Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Obituary of a Hero Msg 1920 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Obituary of a Hero Msg 1920 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: This afternoon, for about an hour and a half, my
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  Speaker 1: son and I were looking at tombstones. I was giving
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  Speaker 1: final thoughts to the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy, and I
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  Speaker 1: couldn't get into the spirit of it completely, so I
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  Speaker 1: walked through the den. He was laying on the floor, resting,
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  Speaker 1: and I said, I'm going to go look at tombstones.
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  Speaker 1: And he said, can I go with you? And I said, yes,
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  Speaker 1: that'll be fine. So we got in the car and
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  Speaker 1: drove out to a nearby cemetery and walked around for
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  Speaker 1: about an hour and a half. Ever done that? It
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  Speaker 1: sounds ghoulish to start with, but it is quite an
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  Speaker 1: education to see what is written on tombstones. Really is, seriously.
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  Speaker 1: There's a tombstone over here in Loma Vista that says,
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  Speaker 1: I want to get it just right. Something like, you
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  Speaker 1: can't win than a name. That tells you something, doesn't it?
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  Speaker 2: Really.
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  Speaker 1: There's one that says, our darling son. May 3rd, 1940
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  Speaker 1: to May 7th, 1940. Says something, doesn't it? There are
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  Speaker 1: perhaps thousands, but millions of comments you will find written
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  Speaker 1: on tombstones. That is one of my favorite pastimes when
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  Speaker 1: I visit historic cities is to visit historic cemeteries. See
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  Speaker 1: what was written about people. You know what? I have
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  Speaker 1: never seen any difference in any tombstone when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to time, it's always represented by a little, small dash.
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  Speaker 1: And that's all. Right? They could have lived to be 80, 90.
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  Speaker 1: But all of life, when it comes to a tombstone,
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  Speaker 1: is wrapped up in one little slash. That's life. It's gone.
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  Speaker 1: You see, when you study a man as great as
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  Speaker 1: Moses and then you bury him at the end of
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  Speaker 1: the study and you look back on where you've been,
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  Speaker 1: all of a sudden you come down to some very
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  Speaker 1: real basics. And we do that this evening. There's not
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  Speaker 1: a lot of flair. There's nothing sensational. There's not a
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  Speaker 1: whole lot of depth. In the burial, he just dies.
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  Speaker 1: But God, though he hides the burial place, he's the
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  Speaker 1: only one God buried in all the Bible. You know that?
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  Speaker 1: The only man God ever buried personally was Moses, and
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  Speaker 1: he hid the tomb. But he let us read the obituary.
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  Speaker 1: He allowed us to read the tombstones to see what
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  Speaker 1: it says in his estimate of Moses. And it's upon
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  Speaker 1: that subject we want to think this evening. I suppose
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  Speaker 1: I began to think seriously about death when my dad
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  Speaker 1: passed out in the middle service last Sunday morning here
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  Speaker 1: in this place. And as most of you know, was hospitalized.
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  Speaker 1: And things have gone from bad to worse. There, first
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  Speaker 1: of all, was a heart attack, and then that led
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  Speaker 1: to several strokes, we think. The paralysis has led to
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  Speaker 1: difficulty in swallowing. So he can't get that together. The
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  Speaker 1: muscles of the esophagus aren't working right. And so he
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  Speaker 1: gags a lot. And as a result of a couple
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  Speaker 1: of complications, a virus set in, which led to a fever.
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  Speaker 1: And now he has pneumonia. We just found out today.
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  Speaker 1: And I visit him. I sat there Wednesday night at
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  Speaker 1: 1030 in the dimlit room of a hospital room. And
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  Speaker 1: I watched white-clad nurses passing by, rapidly doing their thing,
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  Speaker 1: and I looked at a man dying on a bed.
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  Speaker 1: Lucille and I were there this afternoon, and we looked
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  Speaker 1: again at a man without teeth, without conscious awareness. He's
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  Speaker 1: that hollow look in his eye, that distant. And the
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  Speaker 1: man I once held and touched and felt is dying.
