Honoring the Elderly

Good morning, everyone. You know, this senior's brunch here this morning has given me an opportunity to get into a subject that I really have been thinking of giving a message on for a year to two years. I started gathering some material on it about two years ago, and I was going to give a sermon on aging. I got some material and started a notebook with files and putting things in there. I started to work it up one time to actually give a sermon. I looked at it and did about an hour's work on it, and I said, I'm not ready to give this yet. I didn't want to do it. Sometimes you just feel you're not into it. So I put it aside. I think the real reason was it reminded me that I'm getting older, and I wasn't really ready to get into that topic. Someone asked me if I was a senior citizen while I was chowing down on the eggs. And I said, it depends on where you are. If I go to the golf course around Indianapolis, I'm a senior citizen, 55 and older, and they gave me a discount. I'm glad to take it. My wife goes to the outlet mall shopping. They give her a senior citizen's card for discounts while shopping. We're glad to take that. I go to the Feast of Tabernacles and it's 16 over, so I'm not a senior citizen. So technically, this morning, I'm not a senior citizen for even your purposes here in some of these activities. Is that thunder? Wow.

See, it's getting dark out here. So, you've got squirrels rolling around on top of the school.

That's what happens in my office. I have squirrels that run across the roof of my office, and I can hear them scurrying across, but I know when they're getting excited out there.

So, it depends on where you are. I'm 56 years old. I'll be 57 in August, so I haven't joined AARP yet, but I figured this was the day that would be a good day to go ahead and give a message, more or less a study, on the subject of aging from the biblical perspective and what we can learn from the Bible and about getting older. As we look around ourselves in this congregation, we have a number of senior citizens. We have a number of gray hairs out here, and that is true down in Indianapolis as well. But we do have a fair share of young people and young adults as well in these two congregations. But we've always had seniors, I think as long as I can remember it in our church. I've been in the church over 40 years, and we've always had seniors' activities. And that's just a part of a group like this and part of a church, and there are things to learn and things to focus on. I always like the little sayings that we pick up from time to time when we start to look into the subject of aging and people getting older, one year older. You can look at the cards on the wall at the Kroger or wherever Hallmark's cards that we look at, and we've got all these sayings about getting older, and many of them are humorous. One of the things that I cut out of that took off the internet off of a column and put in my file when I started putting this together was something written by Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris, you recall, and know, is otherwise known as Walker, Texas Ranger from television fame. But Chuck Norris had written a column, and he was talking about aging, and this was right after a few months ago after Charlton Heston had died.

And he started it off with a few of these little quips about, you know you're getting older when.

So I thought I'd read a few of those here for you. You know you're getting older when you feel like the night after and you haven't been anywhere. You know you're getting older when those issues of reader's digest just can't come fast enough. You know you're getting older when everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt doesn't work. And you know you're getting older when all you want for your birthday is not to be reminded of your age. You know you're getting older when you and your teeth don't sleep together. You know you're getting older when you remember when the Dead Sea was only sick.

And you know you're getting older when your address book has mostly names that start with doctor. And you know you're getting older when people call at 9 p.m. and ask, did I wake you? And I like this last one here. I hope it doesn't stop on anybody's toes.

But you know you're getting older when you take a metal detector to the beach.

And then he went on. He said, it's hilarious that some of these sayings are, I actually agree with Jack Benny, who once said, quote, age is strictly a case of mind over matter.

If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

Then he ended with a quote from Abraham Lincoln, which maybe is a good one to end with. Abraham Lincoln was correct when he said, in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years. So you can run across all kinds of lists like that, and they're all funny and have a particular point to them. And they make a stop and think, but nothing probably makes a stop and think as the clock ticking on. And the realization, when we observe ourselves and various things start coming in, like gray hair or baldness or other matters that come with aging, and we realize, indeed, we are getting a little bit older. One of the A reasons I decided to take this hiking trip to the Grand Canyon was that years ago, I put this on one of my lists, kind of a dream list that I'd started years ago, and I wanted to hike rim to rim on the Grand Canyon before I take up the rocking chair. I'm not ready to take up the rocking chair yet. I might be after I come out of the Grand Canyon, but the opportunity came up when we started talking about this a year and a half ago, and I said, I better do it now or may not be able to do it in a few more years and have the physical stamina to be able to do it. But there are certain things that you want to do, and then you come to a point in your life where you realize there are some things that you just can't do any longer. And that's part of life and aging and getting along in years. And we live in a society that values youth, and it becomes a challenge as our society grows older to properly appreciate and understand the value of aging and the value of that time of life. Although I have a feeling that because the Baby Boomer generation, my generation is now getting into the retirement years, I have a feeling that we are going to see much more emphasis on these years and probably a different swing in society as the influential media people in the sense of the Baby Boomer generation begin to write and produce movies and music and other things on the subject that we may see a whole different view and perspective open up in some of those areas over the next 10 to 20 years as we go through those years. The people are living longer.

