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Thank God for Senior Adults - Preached 4-13-08
Posted on Friday 26 February @ 17:45:31 |
 Proverbs 16:31 NIV - New International Version
31 Gray hair is a crown of splendor;
it is attained by a righteous life.
Proverbs 16:31 MSG - The Message
31 Gray hair is a mark of distinction,
the award for a God - loyal life.
Proverbs 16:31 NASB - New American Standard Bible
31A gray head is a crown of glory;
It is found in the way of righteousness.
Proverbs 16:31 NLT - New Living Translation
31 Gray hair is a crown of glory;
it is gained by living a godly life.
Now that I'm older, here's what I've discovered:
1. I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.
2. My wild oats have turned into prunes and All Bran.
3. I finally got my head together; now my body is falling apart.
4. If all is not lost, where is it?
5. Some days you're the dog; some days you're the hydrant.
6. I wish the buck stopped here; I sure could use a few . . .
7. It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere.
8. The only time the world beats a path to your door is when you're in the bathroom.
9. If God wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them on my knees.
10. These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter. I go somewhere to get something and then wonder what I'm here after.
Solomon was the wisest of all men. He tells us in Proverbs 16:31, "Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life."
I feel honored to have so many seniors
here at LCC.
What a treat to have senior adults coming together. I am thrilled that you've invested some of your time to be inspired and edified.
And to worship in spirit and in truth.
You've probably heard about the Serenity Prayer. But let me share with you the prayer of Senility:
"God grant me the Senility to forget the people
I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones that I do,
and the eyesight to tell the difference."
This morning I want to thank you for what I've learned from senior adults in this church.
The first lesson you have taught me is that wisdom is more important
than knowledge.
James speaks of this.
James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God,
who gives generously to all without finding fault,
and it will be given to him.
Experience has a way of giving us wisdom, so do life experiences. There are mountains and valleys in life. But I believe this age group has a desire to pass that along to their children and grandchildren the lessons of life.
Paul Harvey writes:
We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd really like for them to know about hand-me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meatloaf sandwiches.
I really would.
I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.
I hope you learn to make your bed and mow the lawn and wash the car. And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you're sixteen.
It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.
I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.
I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him.
When you want to see a movie and your little bother wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him.
I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely. On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your mom.
I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books. When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.
I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what Ivory soap tastes like.
May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove, and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole. I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandpa and go fishing with your uncle.
May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays. I hope your Mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through a neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.
These things I wish for you—tough times and disappointment, hard work, and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life.
That's wisdom!
Wayne Smith used to tell about an unemployed man who applied for a job as janitor at the First Baptist Church. The preacher asked him to fill out employment forms and discovered he couldn't read or write. Since he was illiterate he didn't get the job, but they did give him a basket of apples to help him. He ate a few and sold a few to people on the street. With the money he made he bought some more apples and sold them. Pretty soon he had a profitable fruit stand on the corner.
In a few years the fruit stand became a booming business and he took a million dollars in cash to the local bank to open an account. The banker asked him to fill out appropriate forms and he said, "I can't read or write."
The surprised banker said, "You can't read or write and yet you've built a million dollar business.
Do you know where you'd be if you were educated?"
He said, "Yeah, I'd be the janitor of the First Baptist Church!"
Most non-Christians are turned off because of a person's hypocrisy, not because of their ignorance on some complex spiritual truth.
In fact, knowledge can also be a barrier if you have a holier-than-thou attitude or come across as having all the answers. Be yourself, study God's Word, and realize that sometimes it's better if you wait until you answer any question
That's the difference that comes when you seek wisdom instead of simply knowledge. Some put all of their efforts into attaining knowledge. They become intellectually brilliant but too proud to admit their need for a Savior.
But I like what Jonathan Edwards said,
"God wants to reach the heart, but he never bypasses the mind on the way to the heart."
If you're wrapped up in knowledge and want to know something, then seek what Paul sought in Philippians 3:10,
"I want to know Christ."
But wisdom is what you seek
and I appreciate the example
that you've set for me.
The second lesson is
Giving is more important than accumulating.
We have seniors who mail their tithe & offerings to the church when they can’t be here.
Jesus said, "Give and it will come back to you."
Someone said,
"Do your giving while you're livin',
then you're knowin' where it's goin'!"
If we're prepared then we can share with others. We can become so preoccupied that we neglect what's most important.
Did you hear about the elderly man who was at home, dying in bed? The doctors said he wouldn't last through the day. But from his upstairs bedroom he smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookies baking. He wanted one last cookie before he died. So he fell out of his bed, crawled to the landing, rolled down the stairs, and slowly inched his way along the carpet to the kitchen where his wife was busily baking cookies.
With waning strength, he lifted his withered hand toward the plate. As he grasped a warm, moist cookie, his wife whacked his hand with a spatula and said, "Those are for the funeral."
Hopefully that's not always the case
with every senior adult!
Let me just say, that regardless of whether you're rich or poor,
if you hold onto the things of this world too tightly, you'll have a miserable existence.
When I was a kid, our family would travel a few hours away to visit my grandparents. Every time we left their house we would take with us a Tupperware container of homemade chocolate chip cookies that my grandmother had made. I loved the cookies, but my parents always appreciated what was at the bottom of the container.
And every time, my grandmother would hide a $5 bill in an envelope under all those cookies in order to help pay for gasoline for the trip.
My dad was a minister, barely making ends meet. So she did it for all of them whenever they came.