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  Speaker 1: He's leaving. Just a dash. He'd be gone. And in
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  Speaker 1: the movement of all of that and that quiet trip
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  Speaker 1: to the tombstones, I've suddenly begun to feel something of
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  Speaker 1: the scene that happened up on Mount Pisgah where Moses died.
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  Speaker 1: Kind of grips you down deep. Kind of quiet. I
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  Speaker 1: think it's a tragedy to go to a passage of
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  Speaker 1: scripture as though you're going to a lesson to complete.
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  Speaker 1: There's an atmosphere. God's book is a book of life.
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  Speaker 1: And except for his son, he never lingers over death.
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  Speaker 1: I can't count on one hand the number of lengthy obituaries.
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  Speaker 1: They just die. And then life A whole new dimension starts.
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  Speaker 1: But now we have a chapter on death of Moses,
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  Speaker 1: the death of Moses, and it's worth some time. It's
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  Speaker 1: worth it to look over his tombstone and see what
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  Speaker 1: God has said. Let's do that. Chapter 34 of Deuteronomy
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  Speaker 1: wraps it up. It begins with something about the place
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  Speaker 1: and the purpose. Beginning at verse 1, Now Moses went
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  Speaker 1: up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to
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  Speaker 1: the top of Pisgah. The Encyclopedia Britannica says at its
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  Speaker 1: summit it's 4,500 feet. That's almost a mile. There are
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  Speaker 1: not too many 120-year-old men who can walk a mountain,
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  Speaker 1: walk up a mountain almost a mile high and live
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  Speaker 1: to tell the story. Moses could. He did it. In
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  Speaker 1: case you wonder what condition he was in, just think
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  Speaker 1: about that. When's the last time you went up a mountain?
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  Speaker 1: Probably it's been some while. I mean, since you walked.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe never. I've only done it twice. I never planned
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  Speaker 1: to do it again for the rest of my life,
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  Speaker 1: but I did it twice. Man, I was huffing and
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  Speaker 1: puffing and blowing the house down all the way up
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  Speaker 1: that crazy thing, and it wasn't even 2,000 feet. I
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  Speaker 1: felt like a martyr. And here was Moses, 4,500 feet,
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  Speaker 1: and he has a great time when he gets up there.
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  Speaker 1: You don't find any self-pity in Moses. He knows he's
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  Speaker 1: going to die. God's already told him. He's already placed
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  Speaker 1: a man in his spot, Joshua, and it's the last time.
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  Speaker 1: And the believer has no reason to fear or run
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  Speaker 1: back Panic-stricken when it comes to dying. That's what it's
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  Speaker 1: all about. You're not really ready to live until you're
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  Speaker 1: ready to die. And when you're ready to die, hang it.
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  Speaker 1: Let's do it. See? Now there's a lot of feeling,
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  Speaker 1: I realize, but in the final analysis, wow, that opens
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  Speaker 1: up a whole new vista that just boggles the mind.
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  Speaker 1: It's a whole new dimension. And Moses was looking forward
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  Speaker 1: to it. We really want to hang on to the dying,
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  Speaker 1: don't we? We really do. There's a piece written that says,
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  Speaker 1: What's wrong with me, Lord? Week after week, I begged
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  Speaker 1: you to take her. In agony, I wept and waited
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  Speaker 1: while she grappled with insidious pain. I watched the gradual
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  Speaker 1: decline of her once strong and lovely body. I saw
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  Speaker 1: her lines of weariness, her constant discomfort. I listened to
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  Speaker 1: her broken sobs as she pleaded for release. I felt
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  Speaker 1: the pressure of her trembling fingers when the gripping pain intensified.
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  Speaker 1: I sensed her growing weakness, her deep depression. Through sleepless nights,
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  Speaker 1: I listened to her labored breathing. In the darkness, I
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  Speaker 1: cried to you. Over and over, I cried. Then yesterday morning, Lord,
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  Speaker 1: at the first streak of dawn, you answered my prayer. Gently,
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  Speaker 1: you took her to yourself. You rewarded her with fullness
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  Speaker 1: of joy. Thank you, Lord. Yet, and even while I
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  Speaker 1: thank you, I wish I could have kept her just
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  Speaker 1: one more day. What's wrong with me, Lord? I want
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  Speaker 1: to keep Moses. You ever want to keep a loved one? Sure.
