The Older Ones: You May Become One, One Day! April 24, 2016 Kelly Durant
Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
2. Older people can be very funny! Thank God for humor and that we can laugh when we don’t hear everything said, or see things as clearly as we use to. Like the grandson who took the grandpa out to eat and he wanted to impress upon him that was educated and learning proper English. He asked him, “Did you enjoy an eloquent suffice”? The grandpa, paused and said, “What, did you say? That we were eating elephant and rice?!”
A healthy person will have love and respect for the senior citizens in society! As a matter of fact, those that do not respect and honor their parents and grandparents are breaking an original command of one of the 10 big ones that carried the death penalty for violating it: Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
Why does it say that your ‘days may be long’? Because rebellious, stubborn, know-it-all young people who don’t want to listen to the wisdom of their fathers usually live a hard-knock life, mess up, and end up dying young due to their own mistakes! Notice that it says ‘father and mother’, and sadly in many homes many young people do not grow up with the wisdom of them both, or they see horrible examples, so we must weight that honor is due to whom deserves it (If they are Godly or not).
3. On our calendar today is senior appreciation Sunday. Look how many seniors we have, quite a few, right? As a matter of fact, some churches seem to only be filled with seniors! Seniors who are faithful to God’s work deserve respect! I appreciate them! I hope you do special things for those who are up in years in your family and in your church! The mature ones with experience can teach you many things!
They say as we get older we become more childlike, well that may be a good thing! Most children I know just want to hang out with you and have fun, and you get to have your day brightened by them! Many people up in years have lived through many hard times and they have suffered a lot so we must treat them with care. Think of them as a person with wounds, we must be careful not to bump into them because we do not want to harm them even more.
1 Thessalonians 5:14 “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all”. When you have lived a long time it is easy to become faint hearted. And when we see someone weak, we should want to uphold them, encourage them, and help them to know they are loved and supported. In our patience we pray for those who are hurting! After a number of years you never know when the shoe may be on your foot one day!
4. When is the last time you visited someone up in their years? For me it was last week, and as a matter of fact I know many of you visit the elderly in the rest homes at least twice a month. God bless you for that! It is sad that many that you visit are in wheelchairs and in worse shape than what you are.
Many people up in years have lived through many hard times and they have suffered and we must treat them with care. Think of them as those who have been though a war, and now they need some rest and recuperation. Thinking of the war, I had uncles and Sunday school teachers that fought in WWII. They could tell you stories! When you realize how much they suffered physically and mentally your heart goes out to them! Sadly today they are not honored as they should be as many youth who never have suffered do not understand or respect what their grandparents and great grandparents did to prevent all humanity from become extinct under the dominion of Hitler! They should be listened to in our society, as their authority to discipline is well earned.
5. Most of the older ones amongst us deserve our utmost respect because all their lives they have sacrificed for their children and grandchildren helping them to study and become successful in life. And here is a paradox, something difficult to understand is this, how is it that the former hippie generation which are the elderly now (my generation of baby-boomers), are the more responsible ones, more responsible than their spoiled children in their 30s and 40s? Maybe now some of us are wiser and understand why we should adhere to the teachings of our grandparents and parents.
The statistics show that many seniors today are raising their grandchildren! And the dynamics of that is the children are getting all their physical needs met but inside they still have a wound due to the rejection of the ones who created them. They are getting a mixed signal, that they are loved and spoiled, but also that they are unwanted. They grow up to be confused. Young people today are confused about who they are in their position in their family and society. They are confused emotionally, even about who they are genetically as male or female. This confusion is provoking abnormal acting out either sexually, abusively with substances, or violently, as they take on ridiculous causes just to stir up invented conflicts. A fatherless society has proven itself to be creating criminals due to no discipline in the home.
The young need the old and vice versa. The problem though is respect! Often the command of God to honor father and mother is broken. I have known of many cases of young people who have bitten the hands that fed them. They stole from their parents or grandparents and they not only left them poor with no more physical strength to work and recuperate what was lost, but also hurt them so bad emotionally and spiritually that they lost their desire to live. Some people curse their own self! And then they remain cursed with eternal punishment!
