• Psalm 92:12-15 (NLT)
[12] But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon.
[13] For they are transplanted into the Lord’s own house. They flourish in the courts of our God.
[14] Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green.
[15] They will declare, "The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is nothing but goodness in him!"
INTRODUCTION:
As part of a commencement address former First Lady Barbara Bush said the following to a group of graduating college students:
"As important as your obligations as a doctor, lawyer, or business leader will be, you are a human being first, and those human connections - with spouses, with children, with friends - are the most important investments you will ever make. At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend, or a parent .... Our success as a society depends not on what happens in the White House but on what happens inside your house." (Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, Steven Covey)
Relationships—the stuff of life is not an accumulation of things; life is more than just the work we do or the money we make. Life is made up of relationships! No one looks back and regrets not spending more time at work or not having more things. Regret is born out of the missed opportunities of relationships. We regret time not spent with our husband or wife; we regret not being involved in the lives of our children; we regret not building lasting friendships. Barbara Bush said it so well, Our success as a society depends not on what happens in the White House but on what happens inside your house.”
So what is happening inside your house? How are the relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, and friends and neighbors doing? Is your interaction with the people who make up your life healthy and vibrant? Or have your relationships been fractured isolating you more and more from others?
Over the next several weeks we are going to open the door into our homes in a series called “ALL IN THE FAMILY.” We’re going to look at the relationships within our families as well as our friends. How are things at your house? I heard someone say that success is not an event but a process. If we are going to have successful relationships within our families it won’t happen overnight. None of us can change what has been said or done in our relationships. However, the past does not determine the success or failure of our families. Failure only happens when we give up and quit. What is important is to live today in a way that will move us toward success.
This morning we are going to look at our heritage; what is hopefully for all of us a solid foundation passed down to by those who have gone before us. In the weeks to come we look at the relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children and even with our friends. But today we want to honor our senior saints for the solid foundation that has been passed down to us. (And who knows perhaps this will help some of us younger folks to think about our priorities so we too will do everything we can to be successful in the way we relate to the people we live with.)
Just for fun let’s have a top ten list of "How to Know when you are growing old."
10. The gleam in your eye is the sun hitting your bifocals.
09. You get winded playing cards.
08. You know all the answers but nobody asks the questions.
07. You need your glasses to find your glasses.
06. You sink your teeth into a steak and they stay there.
05. Your children begin to look middle aged.
04. You turn out the light for economy instead of romance.
03. Everything hurts - what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t work.
02. Your knees buckle but your belt won’t.
01. You need a fire permit to light the candles on your birthday cake.
Our Senior Saints can pass on a solid foundation of stability and strength, through a perspective of God’s faithfulness with continued fruitfulness through lives offered daily to God. And guess what; we can all learn from their example to do the same so we don’t come to the end of our lives filled with regret.
I. Stability and Strength
• Psalm 92:12-13 (NLT)
[12] But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. [13] For they are transplanted into the Lord’s own house. They flourish in the courts of our God.
1. The palm and cedar are pictured as those whose faith is in the Lord.
a) Palm trees are known for their long life. To flourish like palm trees means to stand tall and to live long. The cedars of Lebanon grew to 120 feet in height and up to 30 feet in circumference; thus, they were solid, strong, and immovable.
b) Believers who have been transplanted into the house of the Lord are seen as upright, strong, and unmoved by the winds of circumstance. When you put your faith firmly in God you have a stability and strength that will keep you through all the storms of life.
c) Our senior saints today have this kind of strength and stability to steadfastly trust God no matter what may happen.
2. Abraham was a man who stood strong in faith.
a) Tell the story of Abram who became Abraham; include God’s promise of blessing to Abraham and that through him all nations of the world would be blessed. Abraham receives the promised blessing in his son Isaac, but then God asks Abraham to do something very difficult, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Would Abraham remain strong in his faith in God under such a test to take the life of Isaac the child of promise?
• Genesis 22:9-14 (NIV)
[9] When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. [10] Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. [11] But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.
[12] "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."
[13] Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. [14] So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided."
3. God will strengthen the young and old alike!
• Acts 2:17-18 (NIV)
[17] In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. [18] Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
a) God does not play favorites. Physical strength may be given to the young, but God will empower ALL who trust in him.
b) For our grandparents here today know that God will continue to strengthen you to do great things. Don’t try to just relive the past. Stand strong in the Lord and let God empower you for the work He has called you to do today.
II. Perspective of God’s Faithfulness
• Psalm 92:15 (NLT)
They will declare, "The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is nothing but goodness in him!"