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  Speaker 1: That's part of the fleshing out of us. That's deep
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  Speaker 1: within us. To keep, not give. Hold on to, not share.
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  Speaker 1: I want to hold Moses. I want it to linger
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  Speaker 1: but God says no longer he's mine and so he
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  Speaker 1: takes him up to the mountain and while he's up
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  Speaker 1: on that mountain he gives him a view the likes
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  Speaker 1: of which you and I cannot imagine because we will
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  Speaker 1: never see it as Moses saw it the promised land
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  Speaker 1: That virgin soil that never soiled the sandals of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: And Moses looked out over that land. If I read
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  Speaker 1: this geography right, verse 1, the Lord showed him all
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  Speaker 1: the land. Gilead as far as Dan, Naphtali, Ephraim, Manasseh,
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  Speaker 1: the land of Judah, the western sea, and he goes
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  Speaker 1: all the way around. In fact, if you study it,
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  Speaker 1: he starts by looking north. And then he turns around
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  Speaker 1: and he looks east, west. And then he looks further
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  Speaker 1: and he goes south. Then he turns and he goes east.
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  Speaker 1: He's turning around in a circle like a beacon. And
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  Speaker 1: he's looking all around that great scene down the valley,
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  Speaker 1: looking over into Jericho. It's a moving passage, even in
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  Speaker 1: the geography of it. And Moses is just sort of
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  Speaker 1: clucking his tongue. Man, look at that. Look at that. Wow,
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  Speaker 1: look at that. You know, however they said that in Hebrew. No, no,
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  Speaker 1: look at that. And then when it was all wrapped up,
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  Speaker 1: God says, okay, Moses, come on home. You see that
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  Speaker 1: fourth verse? Then the Lord said to him, this is
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  Speaker 1: the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
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  Speaker 1: that I will give it to your descendants. Oh, God
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  Speaker 1: is so faithful. I will give it to your descendants.
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  Speaker 1: I have let you see it with your eyes, but
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  Speaker 1: you shall not go over there. I've let you see it,
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  Speaker 1: but you can't stand on it. So Moses, the servant
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord, died. D-I-E-D. Hero or not. That's the
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  Speaker 1: way you pass on. You die. He died because According
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  Speaker 1: to the word of the Lord. Two things stand out
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  Speaker 1: when I think of the grave. First, the aloneness of death.
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  Speaker 1: Not the loneliness. There's a difference. Loneliness suggests the feeling
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  Speaker 1: of longing, reaching in vain for someone else. Aloneness means
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  Speaker 1: nobody else goes along. That's what I see here. You
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  Speaker 1: never take a companion with you when you travel through death.
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  Speaker 1: You go all alone. Talmud says, man is born with
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  Speaker 1: his fist clenched, but he dies with his hands open.
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  Speaker 1: You don't take it with you. It all stays back.
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  Speaker 1: And his life was his legacy. He died right there.
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  Speaker 1: He died all alone. You know, we are strangers to
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  Speaker 1: being alone, honestly. We have a telephone. We have a car.
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  Speaker 1: We have contact points with friends, rendezvous places to meet.
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  Speaker 1: It's a sign of our times to be gregarious. A
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  Speaker 1: writer by the name of Ruth Harms Calkin puts together
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  Speaker 1: an interesting word. You know, Lord, how I serve you
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  Speaker 1: with great emotional fervor in the limelight. You know how
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  Speaker 1: eagerly I speak for you at a women's club. You
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  Speaker 1: know how I effervesce when I promote a fellowship group.