Medicine has enabled us to do that. We just hope that the pensions and the social security and the savings accounts all keep up with the additional years that medical science has been able to grant to us. That's a double-edged sword there in one sense. But when we look at what we should understand about these years, our foundation and our basis really should be in God's Word. The Bible does have some things to say about age, about dealing with the complexities of the years moving forward. There's a great deal to say about it, far more than I can begin to cover in a short study here.

But that's our foundation. That's where we begin. And when we look at what the Bible says about old age being a blessing, and we look about the characteristics of the aged that the Bible says those who get to that point in life should have, when we look at the care for the aged that should be there, as well as the spiritual care and then the spiritual responsibilities that are upon families, individuals, and the church in regard to taking care of older people, there is a great deal of direct teaching and principles that are brought out that should help us to really do the job well, and also, and probably most important for us on an individual basis, help us to move into that period of life and to appreciate it for what it is and for what we are to have.

As I go through these scriptures, I'm going to weave in some additional material that I had found in another book written by a medical person, Dr. Andrew Wiel, who was written a number of books on nutrition and all, but he wrote a book a couple of years ago called Healthy Aging.

It was one of those books that kind of prompted me to even get into this topic and to study it, but he had a number of things to say just on the value of aging itself, and I'm going to weave some of that material into the message here and talk about some of the things that he brought out that helps us to appreciate exactly what we are talking about. Let's first of all look at a few scriptures and talk about the fact of age and old age as something that is a blessing from God and what a few scriptures and examples can show us and tell us in regard to this, because it is an important approach that we should have as a Christian.

The Bible teaches us that old age is indeed a blessing from God for those who get to that point of old age, and it could very well be that in some cases, and in some people's lives, it could be said that old age is a fruition or a result of a moral life and an indication of God's favor in some cases. That doesn't mean that one who dies young doesn't have the favor of God. That's not the case, but there are scriptures that can give us an indication that when you reach that age in the faith, that it is something that God expects and can be considered and should be considered a blessing from God.

Let's turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy the fifth chapter. This is one of the chapters, chapter 5 of Deuteronomy recapitulates the Ten Commandments, the basic spiritual law of God. And down at the very end of chapter 5, verse 33, in the teaching to the Israelites and to all people, to the spiritual church, a summation of walking by God's law and following God's instruction comes down to this in verse 33.

It is said, you shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you. God's law gives life in many ways, and it adds, it keeps us from the paths of personal destruction, keeps us from the paths of death.

Many proverbs especially talk about that in terms of walking according to the principles and the teachings of God's law. It gives us life, and it gives us a good life as we obey those laws. And then at the end of the verse it says, that you may prolong your days and the land which you go in to possess, to prosper and to live a long life in the land that you possess is what God intended for Israel as they followed and set up the instruction of His commandments as the basis of all civil, moral, spiritual law for Israel.

And certainly the commandments continue to be the basic spiritual law of God in effect binding upon us today. And as we keep them, as we walk in that way of life, we can have an expectation that we can have good life, the life that we do have, and that there is an expectation of a long life that gives us also the ability to prosper and to enjoy what we do have.

So old age can be the fruition, the result of a good life, and an indication of God's favor. And I would say that any one of you that have reached that age of 65 or 70 or 80 plus, and any of us as we look forward to having those years, that should we pray for that, and God gives us that, we reach those years if we live longer than our parents, if we live longer than some of our own contemporaries, we look at that as a, and count that as a blessing, and give God the credit for it and recognize that there are, yes, some factors beyond our control, but there are many things that are within our control as well.

