Remembering God While You Still Can

According to Business Week Magazine, trying to look younger and prevent aging has become an $88 billion a year business. You imagine? That's based on research done in a book by Arlene Wyntrop entitled, and listen to the title of this book, selling the fountain of youth, and here's the subtitle, how the anti-aging industry made a disease out of getting old and made millions. Well, according to this article based on the book, the anti-aging phenomenon started off with good intentions. Baby boomers were getting old, did not like what they felt or what they saw. In 1990, the New England Journal of Medicine up the anti-abit, when it claimed that human growth hormone, which was previously used to treat disorders in children, could be used to reverse aging. Well, baby boomers latched onto that like junkies, and by 1993, millions and millions of dollars were being spent on human growth hormone. By 1993, there were a number of doctors that began injecting themselves with HGH, and a little later started clinics that trained people to inject themselves, and thus we got a whole sports scandal from all of that. Today, supermarkets and drug stores, the article goes on to say, team with bottles adorned with the words anti-aging in 2009 alone Botox sales, topped one billion dollars. What is driving this quest? The article says to find bottle cell and ingest the modern day fountain of youth. The answer might be found in the book subtitle. Remember what it said, how the anti-aging industry made a disease out of getting old. Everything now is a disease, right? And so even aging is now a disease, rather than being a natural part of the progression of life in a fallen world, in a world suffering and groaning under the curse because of man's sin. Rather than that being a natural part of life, it's now a disease that must be treated with medication growing old. Well Solomon talks about that in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, and he says basically the fact is we're all getting old. We're all getting old. And therefore he says in verse 1, remember your creator in the days of your youth before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say I find no pleasure in them. Or as I have rephrased it in the title of the message, remember God why you still can. When Solomon says remember your creator in the days of your youth, he's talking about more than recall, simple recall. Oh yeah God, I remember him. Sure, now I'm going to go about living my own life. No, no, Solomon's talking about much more than that. And the Old Testament in particular, the word remember meant to reflect on something, to think through something, and then to act decisively based on what you thought about. Examples of it are numerous. God remembered Israel as she prayed in Egypt under bondage. And that means much more than God mentally recognized her bondage. God did something about it. He remembered them in the sense that he initiated that process to deliver them from bondage. For Samuel 119 says God remembered Hannah. And it's more than he recognized mentally what Hannah's cry of her heart for children was. He did something about it and enabled her to conceive a child. So to remember means to reflect on something and then act decisively as a result of that mental reflection. That's what Solomon's talking about here. To remember God is much more than just a yeah God. I remember him. No, no, to reflect on God, to think about who he is and what he has done for you. To remember that he loved you enough to send his son Jesus Christ and then to act decisively to give your life to him and trust Christ as your Savior and then to commit your life to live for him. That's what it means to remember God. Remember God, remember your creator while you are still young before the days of trouble come. Then the days of trouble obviously speaking about in contrast to youth. The days of trouble are the days of old age. The days when both mental and physical troubles begin to multiply. So what Solomon is going to do is he's going to paint in beautiful poetic language what it looks like and feels like in old age in the next few verses. So what we're going to do today is we're going to take a look at aging and the sobering lessons that it can teach us. There's a beautiful poetic picture of aging if any aging of picture can be beautiful. At least in poetry it's beautiful. And so there's this beautiful poetic imagery that used but then there are some sobering lessons that are implied in this imagery and in some of the statements that Solomon makes. We're going to look at both of those today. I suspect that for some of you there will be some smiles of acknowledgement and some grimacing nods of recognition as to the description of aging. For others of you you're thinking what did I come to church for to hear how old age is going to be. I don't care about that. I'm young. I got life to live. What I want to do is impress upon those of us who are young. What are you laughing for? I want to impress upon those who are young here this morning that you need to seriously consider this because that's exactly what Solomon's saying. You need to remember God to deal with spiritual issues before you get old. Deal with it now before you get old. Don't wait before you get it. Think about it now. Think about something that you rarely think about or that you overlook until it sneaks up on you know all of a sudden old age is here and there are the kinds of mental and physical