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  Speaker 1: You know my genuine enthusiasm at a Bible study. But
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  Speaker 1: how would I react, I wonder, if you pointed to
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  Speaker 1: a basin of water and asked me to wash the
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  Speaker 1: calloused feet of a bent and wrinkled old woman? day
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  Speaker 1: after day, month after month, in a room where nobody
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  Speaker 1: saw and nobody knew. That's different, isn't it? You see,
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  Speaker 1: everything is great if I don't have to be alone.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps that's the thing that makes death so fearful. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: that may very well be. We are so seldom alone. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Moses is alone, and I notice, secondly, there is a
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  Speaker 1: security in this death. He died according to the word
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord, exactly as God arranged it. I am
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  Speaker 1: absolutely comfortable with the feeling that that God knows our times,
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  Speaker 1: and I am equally comfortable with the feeling that God
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  Speaker 1: knows the ends, the end of our times. And therefore,
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  Speaker 1: I do not live in fear when I get on
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  Speaker 1: an airplane. I do not fear when I take a
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  Speaker 1: trip across the basin to go up to Van Nuys
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  Speaker 1: or onto the valley or down to San Diego. I
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  Speaker 1: know that in God's plan, and he's pleased that I
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  Speaker 1: not be presumptuous in this, he has arranged by his
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  Speaker 1: word the day of my death. Now, I think that
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  Speaker 1: some of you have a ways to go. And I
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  Speaker 1: just lay this on you just as a thought. It's
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  Speaker 1: a little heavy for some. Some of you have a
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  Speaker 1: ways to go in accepting that thought. And therefore, you
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  Speaker 1: quite probably are given to fear when you think of death. Moses,
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  Speaker 1: the servant, I put these two thoughts together, verse 5.
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  Speaker 1: The servant of the Lord, the word of the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Look at them together. They're almost in juxtaposition. They're just
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  Speaker 1: near enough to be taken as sort of a rhythmic movement.
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  Speaker 1: The servant of the Lord, according to the word of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord, died. They fit together. So there's security in
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  Speaker 1: this death. Both of those thoughts are strange to us.
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  Speaker 1: Aloneness and and security at a time of death. Let
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  Speaker 1: me encourage you this evening, and I know that there
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  Speaker 1: are not many of the, what I would call, really
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  Speaker 1: older people here this evening in this service. But let
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  Speaker 1: me say to you, to work beginning tonight, from now on,
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  Speaker 1: on conquering this whole matter of being afraid to die.
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  Speaker 1: Even being afraid to have your loved ones die. Whether
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  Speaker 1: by life or by death, the great apostle said, may
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  Speaker 1: I magnify Jesus Christ. Many of us magnify him in
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  Speaker 1: our lives. But when it comes time to die, that's
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  Speaker 1: another story. Now Moses died securely. So there's a report
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  Speaker 1: and a record. It follows. Verses 7 through 12 is
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  Speaker 1: sort of mixed together. First, he gives us the age.
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  Speaker 1: Verse 7. Although Moses was 120 years old, a century
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  Speaker 1: and a quarter, 12 decades. Doesn't that encourage you?
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  Speaker 2: 120.
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  Speaker 1: There are not many of those left, are there? And
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  Speaker 1: you know what? All of his education, all of his fame,
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  Speaker 1: all of his fortune, all of his experience, all the
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  Speaker 1: things that we would normally hold on to Just went
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  Speaker 1: right on with him. Death has a way of putting
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  Speaker 1: things in proper perspective. That's one of the things I
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  Speaker 1: love about the ministry. No two days are ever the same,
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  Speaker 1: and I often traffic in eternal paths. Birth, death, deep sickness, tragedies.
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  Speaker 1: We would call them tragedies. At the cutting edge of
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  Speaker 1: life is where I live. Dealing with the dead is
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  Speaker 1: just as just as familiar to the man of God,
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  Speaker 1: the pastor, the minister, as making the final sale is
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  Speaker 1: to your salesman. Or as fixing a meal is to
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  Speaker 1: you who are homemakers. Or filling out a form is
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  Speaker 1: to a file clerk. Now, we could run the risk
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  Speaker 1: of becoming calloused and doing it as a business. But
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  Speaker 1: I say as I read this passage, I don't remember
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  Speaker 1: ever burying anyone 120 years young. ever. I left the
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  Speaker 1: hospital late one night this past week and turned and
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  Speaker 1: spoke a word of appreciation to the nurse who's been
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  Speaker 1: so kind to my dad in his unconscious state, especially
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  Speaker 1: she's been very kind, even when he didn't know she
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  Speaker 1: was there. And I said, well, you know, he's lived
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  Speaker 1: 83 great years. And she said, yes, there are not
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  Speaker 1: too many who die the age of Moses. And she
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  Speaker 1: didn't have any idea where I'd be this particular Sunday.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm looked at her, and I said, that's right.
