Sermon Tone Analysis

*Going Out Up with a Boom*

*July 24, 2004** and **July 25th, 2004*

* *

 

Psalm 71

*/18 /**/Even when I am old and gray,/*

*/do not forsake me, O God,/*

*/till I declare your power to the next generation,/*

*/your might to all who are to come./*

*/*[1]*/*

 

 

Psalm 92

*/12 /**/The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,/*

*/they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;/*

*/13 planted in the house of the Lord,/*

*/they will flourish in the courts of our God./*

*/14 They will still bear fruit in old age,/*

*/they will stay fresh and green,/*

*/15 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;/*

*/he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”*[2]*/*

*Introduction*

* *

This message applies to all of us but I am specifically targeting the baby boomers.

That is the group of people born between 1946 and 1964 (58-36).

I am right in the middle of them born in 1955.

They are called boomers because after WWII the soldiers came home to a time of peace and people started having a lot of babies.

It continued at that rate for about 18-20 years.

*/The Baby Boom generation-the cohort of Americans born between 1946 and 1964-has long commanded the attention of demographers, politicians, marketers, and social scientists.

Seventy-six million strong, Baby Boomers represent the largest single sustained growth of the population in the history of the /**/United States/**/.

Their mass alone has had an enormous impact on the national psyche, political arena and social fabric.

From the youth culture they created in the 1960s and 1970s to the dual-income households of the 1980s and 1990s, this generation has reinterpreted each successive stage of life.

As the oldest of the Baby Boomers, approach later adulthood, they are again poised to redefine the next stage, retirement/*.

(source AARP)

 

There are about 76 million boomers in the U.S.; we currently represent about 29% of the U.S. population.

(In Canada, we are sometimes known as "Boomies"; there are 6 million of us there.

In Britain, our generation is known as "the bulge.")

The 1960s is the decade that defined the boomers.

The music, events, and the social changes made a permanent impression on us.

Those of us born during the "peak" boomer years, '52-'57, were in our formative years during the sixties.

There were so many changes in the sixties that how old you were during the decade greatly affected how you turned out.

1961 was a whole lot different from 1969!

Those born at the early end of the spectrum were in our early 20s by 1970.

The deaths of President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King; the Vietnam war and related protests; and the Watergate scandal... all made deep impressions on us.

At the other end, those born after 1959 have no direct recollection of the assassination of President Kennedy; they were not yet listening to rock music by the time the Beatles broke up.

They were much more likely to use illegal drugs.... often to a great and disturbing excess.

We are amused when visitors ask what effect the boomers are having on the economy.

Folks, in 2004, the economy */IS/* the boomers!

We represent the vast majority of the work force.

There are 76 million of us; we */ARE/* the economy.

What explains the explosion in the popularity of SUVs?

We do.

Where do we go on vacation?

Everywhere.

How do we get there?

Every way possible.

Day care centers are thriving because boomers do not want to take care of the kids they produced.

And their offspring think it is supposed to be that way.

Parents are not supposed to stay home and raise their children.

That is what day care centers and the government is for.

Bill Gates, Ron Howard, Bill Clinton, Oprah, Madonna, George Bush, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Dr. Laura, Clarence Thomas, and many other diverse people are boomers.

They are unique because there are so many of us.

Dobson had some information about how many trillion dollars this group will be inheriting soon.

They will be a major force economically.

The decisions they make about the rest of their lives will influence America and the world for a long time.

*YOU ARE A BOOMER IF*

* *

·       *You know all the words to the theme songs of Gilligan’s **Island**, the Flintstones, or the **Beverly** Hillbillies.*

·       *You remember watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.*

·       *You remember pet rocks.*

·       *You know what a streaker is.*

·       *You know the name of Roy Roger’s horse.*

·       *You noticed right away that Barney Fife and Mick Jagger look like identical twins except for their hair.*

·       *If you are a guy you remember getting a flat top and covering it with Butch wax.

(aka  gooey fly trap)*

·       *You wore bell bottoms and Neru shirts*

·       *You ever had an afro haircut*

·       *You lost at least 4 inches in height when you took off your platform shoes.*

·       *You know the name of Dick and Jane’s dog (Spot)*

·       *You can finish the phrase N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestles makes the very best…….. (chocolate).*

·       *You know the whole Jetson family and their dog by name*

* *

* *

You get the point.

There is a unique group of people that are at a crossroads and I believe there is a Biblical way to address where they are that relates to everyone in here today.

My sub title is:

*How to go from Success and Selfishness to Service and Significance*

* *

* *

* *

Philippians 2 -The Message

 

*/If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends.

Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top.

Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead.

Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage.

Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand./*

*/     Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself.

He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what.

Not at all.

When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!

Having become human, he stayed human.

It was an incredibly humbling process.

He didn’t claim special privileges.

Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion./*

*/     Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.*[3]*/*

*/ /*

NIV

*/If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others./*

*/5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:/*

*/6 Who, being in very nature a God,/*

*/did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,/*