wages of sin is old age. 02:55 And I know some people; you know they're 02:57 all being, because they just soon die sometimes. 02:59 Well, you become trapped in your body and; 03:04 now I know some people say well 03:05 you are only as old as you feel 03:07 and well I'm thankful that there can 03:10 be those who are really upbeat but 03:12 though you may know a person 03:14 who is a 100 years old, who looks like a 50. 03:17 Most of that person's classmates 03:19 or family are long gone. 03:21 Right, that would be the unusual person. 03:22 Yeah. And so generally speaking old age 03:26 is physically debilitating and I don't want, 03:28 you know those who are with us to you know to say, 03:31 oh man I'm going to turn this off 03:33 because it's depressing. 03:34 But I think medical science probably carries us 03:39 all things being equal. 03:40 All things being equal now, 03:43 even up through the 70s in other words 03:45 you can be you know so, 03:47 so in being in your 70s. 03:50 But I've read some place a few years ago 03:51 that it seems like the organs of the body 03:54 under present conditions are sort of programmed 03:58 to wear out in 80s, 03:59 you know if we make it to the 80s. 04:01 And it's a sobering thing to think that 04:05 you know you might do well in the 60s, 04:09 you might do well in the 70s but the 80s 04:11 will probably do us in, 04:13 I mean few come out of the 80s 04:16 and those who come out are really old. 04:18 So, now you see where are you coming from, 04:22 why are you saying this, 04:23 why not be upbeat and vivaciously, 04:24 this isn't giving hope. 04:26 No, no as the program goes we'll talk about this, 04:29 I'm just saying let's get real, let's get real. 04:32 I don't think that our lives can have meaning 04:34 at any age as long as we're in fantasy land. 04:37 And you know down where I lived there in Florida 04:39 we got Disney World, so you can go to 04:41 Disney for a day and pretend your Mickey Mouse. 04:43 But when you go home at night 04:45 you realize that, you're still Dick O'Ffill, 04:47 your house has got rats or something, 04:49 you now it's not Mickey Mouse anymore, yes. 04:50 And so sooner or later 04:52 and I think the Christian life, 04:54 if its going to be powerful, 04:56 it's going to be meaningful, 04:58 it's got to be about reality. 04:59 It's not about pretending. 05:01 When I get to be a certain age in my life, 05:03 let's get be real. I'm not 18 anymore. 05:07 Now well I'm still 18 but I'm more than 18 05:10 and I tell the truth sometimes, right, 05:12 I say 18 plus, yeah 18 plus. 05:14 When I stop being 18, I didn't really stop being 18 05:17 I just added more years, right. But I'm not going to 05:19 pretend I'm 18, I'm not 18. 05:22 I'm not going to pretend I'm 30, I'm not 30. 05:24 I'm who I am. And you see I think 05:26 that we would do better inter-generationally, 05:29 if when I talk with an 18 year old that 05:32 I don't pretend I'm 18, really I don't know 05:35 what it's like to be 18 in the 21st century. 05:38 I don't, so why pretend. 05:39 In other words I could say well when I 05:40 was 18 then they're not listening anymore. 05:43 Because when I was 18 when they're 05:45 18 is not the same. 05:46 But the fact is that I'm 60 years old and so, 05:51 I can talk with an 18 year old, 05:54 what do we have in common, 05:55 that we're both alive today. 05:56 And that's what unites us, 05:58 we're not united in our age 06:00 but we're united in the fact that they 06:02 we're both alive today and that we're here 06:03 to support each other. 06:04 The youth support us with our strength 06:06 and may be when you'll get to be 60 06:08 you'll support them with your experience. 06:10 Experience is what I hope. 06:12 I hope we have a little experience by the 06:14 time it happened. 06:15 And that they would respect that, 06:16 that there is truly an experience there. 06:17 You know the Bible, in Ecclesiastes 06:19 I was gonna ask you, the Bible talks 06:20 about old age. I knew you were gonna ask. 06:22 See I even have a place here so 06:23 I wouldn't have to, you got the world's biggest 06:25 Bible here, I do not. 06:28 Well anyway at least I can, 06:30 at least I can read it. 06:32 I used to think at this text, 06:34 are you not having trouble with your eyes? 06:36 When I drive I put on glasses believe it 06:38 or not and, that's why mine started but I 06:41 had to keep them on most of the time after that. 06:44 I can't thread needles very well. 06:46 Oh it's getting so bad and I've been trying 06:49 to tread some needles lately, yeah, 06:51 look in my mouth in the mirror, I still can't, 06:53 even the tonsils they're getting dim. 06:57 Well anyway that, and it talks about that 07:00 in Ecclesiastes 12, you know 07:01 it starts out and I think we're familiar with this 07:04 text which it says, remember now thy creator 07:06 in the days of thy youth. 