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  Speaker 1: I walked on by. I thought, that's right. I've never
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  Speaker 1: buried anybody over 100 years old. There are not too
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  Speaker 1: many of them left. Now you would think, well, 120. Man,
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  Speaker 1: he must have really been crippled up. Look at the verse.
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  Speaker 1: Verse 7. His eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated. Wow.
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  Speaker 1: That's the way to live. 120 and you don't need glasses.
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  Speaker 1: 120 and you don't need crutches. He's just moving on.
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  Speaker 1: Just like Caleb. You know our problem is we get
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  Speaker 1: old before we're old. We start living like we're old
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  Speaker 1: before we're old. It's a crime. Guy get a PhD
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  Speaker 1: and he feels like he's over the hill because he's
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  Speaker 1: worked on it for a number of years. Or You
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  Speaker 1: get into a business and you crest out. You come
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  Speaker 1: to that place where it's sort of, you know, it's
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  Speaker 1: zinging along for you. You begin to feel old. Longfellow wrote,
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  Speaker 1: It is too late. Ah, nothing is too late. Cato
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  Speaker 1: learned Greek at 80. Sophocles wrote his grand Oedipus. And
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  Speaker 1: Simonides bore off the prize of verse from his peers.
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  Speaker 1: When each had numbered more than four score years. And
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  Speaker 1: Theophrastus at four score and ten. had begun his characters
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  Speaker 1: of men. Chaucer at Woodstock with his nightingales at 60
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  Speaker 1: wrote the Canterbury Tales. Goethe at Weimar, toiling to the last,
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  Speaker 1: completed Faust when 80 years were past. What then? Shall
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  Speaker 1: we sit idly down and say the night has come?
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  Speaker 1: It is no longer day.
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  Speaker 2: Why? Why?
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  Speaker 1: Age is opportunity no less than youth itself, though in
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  Speaker 1: another dress. And as the evening twilight fades away, the
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  Speaker 1: sky is filled with stars invisible by day. You're just
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  Speaker 1: as old as you want to be. I think it
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  Speaker 1: is a shame that we do not live as Moses lived.
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  Speaker 1: Jim Elliot said, wherever you are, be all there. Live
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  Speaker 1: to the hilt every situation you believe to be the
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  Speaker 1: will of God. You're a student? Live it up. You're
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  Speaker 1: in business? Have at it. Lose your job? Have at it.
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  Speaker 1: Really be unemployed. Have a baby? Enjoy it. Lose the
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  Speaker 1: child to life or marriage or on to business. Let
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  Speaker 1: them go. Live on. What a way to live. What's
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  Speaker 1: the alternative? Not a lot, is there? And I meet
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  Speaker 1: them every day that have chosen the alternative. And their
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  Speaker 1: eye is dim and their vigor is abated. And I
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  Speaker 1: think more important than even the physical is the spiritual.
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  Speaker 1: Verse 10. Since then, listen to this obituary. God wrote
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  Speaker 1: it on his tombstone. Since then, no prophet has risen
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  Speaker 1: in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.
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  Speaker 1: When Joshua came, in order for him to get the
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  Speaker 1: direction from God, he had to go to the high priest.
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  Speaker 1: But during the days of Moses, when he got a
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  Speaker 1: hold of God's direction. It was an eyeball to eyeball
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  Speaker 1: contact with the living Lord. Man. And in that life
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  Speaker 1: of 120 years, it was a face-to-face life. Are you
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  Speaker 1: past 60? No hands, please. How's your walk with Jesus Christ?
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  Speaker 1: Still carry this book around? Still get time in it? Oh, well,
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  Speaker 1: I'm retired. From this book? From your walk with Christ? Wow,
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  Speaker 1: the Lord says in the New Testament that the older
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  Speaker 1: women minister in a beautiful way to the younger women.