There was an article that I had pulled out of one of the news magazines some weeks ago, and I wrote a little piece on it for one of our publications, but it was talking about people who basically feel that life is just a gamble at any stage of the game, and it was looking at two habits that people have. The habit of not buckling your seat belt, okay, some people just will not buckle their seat belt. I don't know if any of you are like that. I grew up in an age when you didn't have seat belts when you first got into a car, and I remember you would install those things, and they were kind of a novelty in the 1960s to have seat belts in your car, but today, it's standard fare, and you should buckle up. We've had this whole education in this generation of buckling up, but there are some people that still won't do it. And the other habit that it talked about was smoking. People will continue to smoke regardless of the warnings from the Surgeon General, blah blah, that it does impact your health. And the point was that, especially with smoking, that a lot of lower-income people tend to continue these habits, and it gets into kind of an approach to life, as the article is bringing out, that their approach is that, hey, life's a gamble, life's a chance, I don't have things in control, and the man's after me, and all of these things. And so, to curb reckless behavior, whatever it may be, in those two examples, for some people, you know, don't do it. They're not worried about it necessarily.

And that gets into a reason as to why they won't buckle up, or why they won't even try to kick the habit, or change eating habits, and things like that. But it comes down to a fatalism toward life, a fatalistic approach that we're not in control anyway, things might happen, might, you know, die young, and going to enjoy or live the way that I want to live. And that's not the, that's, again, as we go through some of these scriptures, that's not the mindset to have.

You make a choice to obey God. You make a choice to walk in His law. And there are promises that come with that. And these scriptures speak to that. We do have options. We do have the choice, and God expects us to make good choices in the small things of life, whether it's to buckle up, or in the major issues regarding His spiritual law, in any of those points. He expects us to make a sound-wise choice. And there is the expectation, as these scriptures, many of them, we'll talk about in terms of having a living to a good age and having a good life as we live those years. But living to an older age is, it seems to be, a general part of God's purpose for a normal life. When we look at many of the servants of the Bible, they lived into their old age. Talks about Abraham. We'll just turn over here, since we're back near Genesis. Let's turn back to Genesis 25 and look at what it says about Abraham when he died. Genesis chapter 25.

1 175 years old. We won't try to talk today about why and how people lived those years long at that particular time. That's another subject. But in verse 8 it says of Abraham, that he breathed his last and died in a good old age. A good old age. And that's not just saying, like a good old boy or having a good time, Charlie. But from God's perspective, this was living to a ripe old age, that it was a good thing. An old man and full of years, full of years, contented. His years were full would be another way to look at it. There was contentment, and he was gathered to his people, and he died. David, it says when he died, basically said the same thing in 1 Chronicles 29 verse 26. I won't turn there. But it says of David that he died at a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor in his years. Job, in chapter 42 in verse 17 of Job, he died old, it says, and full of days. So when the scripture uses that term full of days, we can reasonably conclude that there was contentment. Job had his trials, and all God said that that was restored to Job toward the end, you know, the latter part of his life. But days that were full. And even the days, even the part, the years of one's life that can be full of trial and difficulty, can at some point begin to even out. Look back at your own life and some of the rough times that you may have had and periods when you didn't know if you were going to get through. You didn't know when where that next quarter milk was going to come from, or you'd lost a job, and you didn't know if you'd ever work again or what you might do. And, you know, whatever point you came to a stall and you didn't know if your life was going to get started again.

And it did. And 10 years, 20 years, 25 years went by. And again, fortunes changed and shifted.

And so you look back and you can have a different perspective than when you go through some of the rough times. And there can be a feeling of contentment and that life indeed was full. And the fullness involves blessings and the fullness involves learning lessons from the times of trial and difficulty. So we have to keep that in mind when we look at these examples that are mentioned in the scripture and look at it in our own life as well when it comes from God.

Over in the New Testament in Ephesians 6, Ephesians 6, verse 1, it says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. And so this speaks to children to obey your parents. And of course, it says children, that might can also mean a 50-year-old man or woman still obeying a parent who is alive in a sense of honoring and respecting.

