Old
Age and Its Blessings. Kelly Durant 4-18-04 Re:
9-12-10 Re 9-8-19
Lev 19:32
32 Thou shalt rise up before
the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the
LORD.
2.There is a quote in English
that says: No wise man ever wished to be any younger! There are a lot of
benefits to growing old, but I am referring to growing mature in the Lord! But Like
they say, wrinkles should be on the face, not on the heart!
Let’s look up Titus 2:2,3
2 That the aged men be sober,
grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.
3 The aged women likewise,
that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given
to much wine, teachers of good things;
4 That they may teach the
young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
That scripture tells the
elderly to be serious, temperate, strong in faith, love and patience. The youth
can learn a lot from the more mature.
What is old really? (In different
countries people die at different ages).
3. It is the job of the young
to learn from the aged and experienced and the older ones should be teachers!
That is if they are close to the Lord! You lived all those years and all you
know can benefit many people, so all the elder here need to consider they have
a job in our Corps church, they should be mentors to the younger.
That is what the Word
commands us to do and we need to retain the old mentality of respect for our
elders! It is Biblical.
Today we have a generation of
kids that disrespect the elderly and their parents, and according to the 10
commandments to honor your father and your mother, if a child insulted his
parents breaking this commandment, he was to be stoned to death! God is serious
about us respecting those that are older, especially parents!
Deuteronomy 21: 18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who
will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when
they have chastened him, will not heed them, 19 then his father and his mother
shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate
of his city. 20 And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours
is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a
drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with
stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall
hear and fear.
4. There are many articles
about how we age and most of them state how people often get more mellow, more
friendly, more happy, and even more productive. KFC was started after Col
Sanders retired from the military. Many people go on to accomplish great things
in business, in writing, in service to the community. Old age is a blessing! It
can be the most productive years.
And let’s look at the way God
has acted throughout the Bible history. He called Abraham and Sarah when they
were old to raise their son. He called Moses when he was 40 but he was still too
young and impulsive. Then God didn’t
call him again until he had watched sheep for another 40 years, and he then was
ripe enough to go on to free the children of Israel at age 80!
Many of God’s prophets were not
used by God until they had become aged men. I think some people at age 40 are
still not yet mature. It is not the age of the body that matters as much as the
age of the spirit and how much you have learned.
5. It is God’s plan that we
grow more mature in Him. There are some people that get older and still make
the same mistakes over and over though, and that is because they are not
seeking God every day. Some people just get older but not wiser. Let’s look up..Prov 16:31
31 The hoary head is a crown
of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.
In other words, if you are
old with grey hair, and you are close to the Lord, living in righteousness, you
are wearing a crown of glory! But the older ones must live in the path of
righteousness, and that is a purity that comes after years of practicing
righteousness.
Here, and in other cultures,
grey haired people are usually taken to be wise, but wisdom does not always
come with grey hair. So why is it that some people hide their age? My mother wore
a wig that is the color of her hair when she was 40, so even though when she
was 80, she appeared about 65. That is what she chose, but natural is fine too.
The heart is what matters!
6. Sometimes, some people may
equate old with slow and useless. In my time here with the Salvation Army I
have met many older and retired Officers and what I have seen is amazing. They
are a sharp productive group of people! I have seen some retire at 65 and keep
working another 20 years! And just like some of you here, your memory of Bible
stories and of life experiences remains lucid.
I’d say the average life span
of a Salvationist Officer right now must be at least 85-90. Even though we live
a busy stressful life for the Lord, it is as though the Lord blesses us with
length of days for serving Him. Look up
Ps 92:13‑15
13 Those that be planted in
the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They shall still bring
forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
15 To shew that the LORD is
upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
I want to tell you, in my 14
years of ministry in Atlanta I got to know hundreds of people. There are people
right now that I know that have lived for the Lord, come to church, and lived
holy lives and prospered in usefulness. On the other hand, some people I have known
that have been slow to get close to the Lord, I have seen over time remain weak
or in worse condition than what they use to be! Age will regenerate you and you
will feel young when you live for the Lord, or age will kill you, when you are
not on the right path spiritually!
7. The U.S. is made up of a
majority of people of all races that are getting older! It is our job to bring
them into fellowship and love! Many of them have solitary lives and they pray
every day to keep their health so they can get around to walk to buy food. And
we always need to thank our church drivers who pick up these weaker ones here
who do not drive due to their age or heath.
We need to thank those who
visit the elder in the Community Care ministries too. Remember, the people out
in the world, those that have not known righteousness and our loving, life
filling renovating Christian way of life, are not anywhere near as happy as we
are in our Christian life in the Corps. We can see the effects of time on earth
without God in the people that in the rest homes being not so old, and yet they
can be amongst the vulgar grouchy ones.
One time when Regina was in a
hospital, there was an elderly lady beside her that had had an operation to cut
out a cancer and she was going to die within a few weeks. Despite that she
cussed like a sailor and had no reverence to God; she was old but not pure or righteous
in any form or fashion. It was not pretty. Sad, right? Righteousness in old age
is everything according to scripture! Righteousness is within the same as
category as holiness, which we preach, and it induces respect.
8. Will you be energetic, in love
with the Lord, and with life, and blessed because you planted in His house and
won souls to Jesus? We have all met many older people in my time and isn’t it
true that we see amazing things happen in the Salvation Army?
Most teachings of service,
generosity, and encouragement, all come from the older faithful ones! My
question to you who are younger is, how is it going to be for you when you are
older with grey hair?
Will you be old and bitter
about how you don’t have what you wanted out of life? Will you complain how
others treated you unfairly, how you should have been richer, or blame how your
family held you back!? Age & time is a collection of what was lived day to
day and only you answer to God for all things! Daily living in God’s word and
in His praises will always be renovating your Spirit even though the outward
body is wasting away. But we as humans
with our mistakes and sins and with our own carnal minds, tend to degenerate
and discourage, so counter it and live in God from day to day!
9. Here is some reality news…each
of you (and me) are dying! So if we are dying no matter what we do to be
healthy, and some of us will pass on to glory before others do, why not live out
our glory in Jesus Christ already? Paul said he died daily, and that implied
that he, and we, must kill the bad in ourselves that is preventing us from
being holy and right with God.
2 Corinthians 4:16
Therefore we do not lose
heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being
renewed day by day. Our internal spirit
can be renovated! Each one of us is responsible for the effect of what we are
feeding into our minds and spirits.
With age we get better or
bitter. Like wine that gets more fine, or like vinegar that gets more tart! Let’s respect and pray for those that are
elderly here today and let us make plans to grow old gracefully, full of His
grace, and His love, and His righteousness, and His wisdom, and His patience,
and His faithfulness! Pray for those you know who are elderly today!