07:08 And everybody like oh man, here comes a text 07:10 about youth, the rest, or a chapter about. 07:12 This is the rest of the story right. No, no 07:13 this chapter is not about youth, 07:16 it's about old age. 07:17 And some people who would call it 07:19 the Golden Years, listen to this, 07:20 remember now thy Creator in the days of 07:22 thy youth, listen how it describes old age. 07:25 While the evil days come not, 07:28 nor the years draw nigh, 07:31 when thou shall say I have no pleasure in them. 07:33 In other words it's calling the later years, 07:36 the evil time in which it's not fun anymore. 07:39 Now you can say, well all it's just, it just so, 07:42 now this is, this is what it says here. 07:44 It says when you get to be old it's not fun anymore 07:47 and then it sets off your kind of 07:49 describing it says, while the sun 07:51 or the light or the moon or the stars 07:53 be not darkened, nor the clouds 07:54 return after the rain, failing eyesight. 07:56 And so my wife could pick these out 08:00 because she is able to, you know see 08:02 that the symbolism and all this, 08:04 but basically this text is saying your eyes go bad, 08:07 your hair grows gray, I've already got one 08:09 of those symptoms. 08:11 Your teeth fall, you can't hear anymore, 08:14 you can't sleep at night, somebody leads you around. 08:18 Yeah, you feel like you're going to fall, 08:19 you're afraid to go out, 08:20 you feel like you're going to fall. 08:22 And it just describes the whole phenomena 08:25 and then it gets up to the last 08:26 and then it talks about to the silver cord 08:28 being loosed, and then it says 08:30 the dust shall return to the earth 08:32 and so there is the story of our life. 08:35 And I wouldn't exactly call that the gold, 08:37 the golden years. 08:40 I think it's the crisis of human existence. 08:45 When I preach sometimes, 08:46 there will be some young people sitting up 08:48 on the front row and I can't resist 08:50 calling them forward and I'll, 08:52 and so I'll bring a young person forward 08:55 and I'll say to the congregation 08:57 I want to announce something about this 08:59 young person that they may not have known. 09:01 Did I do that in any camp meeting, 09:02 yes you did that, I can remember it, yes. 09:04 And I'm gonna announce something 09:05 they don't know and, then you have 09:06 Dick Nunez and his son. 09:10 And so I announce that this young person, 09:13 this young strong beautiful person 09:14 is old age positive, old age positive, 09:18 that even a new born baby is old age positive 09:20 and that, and then I go ahead and tell, 09:24 I said we're all born old age positive 09:27 but we don't begin to have symptoms 09:28 until about the age of 45. 09:31 Now I'm not gonna ask you how old you are? 09:33 Oh you're not, but anyway. 09:35 But it is something how, when we had 09:38 our 25th class anniversary from high school, 09:41 we were probably 38, 39, 40 I don't 09:44 remember what it was. 09:45 We were actually more handsome and 09:47 more beautiful than we were when we were18. 09:49 Well, I can agree with that. 09:51 Yeah but they're just, just five years 09:54 later you begin to see those changes. 09:57 Suddenly it's just one day I don't care, 09:59 it's not about living healthy 10:00 or your lives you know, 10:01 it says that skin texture changes. 10:04 Mine's changed tremendously just this 10:05 past year. It's unbelievable, 10:07 it's unbelievable and you know where 10:09 before you used to, you know when 10:10 you smile you'd have wrinkles and then 10:12 pretty soon you'd have wrinkles 10:13 when you not smile. 10:14 It's the bags underneath there, 10:16 and the bags under eyes and the neck 10:18 changes and you begin to and you see 10:21 I remember my father-in-law and he passed away 10:24 when he was 88 and he was a handsome man, 10:27 a strong handsome man, he sang beautifully. 10:30 And he told us one time, he say I look in 10:33 the mirror and I say what's happening to me 10:37 and I've been, Kathy, I've been in convalescent homes 10:41 where the, and this is, this is gonna 10:44 sound terrible, where these little prunes are, 10:46 little prunes, right that we love so much 10:48 but you look over on the chest of drawers 10:51 and there is a picture of a beautiful woman. 