infirmities that make it more difficult to do what you once could have done in relationship to God. That is Solomon's counsel. So let's look first at his gripping picture, his realistic picture of aging. First of all in verse two he describes the mental infirmities, beautiful poetic language to describe this. He's talking about the days of trouble in verse one, the years that approach when you say I have no pleasure in them. Now verse two says before, now there's remember God before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark and the clouds return after the rain. Is Solomon just talking about the weather here? Of course not. He's using these elements of nature to symbolize what aging feels like and what it looks like. There is a sense in which he is giving us a general picture of the gloom and deterioration that comes over us with aging and he does it in the symbolic language or poetic language of light. The lights start to get darker. Yes, the lights going out. Now what amazes me is that he picks out the four kinds of light that are mentioned in the creation story in Genesis one. Sun, the light that was created, a light source before the sun, moon and stars. And those four kinds of light mentioned in the creation story in Genesis one, he uses them to say they're getting darker. There's a sense in which what Solomon is saying is that in aging what's happening is the unmaking or the undoing of what God created. What God created, his creation is coming apart in our bodies. And that's part of the aging process. The lights get dull and dimmer and begin to darken. What he means by that is your senses and your faculties are dulled. Old friends are taken from you in death. Familiar customs change. You're not able to do the things you always did. Longheld hopes and dreams are now discarded. The troubles that used to come your way, the pains and aches that used to come your way and then we're gone. I have a tendency to stay. And he uses this kind of poetic imagery to describe that at the end of the verse, the clouds return after the rain. Now think about that imagery for a moment. What he's talking about is that often when it rains, when the storm comes, the clouds clear afterwards, sunshine comes out, and there's a respite, a reprieve from the storm. What he's saying is as you age, the clouds tend to hang around. You've had a storm, it's rain, you've had a particularly difficult time physically or whatever, but when you're seem like you're recovering, the clouds don't leave. They're still there. And so there's a continuation, an ongoing deterioration here. There's no time to rest and time is not on your side. But while he's talking in general terms here about the picture of bloom and deterioration, the lights dimming with age, he seems to more specifically be speaking of the mind. The lights getting dim, that's a very fitting picture of mental deterioration with aging, the loss of memory, the thinking becomes more cloudy, sonility, dementia begin to set in. And whether that is mild or severe, it is nonetheless a robbing of what was once put there in God's creation. I would be the last one to make light of anyone who's going through that yourself or with a family member. But we must all recognize that that's going to happen to us. We're going to lose some of our mental faculties as we get older. And so if you can't take a light-hearted view toward that, then it's going to be even harder. I was reminded of a story this week that I heard about a group of friends who turned 30 and decided to have a reunion of their high school class. There were a few of them that decided to get together and they picked a restaurant where they would gather and called the glowing embers. And they at age 30 picked that restaurant because you know all the waitresses and waiters were young and full of life and that just seemed to fit them. And so they wanted to go there. 15 years later, age 45, they decided to have another get together and they are talking about a restaurant and they decide to go to the glowing embers because now the important thing to them is that it's such a wide menu and a variety of things to order and that sound of the attractive. 15 years later, age 60, they decide to get together again and this time they decide to go to the glowing embers because of the peace and quiet in that restaurant and just the ambiance of the place that appealed to them. 15 years later, age 75, they decide to get together again and they're talking about where to go and they all agree to go to the glowing embers because it is physically accessible, even has an elevator. Age 90, they decide to go again, get together, they're trying to talk about a restaurant, where are they going to go and somebody suggests the glowing ember because they've never been there before and everybody agreed. Sometimes you just have to laugh about that, don't you? It's not easy, it's hard, it's a reality of life, but we're all headed that direction, all headed that direction. Solomon says so, there will come a day when the lights get them, the thinking is no longer what it used to be. Mental deterioration, but then again in beautiful poetic language actually using the deterioration of breaking down of a house to describe the breaking down of the body, he describes the physical deterioration that we face with aging. Look at verse three, here's the physical deterioration, you're going to relate to this, some of you. When the keepers of the house tremble, the keepers of the house probably referring