It says, as it quotes, the commandment to honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. So there is a promise to that commandment of a full and a contented life.

Because in verse 3 it says, and this is what the promise speaks to, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. And so again, honoring your parent, living your life and choosing to respect and honor. The family unit, a mother, a father, speaks to an approach to life that impacts other choices and decisions that we make. It again, orders our mind according to God's way.

And even on that one point, it can make a world of difference in a person's life as to how they turn out and just the physical well-being of one's life. To choose to honor one's parent and to remember them and to honor them as best you can. Even at times when that parent may not be honorable, it is a sad family situation to see children, grown children, older children, that still will not and cannot and do not honor their parents. That speaks to an approach to life that is rather sad. That's why getting even that one point on that one law of God is very, very important here in terms of obedience and understanding and approaching God's way of life.

Let's go back to Proverbs 16.

Proverbs 16.

Let's look at one proverb in regard to, again, aging.

There's a blessing from God. Verse 31, Proverbs 16. It says, it says, Now, think about that.

Well, there I go there.

But it says that it's a glorious crown. And it is a crown. We are not going to be wearing a tiara and a golden diamond encrusted crown of head estate on our heads. But we're all going to be wearing, hopefully, silver hair, gray hair. Hopefully, I say if there's any left by the time we get to that point. And if there's been a life that has been well-lived, if there has been decency and honor, then it is a crown of glory, as the Scripture points out here. And it is found in the way of righteousness. And so, in other words, you look at that person and you see through their gray hair, you look at them as an elder, and you recognize then by their way of life that there's wisdom there. And it is someone to be respected, someone to go to for advice. And thereby, that gray hair then becomes that crown because it denotes someone who has lived and been through experiences and has been made better for it and is worthy to be listened to. And there are things to listen to and to learn from an older person. It's one of those lessons that you hope you learn it real soon and not too late. You know, as an old German saying, we are too soon old and too late schmart, as an old German saying. But you really hope that you learn some things soon and not too late. And I remember I used to sit and listen to my grandfather, my mother's dad.

He was in his 80s when I first started getting to know him or probably his late 70s and can remember him. He lived with his children in the years that I knew him as a youngster. And he would come and spend a week or two at a time in our home. In fact, it was through him that my mother learned about the Church of God and listened to Mr. Armstrong and playing truth. And he never came into the church, but it was through him because he'd sit at noon every day and listen to Mr. Armstrong with his arm on his big old chest radio that we had. And I can remember him doing that. But I was sitting, I was sitting listening to his stories of the old South. He grew up in the old post-war South, and he had all kinds of stories. And I would remember begging him to tell me a story, grandpa, or papa, as I would call him. And he would do it. And, you know, I'm glad that I did those things. I'm glad that he spent those days in our home and that he was someone on whose lap I could literally crawl up on and ask for a story. And he would tell it, and then he'd go and chew his tobacco. Or send me to the store to buy another plug for him. And those were some of the memories.

But he had the gray hair, and he had stories that long since disappeared. And I can't even remember all the stories that he told me, but he had some interesting ones. And when you have yourself in that situation with anyone, take advantage of it. Ask the questions. Sit down. Take a moment. Take a day. Make the trip. Pick up the telephone. And make those calls. And make those contacts because they are important. And they follow through in honoring those that have this crown, as this verse talks about, and that they are found in the way of righteousness. They have learned certain things.

There is a value there to their years. Let me go to this book by Andrew Weil on healthy aging.

I'm quoting from chapter 6 of his book, The Value of Aging. And he has some interesting examples here about the things in life that get better with age and that improve with age. And he, I copied out here three different items. We'll be talking here this morning about whiskey.

Don't anybody get upset? Cheese and trees. Let me read first what he wrote here about bourbon, about whiskey. He said, Good bourbon is 12 years or more. The older, the more expensive.

And it is more than age. Good whiskey is designed to be aged longer. Old whiskey takes on the character of the wood barrel it is stored in. It has to age under the right conditions.

Aging smooths out rough and raw tastes.

Adds aroma, appealing aromas and flavors, and then concentrates them. In other words, it diminishes undesirable qualities and adds desirable ones, making the product more valuable.