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  Speaker 1: I can't name in one hand the number of younger
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  Speaker 1: women who have said to me, so-and-so, an older woman,
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  Speaker 1: really minister to me. And often they want it. Know why?
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because the older woman today believes the lie that she's
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  Speaker 1: now over the hill, useless. I'll tell you, 60, 70
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: years young can be incredibly useful for Christ. You know
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the Lord like many a younger girl longs to. My
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: best piece of counsel came from men in their 60s
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: and some in their 70s. Men who had just poured
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: over this book until it was just plastered in their character.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: I used to pray with one man who literally had
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: worn the print off the page in the passages of Psalms.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Just from time in it. Just time. He was like
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: praying with David. We who sat under Dr. Merrill Unger.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: It was worth it just to be under his prayers.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Yes. Dr.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Unger used to pray, Lord, many of these men are
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: so discouraged today. A fellow sitting behind me used to say, boy,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: that's me, Lord. That is me right now. And many
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: of these fellows cannot make it financially. That's me again, Lord.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: That's me again. I mean, we would just be entering
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: into the whole prayer life. And when he finished after,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: and you might think that's boring to have prayed five minutes,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: not under Merrill Unger. That's a seminary education. Five minutes
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: under that man's prayers. I'll tell you, we just followed
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: him around like a snake. Just to be near him.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: He knows the Lord. I want to know men who
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: know the Lord. And Moses knew him face to face.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: And so there is this beautiful memory that's left as
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: a legacy. First, before the people. Verse 8. You wonder,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: did they love him? Or was he some distant, profound...
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Man of God, look at verse 8. When he died,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: of Moab 30 days. Think of that. Why, many a
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: person today, when he's died, they've already got the will
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: sectioned out in 30 days. Why, in Moses' day, they mourned.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: You know why the Lord hid the grave? Because it
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: would have been a second Mecca. That's why. They'd have
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: beaten a path up Nebo. To this day, building shrines,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: selling popcorn, peanuts, all sorts of rides up there, maybe
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: a tram. I can see it now. No way, the
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Lord says. Put him in that grave. Seal it over
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: so they'll never know it. They loved him. His memory
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: was so great that they mourned for those 30 days,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and then that mourning came to an end. By the way,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: for no extra charge, let me say that ought to
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: be true in our lives. You lose a loved one, mourn, cry.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Don't weep as those that have no hope, but weep.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: But then stop it. While I was at the tombstones
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: today looking around with Curtis, I saw two different people
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: in two different places talking about to tombstones. I have
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: a good friend, Mrs. Clarence Roberts, who is now in
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the presence of the Lord, who at the time her
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: husband died was so broken she literally spent time at
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the tomb. My mother spoke to Mrs. Roberts about faith
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: in Jesus Christ. Mrs. Roberts responded beautifully to the claims
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of Christ and became a child of God a few
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: days after her husband's death. And God led her to
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: have a graveyard ministry. Mrs. Roberts, almost to the day
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: of her death, spent her weekends at the cemetery witnessing
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: to people who were talking to tombstones. You see, the
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: morning is to end and we are to go on.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Now before the Lord we find Moses in verses 11
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and 12 and there we find it wrapping it up.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: For all the signs and the wonders which the Lord
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: sent him to perform. Here's the memory. All those signs
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: and wonders in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh and
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: all his servants and all the land for all the
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: mighty power for all the great terror which Moses performed
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: in the sight of all Israel.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: All, all, all.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: It's just written all across the passage. Joseph Renan, the
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: famed French philologist and historian said of Moses, he is
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: a colossus among figures of humanity. Now. when I read that,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: I think all the mighty power and all the great
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: terror and all the miracles that he did, I have
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the feeling some read that and say, you see, Moses
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: is in another league. I can't touch him. This life
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: I've studied is just another theoretical study. It almost mocks
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: me because I'm not like Moses. Well, because of that
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: possible reaction among some, God has given me, I feel
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: it's from the Lord, three concluding thoughts regarding this whole
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: life of Moses we've studied. And if I could wrap
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: it up in the three things that stand out in
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: my mind regarding Moses, they would be as follows. Number one,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: the secret of fulfillment in life is involvement. And I