6. The older wiser persons have always been the ones through whom advice and correction was given. Look at the patriarchs in the Bible, Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Moses and practically all of those with authority were elderly. Also, take for example the Native Americans, the elder ones, the most experienced ones, were always the leaders in counseling the tribe on what was best.
We need to get back to common sense and how nature has established things from the beginning allowing correction and authority to come from the wise ones. The elder ones, which are usually in the most productive phase of the lives, deserve their respected and esteemed place in the home, church, and society. When it comes to council and wise advice, we must count on them.
I am referring to those older ones who are worthy of it though. There is the case of some older people who are not good examples to others. Ecclesiastes 4:13 “Better a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who will be admonished no more”. People who have really screwed up their lives and the lives of others with their bad choices and selfishness are condemned to reap what they have sewn.
7. It is okay to disregard certain old people who are being loudmouthed supporting damaging and foolish causes. I am referring to older ones who are senile to historical facts, who promote false ideologies, doctrines, or pretenses, such as those who push their political or religious views that have caused millions to be murdered in recent history. Some old troublemakers will boast that their lives and works are beneficial and wonderful, but when everyone sees the ugly facts, that they have a record of being one of the worst of hypocrites, as selfish and false as they come, then we should tune them out!
Many times the elder ones are the leaders in society, be it in the church or the state. People work all their lives to reach the top and some reach the top but power and position only endures for a short time. When I see some people so ambitious of power I am reminded of Mark 8:36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
In the world of today we must discern what is appropriate as not all older ones are good. Isaiah 5:20 is our reality, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Some older people age like wine, more fine with the years, but others sour like vinegar!
8. The elder ones who should be getting respect, the ones who speak honestly, frankly, and of common sense values, along with the ones who are church leaders because they have wisely guided many through Biblical wisdom, should be the ones whom everyone of society should consider as valid and worthy of respect. Atheistic, hedonistic, hypocritical, and confused people deserve no respect, but rather they deserve a rebuke and correction and it does not matter their age!
Proverbs 26:5 “Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.” Don’t put up with it, rebuke anyone disrespecting the elders! At one time in our society after WWII there was a great deal of Christian respect for the elders. Today being rude to elders, teachers, and Christians is the norm. Shame on the teachers in government schools in the 1960s who removed God’s values which establish order and prosperity and replaced them with values creating anarchy, anger, and disrespect of persons! We can thank them for all the gang and drug activity destroying our communities everywhere!
Satan got in all systems in the 1960s, and convinced the youth that their problems and the problems of the society were due to the fault of the elders. It was the older generation that was taking us into war for their own big money profits. It was the older generation preventing us from smoking pot and doing all that we pleased! The older generation was disrespected at that time (some were guilty, but a large margin were not), and these hell raisers have been degrading America ever since then. Today those who sewed these disrespectful seeds are having to reap the bad fruits of them in their own lives in their later years.
9. It is a shame how the older Christian people are mocked by the liberal news groups, colleges, and government officials. Today, only those who understand God’s laws respect the elder people! And anyone who disrespects Christians, especially mocking with their fabricated stereo types, that the ones who are evil are ‘the old conservative Christians’, need to be shamed and corrected for their evil false defamations of God’s people who do many good deeds in society.
According to the verse of today in Hebrews 12:9, the younger ones need correction from the older ones in order to understand all the aspects of God’s nature. We pray, “Our Father, which art in heaven” but how many young people out there with 50% coming from broken homes really understand what a father is? Kids are not taught respect in the schools anymore, so the church is the last community resort! We must teach it here.
Today you and I must honor the elderly more than ever! There is a lot of discouragement, depression, and elderly abuse out there! Those that harm and rip off the wealth of the elder sadly have a place reserved in hell for violating God’s law of disrespecting their position and rejecting their wisdom and correction. Let us pray to encourage, esteem, uplift, and honor our elder ones. Proverbs 16:31 The (white) hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness. Give honor to whom honor is due!
