Would you take your Bibles please and turn with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 26. We’ll be looking this morning at what began as the very promising reign of Judah’s king Uzziah and its unfortunate and tragic conclusion. And from our study, I hope we’ll see several applications that’ll help us think carefully about finishing our own lives well and avoiding shipwreck of them. I have provided you sermon notes with some detail that I hope will be helpful to you today.
When Kevin DeYoung first arrived as our senior pastor last summer, we discussed his upcoming first Discovery class, and since he was new to Christ Covenant, I offered to help him teach that first quarter. It was the fall of 2017, and on that first Sunday of class we introduced ourselves. Kevin introduced himself and Trisha, gave a little bio of their lives, and my wife Pat and I did the same thing.
Now in my introduction, I mentioned that I had been on the pastoral staff at Christ Covenant for around 27 years, but that my actual involvement with this church began when I arrived 40 years ago in 1977 as a recent college graduate and met the only other single person, happened to be a girl in the church, whose name was Pat Connelly at the time; it’s now Pat Lawrence, I’m glad to say. And I was continuing this introduction, Kevin, who was sitting on the front row with something of an impish grin, raised his hand. He wanted to make a comment, so I recognized him. Kevin is senior pastor after all [laughter] and he said loudly enough for all to hear, “Bernie, the year you came to Christ Covenant was the year I was born.” [laughter] That was a humbling moment for me [laughter] and we’ve gotten a lot of laughs out of that, and all I can say to Kevin, if he’s listening, is Kevin, you’ll be where I am in a heartbeat. Buckle up. [laughter]
But out of that humorous moment lies a sobering reality. Life is fleeting.
Many of you know that Pat and I are planning to retire right around two years from now. Some days it seems far off, other days I realize it’s just around the corner. Do you know what occupies my mind as much as anything else these days? I want to finish well. I want Christ to be honored with my life.
My life verse reflects that. It comes from Acts 13:36, where we read “for David, after he’d served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep.” And I realize that the world, the devil, and my own flesh conspire against that desire I have for me and for Pat. It certainly isn’t a foregone conclusion that I will finish well even as close as we are.
The Lord has been very gracious to my family over the years. It never escapes my notice that whatever I have become as a husband and a father and a pastor is almost in spite of me. And yet I have made thousands of decisions and choices over my lifetime that help explain who I am today. You’d think after all this time I’d be more comfortable with the thought that finishing well might be a cinch, but I don’t see it that way. I’ve seen many men, many pastors, in fact, make life-altering choices, some early on, some later on, that keep them from finishing well. I know how easy it would be join their ranks.
And so I remain as vigilant now in my late 60s as I was in my early 20s when I first came to Christ. I became a Christian at the age of 23 through the ministry of the Navigators while I was serving in the Air Force. If you don’t know, the Navigators are very serious about discipleship and holiness. I’ve never forgotten a talk that I heard early on by a Nav leader by the name of Walt Henrichsen. It was titled “Many Aspire, Few Attain.” I commend that talk to you; it’s still available after all these years. And Walt was speaking to a room full of idealistic, highly motivated young college students who were Christians,