10:54 Guess who? That same person, 10:56 guess who, guess who. 10:57 And you, because you see I think in all of our 11:00 minds when we see an older person we think 11:03 that's the way they always were. 11:05 I tell people I say I can't remember 11:08 my grandmother when she wasn't old. 11:10 So therefore, but I truly can't, I only, 11:14 I only knew one and they were very 11:16 old when I was little. 11:18 And so to you she was born old. 11:20 Oh well I tell, you know, she didn't get old, 11:22 she was born old. I don't remember thinking that 11:24 way but I suppose it, it was like that. 11:25 But you know where I'm coming from, yes. 11:27 In other words you only knew her as a, 11:29 as on old person, as an old person. 11:30 So therefore when she would pass on, 11:32 it wouldn't come as a jolt you know it was 11:34 well she was old anyway and then, 11:36 it's been expected for a while, right. 11:38 But what about your parents, 11:39 are your parents living? 11:40 I still, my mother's still living 11:43 just turned 82 a week ago. 11:44 But you've lost, my father 11 years ago, 11:47 your father. 11:48 And you know my dad is 85 11:54 and my mother was 83 and it's been, 11:59 it was just last winter that she passed on 12:02 and I think this has been a little bit 12:05 of shock for me. 12:06 Now, when I say shock I knew it was there. 12:10 And you know, I could tell the change 12:12 but I don't think it really impacted me 12:16 or it wasn't impacted until it really happened. 12:18 And someone told me just a few weeks ago, 12:21 they said you know I don't we've realized 12:24 our mortality till our parents die. 12:26 Because it was always out there, 12:28 it was always happening, 12:30 obviously in some horrible situation 12:32 where our spouse dies or a child dies 12:34 you know that's awful but I think 12:38 you know all these things being equal, 12:40 it was suddenly when we watch the ravages 12:41 of old age and then suddenly one of them 12:45 dies and you say what's going on. 12:48 And you know what I think this 12:50 has done to me; I think it's 12:52 made me realize that I'm next, 12:56 moving then on. 12:57 That before it was grandma ahead of the 13:00 line, you know and so grandma 13:02 and then we had years, but now 13:04 suddenly its mom. 13:05 And here's my dad, my dad was 13:08 a big man, he could always work harder, 13:10 he was always stronger, 13:12 you know had more energy 13:13 than even I did and then last year 13:17 he has two strokes. 13:18 And he loses the ability to swallow 13:21 and so now he takes the food directly 13:23 into his stomach, you know so for 13:24 him breakfast psh, psh, a dinner is psh, psh, 13:27 supper is psh, psh. And we're talking 13:30 about invalid, we're talking about invalid, 13:32 this is my dad. And so as I look at that, 13:35 it's caused me to kind of go through 13:38 all these thoughts, yes of course. 13:39 And I think that, that's probably what, 13:42 what the scripture means when it says 13:46 remember when you're young 13:48 what it's going to be like 13:49 and you would say, so what, 13:50 so you can be depressed. 13:51 No, no, no, so that you'll live better, yes. 13:55 You know because young people think 13:56 that they're going to be young forever. 13:58 Wouldn't bring us to a closer world with Christ, 14:02 it could bring us to a closer world with Christ, 14:04 give us clear thoughts about 14:06 what I ought to be now, I think so. 14:08 Because you see it's this idea that 14:11 I'm immortal, with the young people, 14:14 I'm immortal, I'm never going to die. 14:15 And so with this kind of an ideology 14:20 they can do some crazy things 14:21 and they think well, you know it'll 14:24 catch up with me but one day it catches up 14:26 with everybody. 14:27 We are all heading that direction. 14:30 We're all heading, and so I think that the 14:31 sooner we look at our mortality, 14:34 and the scripture says look at it when 14:36 you're young, remember not thy creator 14:39 when you are young so that this 14:40 doesn't catch you by surprise, yes. 14:42 I see, well you know I haven't thought of 14:45 it quite that way to bring it out 14:47 in connection with the other verses. 14:49 Usually it's always just the one verse along, 14:51 that's right. 14:52 Remember thy creator in the days 14:53 of thy youth. 14:54 And another thing that's happened 14:55 that I think is sad and it's in our society. 14:59 I think that in this day of tears, 15:02 I think that's what this life's about, 15:04 lets face it. 15:05 If we've all got a death decree against us, 15:09 going forth of weeping. 15:11 And so that's right, this veil of tears, 15:14 yes, then originally God meant for the 15:17 generations to minister to each other. 