Inspiration in Isaiah: Growing Old with God

I received these jokes from a friend on email just this week, and thought they were timely, given my subject this morning.

· Reporters interviewing a 104-year-old woman: "And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?" the reporter asked. She simply replied, "No peer pressure."

· I feel like my body has gotten totally out of shape, so I got my doctor's permission to join a fitness club and start exercising. I decided to take an aerobics class for seniors. I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an hour. But by the time I got my leotards on, the class was over.

· My memory's not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.

I can remember as a young man looking ahead and saying, “I don’t want to grow old. It doesn’t look like any fun at all: you lose your teeth, your hair, your health, and your mind, and I’m afraid of all that.” My mother-in-law used to say, “Old age doesn’t come alone,” by which she meant all the aches and pains that typically accompany old age. But now she’s 88, and says, “Old age isn’t for sissies.” Now that really scares me! She, and many others in their 80s, can identify with a man named Barzillai, who was a friend of David’s before he became king. He declined to go with David to Jerusalem, because 2 Samuel 19:35, “I am now eighty years old. Can I tell the difference between what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks? Can I still hear the voices of men and women singers?”

I want to talk this morning about growing old with God, because all of us will hopefully have to do that some day, and the Bible has much to say about it. Before I get into it, though, let me address this question first:

I think there are two primary reasons: One is, you will be old one day. If you don’t die young, you will get old. There is no escaping it. The choices you make today will determine what your life will be like then. You are setting patterns of life that will carry on to your old age, so it makes sense to be prepared, and to make good choices now.

Secondly, you know someone who is old. There is an older person who is dear to you—a parent, a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, an elderly neighbor, etc. This sermon may help you understand them better, and thereby relate to them better, or pray for them better.

Among the Jews, old age was held in honor, and respect was required for the aged, Leviticus 19:32, “Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God.” One reason for that is because there was an assumption that as a person grew older, they also got wiser. We see that reflected in Job 32:6-7, where Elihu, one of Job’s three “friends” says,

We also see this value reflected in the title given the men who led the churches in the New Testament—they were called elders. The assumption was that older men had more to offer the church in terms of wise, discerning leadership.

Many other cultures even today respect older people much more than the U.S. does. Somehow, we have gotten the idea that only the new and the young are valuable, and the old is not worth much. We talk about people who turn 30 as being “over the hill”, which somehow suggests they aren’t worth much any more. Let’s just test this hypothesis: if you are over 60, raise your hand. If you feel like the culture devalues senior citizens, like you are made to feel you are not as important or as valuable as younger people, keep your hand up. I think we could learn a lot from the Bible and other cultures on this point, because the senior citizens among us have a wealth of wisdom that could help us all if we would only listen to them.

One of the great fears people have about growing older is that they become more frail, more vulnerable, they lose the ability to do things they once took for granted. That’s why it is such a comfort to know that

God is speaking through the prophet to the nation of Israel that had been taken into captivity in Babylon, but the words apply to us as individual believers as well. God has upheld us since the day we were conceived. He has carried us through life since our birth. And wherever we are on the spectrum of age, it is still true that God is the one who will sustain us. He has made us, He will carry us, He will sustain us and rescue us. Sometimes, in the midst of the struggles of life, it can seem like God is absent. We’re working hard, we don’t sense His presence, we can’t see His hand at work. But afterwards, when we look back at that time, we can say, “Oh yes. I see it now. God was there all the time. He really is the one who got me through it.”

If you are old enough to have gray hair (even though some of you ladies may be hiding that fact!), it is especially meaningful to think back over your life and realize that God has been there for you all along. I became a Christian in the fall of 1959, 47 years ago, and each year at Thanksgiving, I do a little inventory, looking back, giving thanks for the ways God has blessed me ever since that night I gave my life to Him at the age of 16. At that point, I had no idea what the future would hold. I couldn’t possibly see all the challenges and obstacles that would be in my life. Like most teens, I just envisioned life getting better and better every year, growing, learning, having new experiences and adventures, etc. There have been plenty of those things in my life, but I think at this point, the sentiments expressed in this passage are becoming even more meaningful: God has been faithful. He is the one who has upheld me, carried me, sustained me, and rescued me over and over again.

In ancient Israel, 80 was about the most anyone could expect to live. Today, many people live past that. How many of you are 80 or older? My life expectancy, depending on which online insurance company survey you believe, is somewhere between 89 and 102! But even though more people are living to be 100 or more, the maximum lifespan hasn’t increased all that much. We get a certain number of years on this earth, and that’s it. And the psalmist must have been feeling his age, because he says those years are filled with trouble and sorrow, and fly by too quickly, and then we are gone.

The psalmist also said that the very number of days allotted to us by God has been fixed: Psalm 139:16, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” God knows how long you will live. He has determined that before you were born.

The writer of Ecclesiastes warned us to keep putting God first in our mind: Here’s an interesting poem describing the effects of old age and his advice in light of that: Eccles. 12:1-7

and of dangers in the streets; [no longer being able to defend themselves makes people fearful]

It’s a very poetic description of old age, but don’t miss the main point: remember God. Keep Him in the forefront of your mind all through your life; don’t wait until you are old to put God first, and above all, don’t wait until you are dead to get serious about God.

Here’s another idea of what to do with our years, especially as we get older. Psalm 71 is the prayer of an old man, suggesting we should stay useful in our old age.

He begins with great confidence and an expression of his life-long dependence on God:

Based on that sense of God’s presence and help all through his life, here’s the first request:

He recognizes that old age is a time of physical, mental, and emotional vulnerability. We can’t do the things we used to do; as we get older, we often have to have other people do things for us. But we have God’s promise that He will never leave us or forsake us. Just because we are old, and even if everybody else has abandoned us, God never will. Jesus has promised to be with us to the end of the age. What a comfort that is!

