Grandpa, Tell Me 'bout The Good Old Days

Grandpa.. Tell Me ’Bout The Good Old Days

Introduction

1. Last week while on vacation we went home to visit my parents.

2. My uncle Leonard had just been sent home from the hospital so we went down to see him.

3. As I stood up to leave I saw a picture that I had forgotten about many years ago.

4. It was a picture of my Grandfather and Grandmother.

5. It had been taken at Olin Mills in the early sixties.

6. My aunt had the original enlarged.

7. As I stood and peered into the face of my grandfather — in living color — for the first time in many years, an avalanche of long forgotten memories, feelings and emotions came flooding back.

8. It was an overwhelming bittersweet experience.

9. No. All of my memories of my Grandfather are sweet beyond words, but there is one thing that makes them bitter to me.

10. I remember how I used to love to hear my grandfather talk about the good old days.

11. the cost of an ice cream cone, a barrel of flower or days wages etc.

12. There were many things that were not good about the old days

A. Racism

B. Mothers and children lost at birth.

C. Poor medical care.

D. Two world wars.

13. But, there was also much that made old days good.

14. The experience has caused me to rethink the words to a popular country western song by the Judds.

Grandpa.. Tell me ’bout the good old days

Sometimes it feels like,

this world’s gone crazy

Grandpa, Take me back to yesterday

When the line between right and wrong,

Didn’t seem so hazy

Chorus

Lovers really fall in love to stay

Stand beside each other come what may

A promise really something people kept

not just somthin’ they would say and then forget

Families really bowed their heads to pray

Daddies never really go away

Wo Wo grandpa, tell me bout the good old days.

Grandpa, everything is changing fast

we call it progress

But, I just don’t know

and Grandpa

let’s wonder back into the past

then paint me the picture of long ago

Chorus:

15. I’m really impressed by the accuracy of the insight that the song’s author had. I can’t help but wonder if he wrote this song with a Bible in one hand and a news paper in the other.

Discussion:

I. Contrary to what many are saying, there is much to be thankful for today.

A. We endured two world wars in the first half of this century, but it has been almost 50 years since last one.

B. Contrary to what the media prophets of doom are telling generation X, the possibilities for the future are very bright for those who will, study, prepare and work hard.

C. According to a recent Forbes Magazine Americans are better off financially than they have ever been. And yet ,they feel worse about the future than ever.

D. Why? There are many things that are not better, when compared to the good old days.

II. The beginning of our slide began with a loss of belief in absolute truth.

A. Truth is no longer objective but subjective.

B. Those who believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth etc.

C. Call someone up to ask how long they feel my Bible is, then use a ruler.

D. Those who say there is no absolute truth are calling Jesus a liar.

John 1:14 (NKJV) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:17 (NKJV) For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 4:23-24 (NKJV) "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

John 8:32 (NKJV) "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

John 8:44 (NKJV) "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

John 14:6 (NKJV) Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 14:17 (NKJV) "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.