15:19 Where the old person could be cared for, 15:23 that the young would look out for the old, 15:25 because remember this is a terrible thing to say. 15:27 Our parents started out diapering us, 15:30 it ends up just the other way, yes, yes. 15:32 And you now that, and you know 15:33 you could say that and there's, 15:35 what goes around comes around. 15:37 That they start out caring for us helpless. 15:39 And we end up caring for them, okay. 15:42 When you in that oriental culture, 15:43 it seems like they care more respect for older age. 15:47 I'm not sure just exactly how they take care 15:49 of someone physically, but at least respect, 15:52 but this culture needs that council a great deal. 15:56 Because we've got a great deal 15:58 of senior citizens now. 15:59 Well this, see this culture is about youth. 16:01 See this culture is under the illusion 16:04 that where as the years go by 16:06 we're gonna get younger and younger. 16:08 And so and if it doesn't do that 16:11 may be that's an older statement 16:12 at least it's broken off the youth, 16:14 it's developed these subcultures. 16:16 So what they've done is that, 16:19 they've taken something that was 16:21 to be supportive like a long strong beam 16:23 that could bear the weight of this life 16:26 and they've cut it in pieces. 16:30 So now the youth have to live alone 16:32 and they can't bear themselves. 16:33 The youth can't stand themselves, 16:35 but because this culture has broken them off 16:38 into a subculture then they don't have 16:41 the support of those 16:42 who are further down, right. 16:44 And because each of us are broken off, 16:45 we don't have the support of those 16:47 who can give us just the strength we need. 16:49 So in reality we need each other. 16:50 It was the way it was meant to be, 16:52 it was to be a continual. 16:54 And so every time we slice this 16:56 into smaller and smaller pieces, 16:58 we weaken the integrity of our ability 17:02 to live life as it really is. 17:05 So ministering to them? 17:06 Well you know, to us, to them, to us, I don't. 17:10 You know when I think of that, them 17:12 doesn't seem quite right, 17:14 but ministering nevertheless. 17:16 I'm a director for community services 17:18 of the community services for the Florida 17:20 conference among the other things I do. 17:22 And you know what I tell 17:24 the community service people 17:25 and then we could say the community service 17:27 ladies and they tend to be 17:28 on the higher circle, right. 17:31 I say if you do nothing else 17:34 in community services, 17:36 minister to the aged, yes. 17:39 And I really mean that, now 17:42 I'm not saying that the street people are not 17:44 worthy or that, you know the poor 17:48 and the needy, right, and people who've had 17:51 tragedy that these. 17:52 But you see the greatest tragedy 17:54 is old age. You see you can't, 17:56 you can't recover from that. 17:58 There is no cure for that and you know 18:01 I mean there is a cure for most 18:02 everything else. You know, 18:03 I'll get a loan or I'll get a new house 18:05 or I'll let my house burn down, 18:06 those kind of cures. 18:07 But what do you do about this and 18:09 so I just plead with them. 18:11 One year I did a survey in the 18:13 Florida conference and I had the ladies 18:16 locate the shut-ins, 18:17 now they weren't ten millions. 18:20 You know it wasn't that many per church. 18:22 Then I wish the churches out there who 18:24 are participating with us in this program 18:26 that you would do a survey of the 18:30 old people, the shut-ins in your church. 18:34 And that you would then say our first 18:36 responsibility is to minister to these people. 18:39 Because, doesn't it say in the book of James, 18:41 pure religion and undefiled is to visit 18:45 the widows and the orphans. 18:47 And Kathy I interpret widows 18:50 as being grandma, yes. 18:52 This has to be, well certainly they're included. 18:55 This has to be the people that are in 18:56 the old folks home yes. 18:58 You know I even heard, 18:59 oh this is awful case and I hope it 19:02 never happen again where one 19:04 church in some place they dis-fellowshipped. 19:07 You know they took her name off 19:08 the church rolls, because she was 19:09 in-convalescent at home and couldn't come 19:11 to church anymore, really. 19:12 And I thought oh no, no. 19:15 That will be painful. But anyway 19:18 that what missionary work, 19:20 it is sweeter than to minister to these weak. 19:25 You bear in mind that when your mate's dead, 19:29 yes, you wake up everyday 19:31 your body just hurts you so bad. 19:33 Your kids don't care about you anymore; 19:36 you've lost all your influence. 