Now he sharpens the focus on that prayer: Don’t leave me until I have had a chance to tell the next generation about your mighty power. Here’s a man who is focused on God. He is “remembering” God as Ecclesiastes said, and he wants everyone to know how great God is.

We might apply this in two directions: We should certainly begin with our own families. Have you told your kids and your grandkids, and if you have any, your great-grandkids your testimony? Do they know how faithful God has been to you? Have you shared with them the answers to your prayers? On my fortieth spiritual birthday, I made a video tape for my two children, recounting the ways God had worked in my life up to that point. I shared how I came to Christ, and how He had guided and blessed me over the previous 40 years.

Many of our children and grandchildren are Christians, praise God, but some of them are not. This is a source of great grief and sadness to Christian parents and grandparents, but at least we can do this: we can share our story with the next generations below us. We should ask God for the wisdom and discernment to know the best way to do that, and for His help as we share it. They need to know how God has dealt with us.

The other way to apply this is to ask where in the church you might have an opportunity to share God’s power and grace with a younger generation. I know that many of you seniors assume that the younger people don’t want to have anything to do with you, but that’s not the case. Just this past summer, our youth interns, Rachel Splinter and Andrew Bond, were telling me how much they valued the wisdom of seniors, and they felt that was true of many in their generation. They would love to be in a small group that mixed the generations. Len Burkhart has spent a lot of time with one of the teen age boys in our youth group over the past few years. I’ll come back to this in a minute, but for now, be thinking of ways you can pass on the greatness of God to the next generation.

If you are one of the younger ones in your family, you should definitely ask the older generation to tell you about their experience with God. Ask them how they came to know Christ personally, and what He has meant to them along the way. Ask them to tell you about their struggles in life, and how God has helped them. You can learn a lot from those relatives and friends who are a generation or two older than you.

Another way to approach old age is to recognize that many people have accomplished great things in their later years. As age slows us down, we should not give in to that, but fight it! Keep moving; keep exercising; eat right; take care of ourselves. I’m still jogging, praise God! I go slower and shorter than I used to, but I’m still moving. And above all, keep serving God. How horrible it would be to be asked by God why we stopped serving him at age 60, and have to admit it was because we just gave up. We decided to pamper and indulge ourselves because the culture told us we deserved that.

Caleb was one of the two men who scouted out the promised land and brought back a positive report. After they had entered Canaan, and conquered much of it, Caleb came to the leader, Joshua and said, Remember when we got back to Moses and reported that we should go in and conquer this land? Moses said that I could have the land on which we had walked. Well, here I am, forty five years later, at age 85. Joshua 14:11, “I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. [12] Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as he said." The hill country, with the fierce Anakites and their fortified cities[1], had the reputation of being the hardest part of the land to conquer. But Caleb was up for it. He was ready to go, in the strength that God had given him. At an age when most people are playing bridge, or at most, shuffleboard, this man of God still had high dreams and tough goals to accomplish.

Moses was 80 when God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt,[2] and he led them through the harsh Sinai desert from age 80 to 120.

Neither the word nor the concept of “retirement” appears in the Bible. Certainly, the limitations of advancing age mean that there are some physical things we cannot do, but that doesn’t mean we should settle for a life of complete self-indulgence or sloth. We can still serve God, but in different ways. For example:

· Surrogate grandparents. Jim Eng tells how great it was when they arrived in Loveland 16 years ago that Dave and Fran Leighton sort of adopted their kids, because the Eng grandparents lived in other states.

· Community Kitchen. Once a month, a group of people from our church serves the meals at the Community Kitchen downtown in the First Presbyterian Church. It’s a great way to serve the community in the name of Christ. Talk to Chris Perciante or Chris Christensen for more information

· Children’s ministry is always looking for people to help in different ways, often for just a short period of time, or once every so many weeks. See Monica Kopp.

· lead a small group. It doesn’t have to be a lecture; you don’t need the gift of teaching. Just get some people together and discuss the Bible. Talk to Chris Perciante if you’d like to explore this possibility.

· mentor a younger person. This is a great way to pass on your experience and wisdom to the next generation. I know it would seem awkward for you to approach someone else and ask them if they want you to mentor them. So here’s how we’ll do it. On the Sign-ups sheet in your bulletin, there is a place to sign up if you would like a mentor, or if you are willing to be a mentor. We’ll call you and see what you have in mind, and then try to match you up with an appropriate person. Teens, and young single adults, young couples, men in mid-life crisis, anyone who wants to improve their marriage, people who want to be better parents—all of these and more are prime candidates for learning from someone who has been there

· you can pray. You have more time to do that, and lots of relationships to pray for. In particular, we are looking for a few more people to pray for our teens during the Senior High Youth Group on Wednesday nights, and the Middle School Youth Group on Thursday nights. See Henry Masengale, 622-9929 for more information, or Sign up in the bulletin.

· you can pray for me. I have a team of people who have committed to pray for me and my family at least once a week. Many do it every day. I send them a monthly letter sharing what’s going on in our family, and how they can hold us up. If you’d like to be on my prayer team, Sign up.

So here’s the executive summary: God promises to be with us and sustain us all through our lives, even as we grow older. We should keep Him first in our minds all through our lives, starting now, regardless of how old we are. We should always be looking for new ways to serve Him, to use the wisdom that He has given us through the experiences we’ve had in life. Most importantly, we want to find ways to share the greatness of God with younger generations, thereby investing ourselves in them for years to come.

[1] Just south of Jerusalem

[2] Acts 7:23 "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. Exodus 7:7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.