1. We need to hear our senior saints tell us again and again about the faithfulness of God!
a) Count your blessings! Name them one by one! Tell us the story of God’s amazing grace in your life. Share with us the blessed assurance you have of God’s unfailing love!
b) Our senior saints can show how faithful God is to his promises, how true to his word, how kind to them who trust in him. He is the Rock upon which we can stand, the Fountain from which all good things come.
2. Abraham had a perspective of God’s faithfulness that not only changed the way he lived, but that also transformed the lives of his family.
• Genesis 24:1-8 (NIV)
[1] Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. [2] He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh. [3] I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, [4] but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac."
[5] The servant asked him, "What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?"
[6] "Make sure that you do not take my son back there," Abraham said. [7] "The Lord, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ’To your offspring I will give this land’--he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. [8] If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there."
a) Abraham could have been satisfied with what God had given to him and just let Isaac live life for himself. Instead he had a perspective of the faithfulness of God that assured him that God had better things in store for Isaac than just anyone of the Canaanite women as his wife. Abraham’s perspective assured him that Isaac would have a wife from his own family—the family of promise.
b) Abraham’s perspective even transformed his servant who asked God in prayer for a sign that he would find the right woman to be Isaac’s wife. No sooner had he finished praying than did Rebekah come and do the very thing he had asked God to do for him. Abraham’s perspective of God’s faithfulness was contagious and his servant was not disappointed; God answered his prayer.
3. Make known God’s faithfulness from generation to generation! (Brag on God!)
• Isaiah 38:19 (NLT)
Only the living can praise you as I do today. Each generation can make known your faithfulness to the next.
Our senior saints have a strength and stability of faith together with a perspective of God’s faithfulness that will continue to bring:
III. Fruitfulness
• Psalm 92:14 (NLT)
Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green.
1. Even in old age, devoted believers can produce spiritual fruit.
a) I’m thankful that not only will God give dreams to our grandparents and senior saints, but God will also empower them to be like Caleb who at the age of 80 was still ready to conquer the land. “Give me that mountain!”
b) Children are often asked by adults, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And children usually give answers such as doctors, nurses, fireman, and so on. But as adults and as seniors do we ever ask ourselves the question, "What do I want to accomplish for God as I grow older?"
2. Even in his old age Abraham was fruitful and did great things for God.
a) Perhaps our senior saints might think I’m going to remind them that Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born. Don’t worry; I’m not looking for our grandparents to become parents again in their golden years! Instead I want you to think about Abrahams continued exploits for God.
b) Set up the story of Lot being taken captive when Sodom was overtaken; remember Lot chose to live in that area because the fields were green and well watered leaving Abraham to live in what seemed to be the wasteland of Canaan. But God’s blessing was on Abraham and continued to multiply his herds. How then would Abraham respond when he is told that Lot has been taken captive with his entire family and all his possessions?
• Genesis 14:14-20 (NIV)
[14] When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. [15] During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. [16] He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people.
[17] After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
[18] Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, [19] and he blessed Abram, saying,
"Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. [20] And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand."
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
c) Abraham could have said Lot got what he had coming to him. After all it was Lot’s choice to live in Sodom. Instead Abraham rescued Lot and his family. That’s the fruitfulness of continuing to walk under the blessing of God, but that’s not all. ABRAHAM GAVE A TITHE; he planted seed for God to continue to make him fruitful!
3. How long are we to serve God?
a) The world has fostered the idea of retirement, that a person works x-amount of years and then they are finished working. That thought has wormed its way into the Church too. But when we begin to align our lives in the light of God’s Word we discover that God has no retirement plan, other than death, or should I say promotion to heaven? That means we are to retire, but to continue to live out all of our lives in love and devotion to our God.
b) Dr. James Powell, a retired physician from Ellensburg, WA says, "Ask the Lord to show you where He’s working – then join Him at work ... Those who retire to a life of leisure have a problem. The lack of challenge, both mentally and physically, often accelerates both mental and physical problems ... Older Christians need to use their experience and wisdom to help improve the world."
• Philippians 1:21-22 (NIV)
[21] For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. [22] If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.
Ways for senior saints to be fruitful:
Fight! Pray for others. You may have more time on your hands than some still raising their families. The weapons we use are not carnal, so if you can pray, you can fight for the church and the Kingdom of God. We need your help in the spiritual battle!
Mentor: Pass on wisdom, skills, and biblical knowledge to others. Your biblical example of a sweet, generous and kind spirit rather than bitterness can directly or indirectly lead others to foster the same godly attitude as they approach their golden years.
Our Senior Saints can pass on a solid foundation of stability and strength, through a perspective of God’s faithfulness with continued fruitfulness through lives offered daily to God.