19:37 You don't, your finances are busted, yes. 19:41 You can't fly away from your body, 19:43 you can't get out, you're trapped. 19:44 You are doing time that only death will 19:46 set you free. If this isn't the 19:48 greatest missionary work that we could 19:50 in a nurturing sense, 19:53 I can't think of anything else that would be. 19:55 You know I think that this thing with mom 19:59 and dad has made me think about 20:03 the coming of Jesus, in the way 20:04 that I didn't do before. 20:06 You know and you hear me keep reminiscing, 20:09 a number of years ago we talked about 20:11 the coming of Jesus a lot, yes. 20:13 You see my daddy when he was a young man, 20:16 he didn't think he would ever grow old 20:19 enough to be, to finish college 20:20 or to be married, yes. 20:22 Jesus was coming. And they believed, 20:24 the Seventh-day Adventist church 20:26 was built on the blessed hope. 20:29 And then suddenly it seemed like 20:30 when he didn't come, and we still believe it. 20:33 Well, it may be, it may be intellectually, 20:36 but in a way at least in my life time 20:40 we began to create our own heaven on earth. 20:43 You see when we were poor and when were 20:44 little prosecuted yeah, then we say 20:47 this earth is not my home, yes. 20:49 I'm just passing through, my treasures are. 20:50 Well just as soon as you get a couple of cars 20:52 and you get you know nice house, 20:54 you can never get paid off, don't want to get. 20:56 Then pretty soon you'll say well really I, 20:58 severed from it. Yeah, rather not 21:00 be severed from it. Yeah. And so, 21:02 I think what this old age, 21:04 this close up view of it with dad and mom, 21:08 it made me realize that 21:12 we're not getting out of this side the 21:14 coming of Jesus, right. 21:16 That it is the blessed hope, 21:17 that it's the resurrection, 21:19 the trumpet sill sound and the dead in Christ 21:21 shall raise first, that's what we need to have 21:23 a hold on. Isn't this true 21:24 and you know I thought of the mighty men, 21:26 I don't know if you've read 21:28 about President Reagan, you know 21:29 he has Alzheimer's disease, yes. 21:30 And I was reading a little article and 21:34 they said he doesn't know anymore who is, 21:36 here he was this man influenced 21:38 the whole planet so much, yes. 21:40 And they said that the secret service stands 21:43 near by and he throws leaves in the 21:45 swimming pool and then they 21:46 clean them out and he throw. 21:47 And I thought this is what you get power, 21:51 influence, fame and then you're throwing leaves 21:54 in the swimming pool and they're pulling them out 21:56 and see. It makes you wanna say, 21:58 Oh Jesus, come Lord Jesus, have mercy, yes. 22:00 Do you know, you know even in the scripture, 22:01 yes, I don't think we read about it very often, 22:04 but David that powerful man after God's own 22:07 heart, yes, yes. It doesn't say he got 22:09 Alzheimer's but he must have had dementia. 22:12 Because, because it says that in his old age 22:15 in winter they had a young woman sleeping 22:17 with him to keep him warm, and he didn't know 22:20 that she was even there, right. 22:21 What does that tell you? 22:23 The old man David, yes, that man of God, 22:27 he couldn't tell where they, what was going on, right. 22:31 But you see the Bible, are you clearly depressed? 22:37 Well, let's do something else. 22:39 No, but you see what this does, 22:42 it drives us to Jesus, yes. 22:44 Now, you can go out and say well, 22:46 let's eat, drink and be merry before 22:48 tomorrow we die. 22:49 You know that's one tax that people take, 22:50 well this is all it is, I'm gonna do it right. 22:54 But this is to burn the candle on both ends. 22:56 This is lose, lose, yes. 22:59 But this kind of knowledge says no 23:01 I'm going to live my life in ministry 23:03 for others, wisely. 23:04 See, this is what I've been thinking lately. 23:06 I thought a selfish life is going to end up 23:10 a loser; it's a bitter life because we could 23:12 never have our lusts fulfilled. 23:15 And that because we have to be old 23:18 and die one time, the thing that makes 23:19 life meaningful along the way will be service 23:22 to others, yes. Well, yes otherness. 23:25 And that's what Jesus' life was about. 23:27 He knew that at the end of the line 23:29 he was going to be crucified 23:31 and if he didn't sit around in a little 23:34 bowl thinking about it, 23:36 you know, he made it worth while, untenable. 