Living Old And Sappy

Scripture: Psalm 92 (cf. verse 14); 2 Timothy 4:7-8; Luke 12:25-31

Title: The Sappy Life

A sermon dedicated to those growing older finish well and live an abundant life. 4 steps on how to be found faithful to the end!

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Ted Engstrom who served as the Head of Youth for Christ and World Vision International made this pertinent statement:

“To know how to grow old is the masterpiece of wisdom and one of the most difficult chapters in the art of living.”

Ted was not saying those words off the top of his head. He died in 2006 at the age of 90. Ted knew what it took to make sure that the last chapters of his life here on this earth were meaningful, positive, full of vision and purpose.

It is said that maturing adults come in three different packages: the movers, the shakers and the quakers.

+The movers are those who are still being active, they keep their minds alert, the emotions in control and the bodies on the move. They are maturing chronologically but are still in the game of life.

+ The shakers are those who have decided to just slow down to a steady crawl. They desire only to sit on the sidelines and watch life go by. They are still engaged but only at a minimum level.

+ The last group of course are the quakers. The quakers are those who are overwhelmed with life and are merely waiting for the day that the flat line catches up with them. For them the best days are over and they are waiting for their going home ticket. They are no longer engaged and don’t desire to be either.

I want to talk to you today about maturing in the LORD. I want to talk to you today about what the Bible has to say to mature people; people commonly call senior adults or senior citizens.

Senior adults; those people that are near or beyond 60 years old who make up over 70 million people in our country and over 750 million people in the world. Pause for a moment and reflect on those numbers – over 70 million people in our country and over 750 million people in our world are currently over 60 years of age.

That means if you took everyone over 60 in the USA and created a country with just them, that new country would be almost as large as Germany and larger than both the nations of the United Kingdom and France. And of course, if you took everyone over 60 in the world and made a country with just them then only the only the countries of China and India would be larger.

It is just a fact that we human beings are living longer. We should rejoice in that fact. Did you know that there are over 35 million people in our country that are 70+ years old. Together they would make up the 2nd largest state in our country being only a little smaller than California.

And did you know that there are almost 13 million people over the age of 80 in our country? Think about that fact for a second or two this morning. 13 million people over 80 years of age. That is more people than live the countries of Belgium, Cuba, Greece or Israel. 13 million people is a lot of people.

And yet when we add all those numbers up and realize as we said that over 70 million people in our country are 60+ years of age there is a rather stark reality in the Church. Many churches do not have a specialized pastor or ministry dedicated for this demographic of people. In most places, seniors are either ignored or disregarded. They are not seen as a positive force but just a bunch of grey beards and old fogies.

There are almost 40 million children under the age of 10 in our nation and it is not unusual for many churches to have at least one children’s pastor. We do that because we want to help our children grow up and mature in the LORD. We want them to be able to learn about the Bible and to apply its principles in their lives.

We do the same with young people. There are over 42 million that are either pre-teen or teens in our nation. And many, many churches have taken the time and the resources to have one, two or more youth pastors to help them grow older, mature in the LORD and be able to live a life in Christ.

But what about the 70+ million over 60? Do we feel that they do not need any help? Do we feel that they can just make it on their own?