That's true. If you go to the liquor store and you're going to buy a bottle of either scotch whiskey or Kentucky bourbon, you're going to pay more for an older whiskey or bourbon than you are for something that's just been aged maybe four years. And there are all different kinds.

And as you learn about the art and the ways in which things are made, indeed, the older ones are more expensive and they will taste better.

Over the last few years, I've kind of had a hobby of wanting to learn the lore of bourbon whiskey, whiskey made down in Kentucky. And we've made trips to a number of the distilleries down there, and I've collected a number of the various brands of the so-called higher-end bourbons. And just to enjoy them, number one, but also to enjoy the art and the craftsmanship and the lore that is behind it. One of the things I've learned is certainly that the older, the better. But the oldest is not always the best one either. I have one bourbon in my shelf. It's 18 years old. 18 years old.

That means it was in the barrel for 18 years before they took it out and put it in the bottle.

Now, it's good, but it's not as good as some that's half its age that you can buy as well.

Now, why? Well, it all depends on many different conditions. The way it was made, the way it was stored, the craftsmanship and all that goes into it. And so sometimes, you know, the oldest may not always be the best, but age does improve it and make things a whole lot better. And when it comes to this art of whiskey making, bourbon making, Weil goes on in his book. He says, the analogies to human aging. We often describe young people as green and lacking in depth or complexity of character. That's how, you know, whether it's bourbon or wine, you'll have a description that, well, it has a complexity to it, whatever that means. But as he says here, older people are a little bit more complex. Younger people are a bit green, as we might say. Maybe experience cannot make a good, a bad person good, but it can make a good person great. Let me repeat that. Experience may not make a bad person good. In other words, if the whiskey is made bad to begin with, you can keep it in the barrel for 25 years and it's not going to get any better. Some people just get more crotchety, crankier and obnoxious with the years because they don't learn the lessons of life. Know anybody like that? So, age by itself isn't the factor. It's the way it's made. It's what shapes what is formed. But he says experience can make a good person great. Experience cannot be gained except while undergoing the same processes that cause aspects of aging we think of as destructive, such as sagging for the skin and stiffening of arteries. The benefits and cost of aging cannot be separated. Please remember this truth. If you resist aging, you may deny yourself its benefits. Growing old should increase, not decrease, the value of human life.

Just as with bourbon, it has the potential to smooth out roughness, add agreeable qualities, and improve character. That's why I enjoy the story of bourbon and the lore of bourbon whiskey making because there's a lesson from life there. Abusing alcohol is like abusing experience and abusing life. It can ruin you and wreck you. But when you understand the way things are made, the qualities and the lessons that God factors into every aspect of life, there are things to learn when everything is used responsibly and in good order. And there's things to learn about these things that get better with age. Let's look at from the scriptures on some of the characteristics of old age, what the Bible talks about in terms of how people should be and what they should look like as they grow older. Because in the scriptures, the Bible speaks of the old, the aged as people that are resourceful and that are to go to for learning, for valuable gifts, to share for the good of everyone, and to be able to distribute that.

Let's look first in Proverbs chapter 3. We're right here. Let's go back to the third chapter of Proverbs.

In this proverb, it talks about wisdom being something, an attribute of the elderly who depend upon God. Proverbs 3, verse 13, says, Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding, who finds wisdom and gains understanding through the experiences of life. And then down in verse 15, speaking of wisdom, she is more precious than rubies. And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. Length of days is in her right hand, in her left hand, riches and honor. So the man who gains understanding and wisdom is happy.

They're like jewels. There's nothing to be compared with what can be found there. It is something that can come with aging and a reliance upon God. In Proverbs chapter 9, verse 13, I'm sorry, verse 10. Proverbs 9, verse 10, it says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years of life will be added to you. Again, none of these scriptures are complete guarantees against some of the vagaries of life predispositions that we might even have genetically to disease and illness or chance that happens at times beyond our control. But again, with a reasonable expectation of a life without accident, without serious injury or going into those years, again, by wisdom, by knowledge of God and His ways, then our days, it can be a multiplier and an enhancer of life, and years can be added in that sense. And so wisdom is an attribute of those elderly who depend on God in these particular scriptures. A second point under this category is that wise counsel to the younger is the duty of those who are older.