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: hope that doesn't fall on deaf ears for you that
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: are growing in age. One of the worst curses that
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: ever struck our land is the curse of retirement attitudes.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Not retirement, but the attitude that pervades the do not
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: disturb or I'm finishing my years, don't bother. Saying in
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: one's heart, I really don't have much more to contribute.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: The suicide rate of the over 60s is incredible. Many
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: of whom have plenty of money. The secret of fulfillment
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: is involvement. Now remember, there are two things that are
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: eternal presently on this earth. People and the Bible. Two things.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: You're planning on retirement. Don't plan on checking out with
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: people or God's word or you're moving away from eternal things.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Stay in touch. This gives life length. This lengthens the
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: meaning and purpose of life. Now, number two. The first
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: is the secret of fulfillment in life is involvement. Here's
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: the second. The secret of reality in life is humility.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: This gives life breadth. Moses, beautiful picture of a mixture
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: of Real humanity, real humility, and yet godliness. Moses never
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: believed his own stuff. He never got lost in his
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: own track record. Never got up the next morning to
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: see what the clippings had to say about his day,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the day before. He set incredible records that have not
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: yet been touched nor will ever be touched, but he
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: never got lost in his own stuff. Humility. He stayed real, believable. Oh,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: that's important. Gives life breath. Stay touchable. Stay available. Believable.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Let another man praise thee and not thine own lips,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: says Solomon. Don't let it come from your own heart.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Now the third. I think it's the best of the
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: three because I see it pervading Moses. The secret of
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: happiness in life is perspective. perspective. It gives life depth.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Let me level with some of you because I know
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: it applies to some. Some of you have a rather
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: bleak situation. You're not really sure about the future. You're
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: in kind of a dilemma regarding your career. Some of
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: you have recently lost a romance that looked like it
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: was budding, but it's gone. Others of you have come
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: to a real impasse in your practice or in your marriage,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: and you don't see a way through. For some, you're
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: sort of in a closet. And it seems locked. You
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: can't get out. Now, I want to conclude my thoughts
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: with the quotation, which is rather lengthy, from a physician
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: who wrote a book and entitled the last chapter. The
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: last word. And I want you to read into your
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: situation what you hear from this regarding perspective. Because I'm
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: of the opinion that a great deal of depression is
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: brought on by improper perspective. When I first began driving
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: to my hospital office in 1966, I noticed a nice-looking
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: young man who invariably stood at the window of an
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: old apartment house which is located across the street from
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: the doctor's parking lot. Morning after morning, this same man,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: whom I would judge to have been in his middle 40s,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: appeared at the same open window as I drove past.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: He was always there when I went home at the
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: end of the day as well. I began to waver
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: or smile to the man in the window, and he
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: would return my greeting with a similar gesture. Though it
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: seems unlikely, we developed a friendship in the absence of
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: any personal knowledge of one another, without a single conversation
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: between us. My curiosity finally compelled me to get better
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: acquainted with the man behind the smile. One noontime, I
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: walked from my office to the building where my congenial
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: friend lived and climbed a dark stairway to the second floor.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: I knocked on the door and it was opened by
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: the man in the window. He introduced himself as Tommy
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: and invited me to come into his two-room apartment. During
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: the next hour, he told me his story. He had
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: been a successful executive until devastated by a massive coronary
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: thrombosis about six years earlier. His heart ailments were compounded
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: by emphysema and other physical disorders which prevented his engaging
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: in any form of work. I also noticed that his
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: right arm was deformed, being much smaller than his left. Tommy,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: I learned, was rarely able to leave that tiny apartment.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: He was not married and seemed to have no relatives
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: or close friends. His situation was not unlike being sentenced
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: to virtual solitary confinement in a two-room cell. The beautiful
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: part of Tommy's story is how he chose to cope
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: with his personal tragedy. He had every reason in the
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: world to be depressed and despondent, but he exuded confidence
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: and optimism. He had decided that he would make friends
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: with as many people as possible among those driving to
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: and from their work. And that comprised his entire social life.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: I said, Tommy, what can I do for you? Do
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: you need anything? Can I help you in any way?