to the hands and the arms. When they tremble, not necessarily full-blown Parkinson's or something like that, but just the loss of strength, you begin to pick up things and you can't grasp them like you used to, you have trouble holding things, you may drop them, have trouble carrying as much as you used to, there's just the lack of strength in your hands and arms tremble a little bit more when you try to carry something. Keepers of the house tremble and then he says the strong men stoop, many believers referring there to the legs and the knees, that used to be so strong you could bound up the steps, but now it's a little more difficult. In fact, every time I come up those steps out from the bottom level up to the top level, I think they add about two steps every week to those somehow, just a little more difficult to navigate, may refer to the whole body beginning to stoop as the skeletal structure begins to change and the vertebra compresses and so forth, it would begin to stoop a little bit, it's a sign of old age and then he says when the grinders cease because they are few, who can mistake what that means, the grinders cease because they are few. And finally you've got so few grinders that you begin to get wake up in the morning and try to remember where you put them, you know, did I leave the grinders in the bathroom or are they in the kitchen or where did I put them, the clean overnight, the grinders cease because they are few. I'm reading a biography of George Washington, amazing side story of George Washington is his well-known dental problems. By the time he was inaugurated into his second term he had one tooth left, one tooth. He hired the most well-known doctors in the colonies at the time and in the fledgling United States to fix him dentures. Densures in those days were made out of the teeth of slaves. It's quite an amazing story. The grinders cease because they are few. And those looking through the windows grow dim. Again that's very clear what that is. Those looking through the windows of the house, what are the windows of your house? Your eyes, they look out and they see and observe the world around you. But they're growing dim and the older we get, the more issues we have with our eyesight. It progresses from glasses to cataracts in glaucoma and maybe macular degeneration. And the eyes begin to grow dim. Verse four, you're not depressed enough already. Let's move on. When the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades. Obviously if the windows are the eyes to your world, your ears are the doors to your world. Like having the door open and hearing all the traffic or the noise outside, suddenly those doors are getting shut. And the sound of the grinding fades. You don't hear as well as you used to and your favorite expression becomes pardon me. I'm beginning to understand that. Then he says in the middle of verse four, when the people rise up at the sound of birds, inability to sleep, the slightest noise waking you at night. But the interesting contrast is the end of the verse, but all their songs grow faint. Although the birds chirping in the morning will easily wake you up, you can't hear them as well as you used to. Isn't that an interesting contrast? Some believe that he may be talking about their songs, people being able to sing, the ability to sing deteriorates with age as well. Certainly both are true. Verse five, again, more description of old age when people are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets. It's not as easy to climb that ladder as it used to be, is it? You're a little more afraid of heights than you used to be and afraid of dangers in the streets. He's not talking about traffic here. They didn't have automobiles obviously in that day. How did people get around in the streets? They walked. And so what he's talking about is the obstacles that you become much more aware of that you could trip over because now falling becomes a fear. And you know that the consequences of falling will probably be more severe than they were when you were 30 years old. 30 years old, you fall, get up, shake yourself off, get a bruise after a few days, but you're okay. 70 years old, you fall, potential for a lot more damage. And so fear, fear of falling. Middle of verse five, when the almond tree blossoms, you say, what is that talking about? Again, every Jewish reader would have understood that. When almond trees first blossom, their blossoms are pink or pinkish, but as they grow older and just before they're ready to drop, they turn white. So it's like this. Before it turns loose, it turns white. What is that? Your hair. Your hair. That's what he's talking about. And then he says, and the grasshopper drags itself along. What an amazing picture. You know, grasshopper is a picture of agility and vitality and exuberance. Man at think and jump can move quickly. It's agile. But now the old grasshopper just drags himself along. The agility, the ability to move like you used to is just not there anymore. What a picture-esque view of aging. And then he ends it by saying, and desire no longer is stirred. Any desire may be talking about here, maybe talking about physical appetite for food or desire for activity to get moving like you used to or even sexual desires included in that as well. All of that is affected by the aging process. And then he comes to the end of verse five and he begins to address not the mental deterioration, not the physical deterioration, but the end. The end which is death. That