23:38 But all the time He's thinking of others 23:40 and that thinking of others is giving him 23:42 the strength to bear, to keep on, 23:45 with his mission. 23:46 And so we live in a society that's 23:48 so selfish, and it's not preparing us 23:50 for inevitable, yeah. 23:52 And really the way we prepare for 23:54 the inevitable is to work and think for others. 23:57 Don't you think so? Yes I think so. 23:58 You know I want to invite our audience 24:01 to write or call 3ABN and for topics 24:08 for the future on Thinking About Home. 24:10 I would be happy to take your suggestion, 24:12 and maybe there would be something 24:15 that you would suggest that we could work on. 24:17 And would meet your needs or some area 24:20 that the Lord would bless you on, 24:22 the address is 3ABN, PO Box 220, 24:26 West Frankfort, Illinois 62896. 24:30 And the 800 number is, 1-800-752-3226. 24:35 Now before we close there is another 24:40 subject that we can go out with 24:43 and that's the subject of dysfunction. 24:45 Well I, you know I don't know how far 24:48 to go into this. Well it doesn't seem like it would 24:50 exactly relate but there is some relationship 24:53 to what we're talking about here, isn't it? 24:54 I think what you are mentioning is that 24:57 we live in a generation that really 25:00 is so cut off from its past. 25:02 And if it's not cut-off it wants to accuse 25:06 the other generation, yes. 25:08 And I think when you mentioned dysfunction 25:10 it reminds us of that text in Proverbs, 25:11 which says there is a generation 25:12 that hates his father and despises his mother, 25:15 Proverbs 30. And I think that you said earlier 25:18 that in other cultures they respected their aged. 25:21 They respected the generations that may, 25:23 you see this one doesn't, orient culture. 25:25 This one not only doesn't respect it, 25:27 it lives a selfish life, but it accuses its past. 25:31 In other words, lining them for what I am. 25:33 For what I am, well the reason that I'm what I'm, 25:35 and here my father might be 85 years old, 25:38 well father did it to me, he messed up, 25:40 and have mercy on him, have mercy. 25:42 Sure he had flaws, don't we have any flaws. 25:45 Surely he made mistakes, haven't we made any? 25:48 But this idea that in this generation we want to say 25:51 well all my troubles are the cause of my fathers 25:55 or my grandfathers or my environment. 25:57 And so just as soon as we say that Kathy, 25:59 we're saying hey don't blame me. 26:01 I'm not responsible for the way I act. 26:03 So what this is doing is perpetuating the sins, 26:06 in fact this becomes literally descending 26:08 the sins of the fathers upon the children, 26:10 into the third and forth generation. 26:12 I think one of the greatest problems that we have 26:13 in this whole area, is not only 26:15 not respecting our aged, 26:19 the fifth commandment says honor your 26:23 father and mother. It doesn't say if 26:24 they were good guys, it doesn't say if 26:26 they were ministers or Bible workers. 26:29 Well, how are you going to, 26:30 how are you going to explain that to the ones 26:36 who have really abused. I mean I always 26:39 think about that, really abused their children. 26:41 I think in the last few seconds of the program 26:43 we get really get into that. 26:45 We can't get into except to say 26:46 that God gives us a gift of forgiveness, yes, 26:49 for our sakes. For our sakes 26:51 and you see this gift of forgiveness enables us 26:54 to get on with our lives, it enables me 26:56 to see my aged father with compassion. 26:58 To have mercy on him, and administer to him 27:02 in spite of what I might perceive that he might 27:05 or might not have done. 27:06 Oh how important it is that we recognize 27:10 our own responsibility, that we pray 27:12 that God will help us to forgive those, 27:14 albeit our parents that have wronged us, right. 27:17 And then if we'll do that, 27:19 he'll give us grace, amen, amen. 27:21 We need that gift of forgiveness, absolutely. 27:24 You know we've been ending with prayer. 27:26 We want to do that again, 27:28 we want to ask the audience to join us again 27:31 on Thinking About Home, but stick with us, 27:33 we're gonna pray for you. 27:35 Heavenly Father, in a special way we pray 27:38 for the aged. O Lord, this great crisis 27:41 not only do we pray for them, we pray that 27:43 you will come quickly, oh come Lord Jesus, 27:46 yes, sound that great trumpet, 27:48 that trumpet of resurrection we pray in Jesus name. 27:51 We look forward to that wonderful day 27:54 through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17