To pass on wise counsel and to pass on information, to keep them from making the mistakes that they made or they saw others make, to have an older person who can take a young person under their wing and mentor them is a great blessing in what the scriptures talk about. In the first chapter of Joel, there's an interesting statement that opens up this minor prophets message.

Back in the book of Joel chapter 1, let's go back there.

This is a very interesting scripture set within this prophecy, and it can bring together, bring a lot of images to our mind.

In Joel chapter 1 and in verse 2, it says, Hear this, you elders, and give ear all you inhabitants of the land.

Has anything like this happened in your days, or even in the days of your fathers, the previous generation? And of course, Joel's prophecy is speaking as a kind of a dark prophecy of the day of the Lord and of famine and pestilence and destruction upon the nation of Judah and the times yet ahead of us, as we understand the duality of the prophetic message.

But he opens up and he says, look, has anything happened in our days, in your days like it, in your own memory that you can relate to this, or even in the days of your fathers?

Tell your children about it. Now, that's speaking to the elderly.

And the children can be grandchildren, or even great-grandchildren. But pass along that information. Pass along this warning. Pass along this instruction. Tell your children about it.

Let your children tell their children and their children another generation.

And so the words of this prophecy open up by talking about, here is a time of disaster, a time of trouble. And you've not seen it, but be sure that you pass it on. And it goes on in verse 4. He talks about what the chewing locust left and the swarming locust has eaten, and the swarming locust left the crawling locust has eaten, and what the crawling locust left the consuming locust has eaten. Verse 4 is a pretty good description of what my mother used to call Hoover days. How many of you know what Hoover days were?

Anyone ever hear that expression? Not just because I used it in the past. A couple of hands went up.

Hoover days? How many of you have heard of the Great Depression?

Okay. When my mother would talk about the Great Depression, and she lived through the Great Depression, she didn't call it the Great Depression. She called it, and she would spit it out. She would say, Hoover days. Those of you that know your American history, the Great Depression started in the late 1920s with the stock market crash, and the president was a man named Herbert Hoover.

And he got the blame for what took place in the 1930s. Everything. Franklin Roosevelt came along in 1932. He became president. It took him years to get it all back together. Frankly, it took a world war to even get full prosperity going again. But Herbert Hoover, for at least my mother's generation, and she was a Democrat, and Hoover was a Republican, so that tells you part of the story as well. She would always say these were Hoover days. Those were Hoover days. And I would hear that I think at least once a week through all my years growing up, I had, there was, there would be something come up in our house. If I'd leave food on the plate, or if I'd leave a light on, or I'd waste something here, I would hear about Hoover days and what it was like. I'd hear a story about her growing up in that period of time in the South, dirt poor, going out. One story was they heard about a sack of flour that had fallen on the road and burst open, and the truck just kept going, or there was a truck or a horse-drawn car, I don't know what it was, kept on going, and they didn't know that it had fallen off, and a sack of white flour in a dirt road, and they went down and gathered up the flour, along with, I'm sure, a good measure of dirt, to make biscuits, to eat.

And that was a big thing. That was a big thing. I heard those stories. Maybe you've heard those stories too, and maybe some of you tried to tell your kids those stories, and you got the same reaction from your kids that my mom got from me, which was, I'm heading straight out the door.

But here's the principle here from the scriptures, that the elderly who have lived through a time, who've lived through an experienced whatever it might be, they are something to be passed on, in the right way, at the right time, and for the young to learn a lesson from that.

That's what this verse is talking about, is so important to a young person, to pass on to the young, sound information. And even realization that, you know, the days in which you live, and the prosperity in which you live, this is not the reality. It's not always been this way.

I think probably what I remember most of all, and I grew up in the 60s and never missed a meal, always had money in my pocket, bills were always paid. I mean, we weren't rich, but, you know, I didn't know we weren't rich. We, you know, I had a good life. I didn't have the life that either of my parents had. And I think one of the things, the one lesson that I did take from those years, that probably number one I would put down on the list, is that the prosperity of my generation, of the last 40 years or so, 50 years, however you want to set the beginning mark for it. But the prosperity we've all enjoyed is not the norm, and it hasn't always been. