Matt Chandler - The Power of Song

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those. We’re going to be in Psalm 150 today. I will use some other texts, but that will be our primary text for the day. Before we get started, I want us to spend just a moment praying for the longest-tenured members of the Village Church, Tiff and Doreen Katherine. They have been members of TVC for 28 years, and across that 28 years—yes, you can celebrate that because that’s unusual—they have served in almost every capacity at our church. They served in the nursery long before it was called Little Village, and then they served among elementary school children, and then they served among youth. They led home groups, and their daughter actually became one of the first children’s ministers of this church. They have just faithfully served, and even as they aged—Tiff is 85 now, and I think Doreen is maybe a year older than that at 86—they have tried to find places in which they could serve. For the last few years, they have been greeters, standing at the door, smiling at you, and welcoming you in. They are a picture of a couple that has truly owned this church. This is my church; wherever I see a need, I’m going to fill that need, and they’ve done it for 28 years.

The reason I’m sharing this with you is that Tiff has had a heart surgery before I got here, and he’s had two since I’ve been here. For the last one, I went over to his house just a few days before the surgery to pray with him and Doreen. As we prayed, there was a lot of fear about whether his body would be able to hold up against this next surgery and whether he would make it through. Tiff just wanted to live to April so he could celebrate 65 years of marriage with Doreen. I mean, how incredible is that—65 years of marriage, right? He came through that surgery and survived. However, after the recovery period, the level at which his heart has been able to pump healthy blood through his system has been really low—operating now at about 20 to 25 percent—making him very weak and unable to operate in ways that he really wants to.

Then, about three weeks ago, in one of the more crazy, weird things, they found an infection in Tiff’s shoulder that ended up being a MRSA infection. He was in ICU for eight or nine days, in and out of consciousness, and on multiple occasions, they thought it was over. We had been in and out of there praying for him. His wife Doreen, at 86 or 87 years old, has just refused to leave. «Stubborn» isn’t the right word, but I’m not sure what word to use when you have this 86- or 87-year-old woman saying, «I’m not leaving!» «Well, you’re frail; you need to eat.» «I don’t care; I’m not leaving!» She was falling asleep standing up, not leaving—she has just stood by her husband’s side. Finally, another family from our church went up there and said, «Doreen, you have got to get some sleep; you’ve got to eat. We will stay here; go home.» Then Doreen got in a car, fell asleep, and got into a car accident on the way home, breaking a part of her pelvis. Now she is in another hospital, not the same hospital as Tiff, and Tiff has, over the last 72 hours, started to decline rapidly.

So, before we dive into the text and the preaching of the Word this morning, I want to pray for Tiff and Doreen Katherine, that God would hear Tiff’s heart cry to make it to April. What a beautiful prayer request—certainly looking ahead and thinking, «I might not wake up from this.» He wasn’t saying, «Oh let them be with my grown children and grandchildren.» He was saying, «I just want to celebrate year 65.» So I want to pray over Tiff and I want you to join me in praying for him. I know, for those of you at our other campuses, this might feel weird, like, «Who’s Tiff?» He’s a long-time brother who has done so much good here at the Village Church. Tiff and Doreen Katherine have been foundational members, serving when this church was a hundred people. They actually worked with their hands to build our very first building ever. If you’ve been to the Martin building over there, it was literally built with the hands of our members, Tiff being one of those who led the charge.

So let’s pray for him, and then I want to begin to unpack where we’re going today. Father, I thank you for Tiff and Doreen Katherine. I thank you for a picture of faithfulness that spans decades. Through their highs and lows, their trust has been in You. We thank you for how they love this church, and despite all the changes that have occurred in this place over 28 years, they have always owned this church. They have seen its weaknesses as opportunities to serve. So I thank you for good examples, good models, and good people to look at and say, «That’s a goal.»