She was always smiling. She enjoyed giving. In those days no one even made a $1 an hour.
In those days $5 would fill up the tank of gas. She taught us kids how to give.
With out saying a word about giving.
1 Timothy 6:17-19
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
I went to Mexico once, and I saw abject poverty up close and personal. I would hear children say, "give me food, give me food." When I returned to the states, for the next three months that every time I prayed for my food, I would be reminded of those pleading faces and those haunting voices.
Proverbs 22:9 says,
"A generous man will himself be blessed,
for he shares food with the poor."
The third 3rd lesson I've learned from you all is that teamwork is more important than personal accomplishment.
In 1 Corinthians 12 the apostle Paul talks about the body of Christ. We're all part of the family, functioning as one.
This church is strong & healthy, because of people over the age of 60 who serve and volunteer.
Some senior adults coast and say, "It's my turn to sit back"—yet others use their gifts, talents, and free time to minister and serve others.
When a small percentage of older people get a sour attitude it's often due to a move toward insulation and isolation. And they become lonely.
Contrast that with the senior adults who are having the time of their lives and living each day to the fullest, regardless of their limitations.
John Ortberg facetiously says, "I'd like to be humble, but what if no one notices."
Like it or not, that's what the church is to be, a body, a team, a unit made up of many parts and through all of its parts, they form one body.
The Seniors in this church care for each other, call on each other, pray for each other, visit each other and eat togather many times.
That Is church as should be. A family.
The seniors in this church show us that when we work towards a common goal, spreading the load evenly and equally, and at the same time, with one heart, one mind, one purpose, one direction, and two hands they we able to accomplish the impossible.
Speaking of the impossible:
We have a great VBS. and one reason is you Seniors support it we couldn’t do it with you!
That is a fact.
Another lesson that you've taught me,
is that grace is more important than justice.
Remember the teenager who got a job working as a delivery boy for a florist. Things went well until one day when he had the responsibility of delivering two sets of flowers. One was for a funeral home and the other was for a big church that had relocated to a larger sanctuary.
He got a little confused and switched the deliveries. An irate preacher called up the florist saying, "Our dedication service starts in 20 minutes and at the front of our sanctuary is a huge bouquet of flowers that say, ‘Rest in peace.'"
The florist said, "You think you've got problems? Somewhere in this town there are a set of flowers next to a casket, which say, ‘Good luck in your new location.'"
When it comes to your final destination, luck will play no role in determining where you spend eternity.
Choice, not chance,
will determine your direction.
The Bible teaches that beyond the grave you'll be assigned to either eternal life in heaven or eternal death in hell.
God's amazing grace is available to those who have placed their trust in his son, Jesus Christ. On that day, it will be quite apparent that grace is more important than justice.
In the late 1880's in Newark, Ohio there was a man named Neal Johnson. He was 25 years of age, and he and his wife had a little baby. Johnson was known as a good man with a bad temper.
One day he got in an argument with his neighbor over a property line. And that line dispute between the two got so out of hand that it turned into a fight, a fight in which Johnson killed his neighbor. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Ohio State Penitentiary. And that was back when life actually meant life. Each month his family would make the journey from Newark to Columbus to visit him. Over the years Johnson gained the respect of the inmates along with those who worked at the prison.
Each Christmas it was the custom of the state of Ohio for the Governor to release one prisoner each year upon the recommendation of the Warden. Of course those who were in for life, were never seriously considered. But on the Christmas morning nearly 12 years from the time of the murder all of the inmates quietly filed into the room in silence anticipating the announcement of who would be freed. And after a moment, the silence was broken when the Warden said the name—"Neal Johnson." There was no response. "Neal Johnson would you come to the front"—nothing. The Chaplain began walking down through the rows of inmates searching. He came to a row where a man was on his knees sobbing. It was Neal Johnson and through his tears he kept saying, "there must be some mistake, there must be some mistake." The Chaplain put his hand on his shoulder and said, "There is no mistake, the pardon is real."
When we look at ourselves we see sin,
when we look at Calvary we see forgiveness.
In disbelief we look heavenward and say, "There must be some mistake."
But our gentle Shepherd puts his hand on our shoulder and says,
"There is no mistake, the pardon is real."
A nother lesson you seniors have taught
What is commitment:
Most seniors have been
lied to and lied about
Betrayed & decived
used hurt
loaned money you never got back
things missings and you know who took it
loaned things that were never returned
broken things & no knows how it happened
great disapointments in life & other people
expatations promised but never met
you have love but love has not returned
given but not thank
been there for others but when you where in need there was no one there.
In your church life you have seen the church go up and down ministers come and go. gosssit hounds treat the church apart & lies be told.
But your comitment to the Lord never change.
Effie Bailey .............. Thats comitment!
It wasn’t about her & what she likes......
Thats comitment! Thats what makes this church what it is today. its called comitment.
no matter what!!!!
Lord, I thank you for seniors in this church.
I thank you for lessons that you have taught that I'm still in the process of learning.
I thank you SENIORS
As you continue to seek wisdom,
I thank you SENIORS
AS you continue to give generously,
I thank you SENIORS
AS you continue see the value of we over me, and I thank you for your amazing grace you showed to me and my family. And everybody you come in contact with.
I thank you SENIORS 4 your comitment
I belive this is one of the greatest churchs on the face of the earth - and you seniors are a big part of making what it is. God Bless You!
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Bible Verses
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She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
-- Proverbs 4:9
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