don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying death ends at all. There's nothing after death where there surely is. In fact, Solomon will talk about that in this passage. What there is after death. But the end of this physical mental deterioration is most certainly death. And notice the way that he describes that, the end of verse five. Then people go to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets. Some people think he's just talking about the grave here. And obviously that would be foremost in the thinking of any Old Testament person. But there's more than that here. We know from the Bible, from all of scripture, the whole of Revelation, that when we die, we will have an eternal home. You will continue to exist somewhere for eternity. You may live 30 years here. You may live 90 years here, but that's just a drop in the bucket compared to where you will exist eternally. Because when you die, you will spend forever somewhere. Life does not stop at the grave. Only the body ceases to function. You will have an eternal home. And there are two homes that the Bible clearly describes that you have a choice between. One home is in the presence of God. Unbelievable beauty and glory and everything made new. It's called heaven. And heaven, the Bible says, is reserved for those who know Jesus Christ as their Savior. Is that exclusive? Yes, it is. And graciously so. Because that way you can know for sure that you're going to heaven. You see, if you go to heaven by your own good deeds and good works, you will never know for sure if you've done enough. But God has graciously provided us Jesus who is the way, the truth, the life. No man, he says, comes to the Father except through me. That's how you get to heaven. Receiving Jesus Christ who died for your sins on the cross. But there is another eternal home. It lasts just as long. And the Bible describes it as a place of conscious suffering, a place called the lake of fire. That's the eternal home of those who do not know Jesus as Savior. And it is literal physical torment, but is also mental torment. As the Bible describes it, those in the lake of fire or those in hell now awaiting the lake of fire, remember the opportunities they had in this life and did not take them. And part of the horror, the awfulness of hell, will be that memory that you have the opportunity to trust Christ. And for whatever reason you stubbornly refused. And now you have an eternity to regret that. How awful, how awful that is. But that's the way death is described. People go to their eternal home. And Solomon says, and mourners go about the streets. They're mourning your passing, they're holding your funeral. But you are already in your eternal home. The moment you die, while people are still having your funeral service, you are in your eternal home. Now that's a sobering thought. And that's exactly what Solomon wants us to think about. That's why he says, remember, think about, reflect on who your creator is, now much he loves you and what he's done to provide for your salvation and act decisively to come to him in faith so that you know you're going to heaven when you die. He reinforces that in verses six and seven with further descriptions of what it means today. He says, remember him, again, the thrust of the passage, remember him before the silver cord is severed and the golden bowl is broken and the picture is shattered at the spring and the wheel broken at the well. Using common household articles probably to signify the irreversible, the irreversible impact of death. Death is like a bowl that is attached to a cord and when the cord is severed, the bowl crashes. It's done. And the fact that they are silver and gold indicate the preciousness of life, which is symbolized here. Then the picture shattered at the spring, the wheel broken at the well may refer to a picture lowered by a wheel or a pulley into a well. And once that is severed, it's done. It's destroyed. It's broken. There are some who say that the symbolism goes even further that the silver cord is the spinal cord indicating that the nervous system shuts down at death and the golden bowl is the brain indicating brain activity ceases at death. And the picture is the heart. It's shattered at the very spring. It's ceases to operate and the wheel, the circulatory system, the blood carrying oxygen to the body is broken at the well, at the place where it begins. And so basically just showing the whole system shuts down. That's what happens at death. Physically the system shuts down. Notice how he finalizes this in verse 7. And the dust returns to the ground it came from and the spirit returns to God who gave it. What Solomon describes here is exactly what happens in death. When a person dies, the spirit or the soul, the immaterial part of a person is separated from the body. Now you have two parts to you basically, lots of sub parts, but two parts basically the physical part and the immaterial part, the real you inside the body. And we speak of that when we say this is my hand. Whose hand is this? It's not just a physical apparition. It is my hand. It belongs to me, the person who inhabits this body. It is me, the person in the body that will someday be separated from the body. And the body will go back to the elements out of which it was made. When God made Adam, he took the dust of the earth and fashioned the body. Even a different Hebrew word is used than create or make out of nothing. He took something and fashioned it. The elements of this earth and