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: He said, thank you, sir. And I appreciate your offer,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: but I'm doing all right. I really don't need anything.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: There was not one ounce of self-pity. a parent anywhere
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: in our conversation. And he steadfastly refused to let me
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: treat him as an invalid. His only acknowledgement that life
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: was difficult came in response to my question, do you
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: ever become discouraged with your situation here? Tommy replied, well,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: in the morning when everyone is coming to work, I
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: enjoy greeting the people at the start of a new day.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: But when they're heading on their way homes at night
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: and I'm saying goodbye, I sometimes feel a little blue.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: That was the only negative statement I ever heard him utter.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: Tommy had obviously made up his mind to accept life
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: as it was. For something more than 15 years, Tommy
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: stood his watch above the noise and traffic of the streets,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: and we remained good friends. I stopped my car beneath
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: his window on January the 3rd this year to greet
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: him after I had been gone for a brief Christmas vacation.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: Without thinking, I asked him, Did you have a good holiday?
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Tommy replied, It was great. I learned later that he
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: had spent the entire Christmas season in the solitude of
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: that room watching the harassed shoppers and commuters below him.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: And then he closes. A few weeks later, Tommy failed
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: to appear at his usual place at the window. The
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: second morning he was absent again and both the shades
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: were drawn. I learned from the parking lot attendant that
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Tommy had collapsed and died during the previous weekend. My
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: friend was gone. His funeral had already been held, though
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: I doubt if anyone attended it. Now as I drive
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: past the apartment building each morning, I can hear Tommy
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: saying the last words he ever spoke to me. It
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: was great. My point in writing you about Tommy is
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: to illustrate the fact that depression is usually a matter
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: of perspective. Some of you have life rather rough. But
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: you know Not as rough as Tommy, because you're here.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: Somehow you were able, either with someone or all alone,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: to get in your car in the night air, crank
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: it up and drive to this place in Fullerton Park,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: and come in to enjoy seven testimonies of baptismal candidates,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: each one beautifully born again. New life budding. The voices
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: of young as they sang. The voices of the body
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: as you sang. The living truth of God regarding a hero.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Realistic kind of stuff. And you face tomorrow, if you
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: don't watch it, succumbing to self-pity. It all depends on
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: your perspective. You see, happiness is in a great measure
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: of the Christian life, depends on how we perceive it.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: In the eyes of Tommy, life was great. How is
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: it with you? If you die before me and I
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: visit the place where you're laid to rest, what will
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: the stone read? Let's bow, shall we? You have said
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of things to us this evening, one thing
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: to one person and an altogether different set of things
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: to someone else. And Father, you have spoken to me
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: in a whole new way regarding life and the end
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: of such In the situation with my dad. And should
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: you be pleased to preserve him or take him. I
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: just want you to know father that. You're worthy of
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: my praise. And I give you every right to his life. Tonight.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: And whether by life or by death. He might bring
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: honor to you. So tell us again, Lord, because we
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: forget so easily. Tell us again the things we have learned.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Remind us of them when we are given to self-pity.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Remind us of Tommy and the thousands of Tommies stretched
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: across this great basin this very night who have no hope.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: We love you, Father, for caring for us and speaking
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: to us in such a direct way. Make this week
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: a thing of absolute delight. Help us with our perspective,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: especially those who have begun to lose it and have
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: begun to live like it. We ask for Christ's sake.
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: Amen. The preceding message, Obituary of a Hero, was copyrighted
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: in 1976, 1978, 1981, 1985, 1998, and 2024. And the
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles Arswendal, Inc.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited. Charles Arswendal, Inc. is grateful
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: to the following sources for permission to use their material
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: in the preceding message. Ruth Harms Kalkin for the poems
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: What's Wrong With Me and I Wonder from the book
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: Tell Me Again, Lord, I Forget, copyrighted in 1974, and
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: Tyndale House Publishers for excerpts from the book What Wives
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women Copyrighted in 1975 by
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: James Dobson.