fashioned it into a body. Our bodies are composed of elements that will decompose and go back if left untreated to those very elements. When you die, that's what happens to the body. But the spirit immediately goes back to God who gave it. Symbolically saying, you will meet God. You will see God. You will stand before Him in judgment. The real you, the person that inhabits your body goes to see God, meets God. Now if you know Christ as Savior, you immediately go to heaven. And someday when your body is resurrected at the rapture, you will stand before Him at the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for your life. If you do not know Jesus as your Savior, immediately at the moment you die, your spirit, your soul goes to hell, awaiting the resurrection when you will be reunited with your body, stand before God at the great white throne judgment, and then be cast into the lake of fire. That's what the Bible teaches that happens to us at death and Solomon summarizes it here. The body ceases to function. The spirit lives on. That's what happens to you at death. Now what's the purpose of all this? Is the purpose simply to get us depressed, thinking about, you know, I'm going to lose my mind and I'm going to ache and have pain all over as I get old. Is that the deal? Is that what I come to church forward here? That? Remember, the point is to reinforce his primary statement, remember God, because this is going to happen to you. I don't care how young you are, how strong you feel, how sharp your mind is, this is going to happen to you. It's going to happen to every one of us. If the Lord carries His coming, it's going to happen to every one of us. And so there are some timeless principles about aging that Solomon intends to be impressed upon our hearts. Let me draw out some of those principles for you this morning. Number one, resist the tendency to procrastinate spiritual things. That's exactly what he's talking about, isn't it? Remember your creator, reflect on his goodness to you, what he's done for you and receive it before you get there. Don't wait, resist the tendency to procrastinate spiritual things. Please don't think I've got plenty of time later to do business with God. I've got plenty of time to get right with God. You have no idea how much time you have. You have no promise of everything, but the breath you're taking right now. You have no promise of tomorrow, no guarantees, as to how long you will live. Proverbs 27, 1 is such a striking reminder. It says, do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring. None of us knows what a day may bring. There are some of us in this room this morning that may not be here in our physical bodies tomorrow. You may already be in your eternal home tomorrow. Any of us that could happen with any of us. And so the Bible is very clear about this. Please don't wait, resist the tendency to procrastinate spiritual things. And even if you do reach old age, if you're young this morning, you do not appreciate what that will be like. You have no concept what that will be like. And that leads me to the second principle. Realize the difficulties of old age. That's one of the reasons Solomon has given this graphic description of the mental and physical deterioration because he wants those who are young. Remember God in the days of your youth, he said, he wants those who are young to realize what's coming. And what's coming is difficulty. The fact is very few people are saved in old age. There are exceptions, but very few people. And there are natural reasons for that. The mind is not as good as it used to be. You're not as alert as you used to be. You're not as open to change as you used to be. There's more resistance, build up of pride, more resistance to saying, I was wrong all my life. And now I need to admit my need of Christ. All of that stands in the way. Plus, there is a lifetime of maybe sin that has hardened your heart or rejection and refusal of Christ that has made it increasingly difficult for you to submit to the demand of God. All of that is against you in old age. That's why Solomon says before you get there, before all of that's happened to you mentally and physically, come to Christ, recognize your need of your Creator as Savior. Realize the difficulties of your life. And that's why Solomon says before you get there, before all of that's happened to you mentally and physically, come to Christ, recognize your need of your Creator as Savior. Realize the difficulties of old age. Also, my friend, if you're young here this morning and you're living your life for yourself, that's all you're living for. You're not investing your life for Christ or serving Him in any way. Realize the days are coming when you may realize that you wasted your life and you want to start plugging into ministry and you're not able to do what you once did. I had someone tell me just within the last couple of weeks, John, I am so sorry, but I just cannot serve in the nursery anymore. This person is in their mid-60s. I don't have the strength in my arms anymore. When I lift things, I tend to drop them. And there's been some surgery that's accounted for that. You know what? 30 years ago I was, come on, buck up, you know, just come on. That's what I would have said 30 years ago. But I understand that now. After some permanent nerve and muscle damage in my left hand because of elbow surgery, I understand that now. I can't grasp a jar and open it with my left hand anymore. I can't hold things with my left hand anymore. I understand that weakness, that muscle loss. You need to understand that things will happen to you as you get older that will prevent you from doing some of the things you used to do or you have the capability to do now as a young person. Now is the time to remember your creator, to serve him, to invest your life. Don't waste your life thinking I'll do that when I retire. Realize the difficulties of old age. But that leads me to the third principle. In case there are those of us who are older who are saying, oh, good, that means I really can sit on the front porch in a rocking chair, right? No. No. Principle number three. Remember that age does not disqualify you from salvation or service. And this is the balance. I can't just appear that from what I've said, there comes a certain age where it's impossible to be saved. That is not true. Anytime in your life when you recognize your need of Jesus Christ as your Savior and you come to him in faith, he will save you. I've seen people in their 90s come to know Jesus as their Savior. It is never too late if you are willing to humble yourself and admit that you need Jesus Christ. You cannot get the heaven on your own. It's never too late. And by the way, it's never too late to start serving him either. There may be some things physically that you're not capable of anymore, but you can still serve him. We have wonderful examples of people like that in this church who give of their time and volunteer to serve God in their later years. We cannot be able to do the things physically they used to do, but their mind is still good. They are our prayer warriors. They are our encourages. They are our card senders. They are people who know how to invest in the lives of others and who give whatever limited physical ability they have to serve the Lord in some way. What would we do without them? In 1523 there was an animal trainer by the name of John Fitzgerbert in England. After examining and studying dogs, this is what he said. He said, the dog must be trained when he is a welp or else it will not be trained or it is hard to make an old dog find a new scent. He adapted his saying and current terminology to what? You can't teach an old dog new tricks, right? You ever watch Mythbusters? Discover program channel, they take old adages like this and seek to scientifically test them to determine whether or not they're really true. So Jamie and Adam decided to take this one on. And they decided to test it was really true. They found two really old Alaskan malamutes, dogs which are known for their stubbornness and dogs which did not know one trick at all. And they started training them after four days. They found that each of those dogs could heal, sit, lie down, stay and shake with their paw on command. Thus disproving the adage that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Don't ever use that one again because it's not true. You can teach an old dog new tricks. You can learn to serve in some other way than what you've done all your life. You can come to Christ no matter how old you are. Although it may be more difficult because of all the challenges facing you. Remember that age does not disqualify you from either salvation or service. But that leads me to one final principle into this. Recognize you will answer to God. That's what verse seven is all about. The dust returns to the ground it came from. The spirit returns to God who gave it. You will answer to God. You will stand before him someday. If you're old, you need to recognize. You're very close to that. You'll stand before God someday. Are you saved? Do you know that when you stand before him? You will be in heaven or will you be standing before him at the great white throne judgment awaiting? Being cast into the lake of fire. If you're young today, if you're a teenage, you're a 20 something or a 30 something. And your life is wholly focused on you. You're wasting your life. Wasting your life. You will stand before God to give an account for that someday. Think about that. That's what Solomon wants us to think about. Remember that before you've wasted it all and you're old. What a waste if our life is not given to the Lord. Verse eight is a summary of that. Meaningless. Meaningless says the teacher. Everything is meaningless. The idea is based on all that he has said. If you come to the end of life and you have wasted your life, there is no greater emptiness or futility or wastedness than that. And you will come to the end of your life and say it was all a waste. I poured it into my work. I poured it into getting all the stuff that everybody else had. I poured it into all the things I could have queued. And it was a waste. It was empty. It was futile. It was meaningless. That's what you'll say at the end of your life. If you've not given your life to Christ or if you've not lived your life for him, what a waste. Back in the fall of 2012, there was an interview done with actor and producer Woody Allen. Very intriguing and instructive interview. Woody Allen says I've been confronting the horror of mortality since I was five years old. Listen to this quote. He says, there's no advantage to aging. You don't get wiser. You don't get more mellow. You don't see life in a more glowing way. You have to fight your body decaying and you have less options. So here's his conclusion. The only thing you can do is what you did when you were 20, which is to distract yourself. And here's why he says that. He says because you're always walking with an abyss right under your feet. And by the way, that's true. That's insightful. You're always walking through life as though an abyss were under your feet waiting to claim you. That was a picture, the old preacher Jonathan Edwards used in his sermon, centers in the hands of an angry God of centers walking on the edge of a precipice about to topple over into the abyss of hell. Well, Woody Allen went on to say this though. The only thing you can do to get rid of that kind of thinking is to distract yourself. He says getting involved in a movie occupies all my anxiety. If I wasn't concentrated on distractions, I'd be thinking of larger issues. And those aren't resolvable and your checkmated whichever way you go. Wow, how sad. What a terrible view of aging and death. But there's another way to look at it. It is a way that was also described in an interview with another man about three and a half years ago. Somebody interviewed John Wooden. John Wooden, the legendary coach of UCLA basketball team, one ten NCAA championships in 12 years, seven in a row, a feat that will probably never ever again be duplicated. A great man, great coach, great basketball player, first player to ever be named three time all American. First man to ever be elected to the Hall of Fame, both as a player and a coach. But more than that, John Wooden was a follower of Christ. He knew Jesus as his savior. Back in the fall of 2009, by the way, he died on June 4, 2010, about three years ago. Six months before he died, he's aged 99 and someone did an interview with him. You're going to have to listen carefully because his voice is a little frail. But I want you to notice the commitments that he made in his life, the difference Christ made in his life. And I especially want you to notice the last question that's asked is, are you afraid to die? And he answers and then he launches into a word perfect quote of a poem. Watch it. It's priceless. The Wizard of Westwood turned 99 in October and inside his little condo in Encino, California, love holds steady, loyalty stays true, and a shrinking little man in a wheelchair stands taller than ever. John Wooden had one college coaching job for 28 years. He was married to one woman for 53 years. He has stayed in this one city for 61 years. He's so simple and so wise, he makes you one of the better men yourself. Can you remember the last time you used the profanity? No. Oh, yes I do too. You must see about 14. His last drink was 77 years ago. No, it was 1932. I see you earlier. His last love was his first love, his beloved wife, Nelly, who died 24 years ago. And your love really has lasted. You're still in love with her. I'm very much in love with her. Nelly passed away on 21st March 1985. And ever since on 21st of every month, Wooden writes her a love letter. No one gets to read the letters, not even his family. Well, it's the honey issue. More than ever. I know it's still there. I know it's still keeping my promise. It'll never be another. It's the greatest love story never told. She was the only girl who would never kiss. And he was 14 at the time. How do you make love last in a marriage? There's only one way. Truly, truly, truly, the most powerful thing there is. It's true. It's true. It must be true. Loyalty is so important to you. He stayed so loyal to her. He stayed loyal to this school. Why? Why do you think you're such a loyal person? Dad. More than anything else. Loyalty is the most important thing. Thanks. I've said so much and spoken so much in that most important word in our language is love. Second is balance. Keeping things in perspective. Still teaching at 99, the great man is finally starting to fade. He can't get out of his wheelchair anymore. He has somebody with him 24-7. But he still has the kind of vision that can see around corners. Are you afraid to die? No. You're afraid to die. How come? Why should I be afraid? That's the most wonderful thing that will ever happen. You're really a realist. That's the only way you're afraid to die. Once I was afraid of dying. Once I was afraid of dying, terrified and ever dying, petrified and leaving family home and friends. I was so absent from my year was, wrote a melancholy tear was, and a dreadful dreadful feeling of what life ends. But those days along behind me fear of leaving does not bind me, and departure does not hold a single care. Peace does comfort as I ponder, a reunion and a yonder, with my dearest one who's waiting for me there. That's the way to age. That's the way to get older. That's the way to approach death. With a strong faith in Christ that says, I'm not afraid to die. I'm just awaiting that glorious reunion with the one I love who's already there. Here's the question you have to ask yourself this morning. You want to be like Woody Allen or John Wooden. That's pray. Father, thank you that we can know that death holds no fear for those who know that they're ready to meet you. Father, I pray that we would remember our Creator today. Whether we are in the days of our youth or middle-aged or old age, help us to remember our Creator. Remember the one who loved us so much that it gave you son to die for us. Help us to remember him in the sense that we act upon that knowledge and that reflection trust Christ as Savior. And then Lord, if we know you as Savior, but we've kind of drifted into this world of living for ourselves, help us to live for your glory, recognizing every moment we live that someday we will stand before you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.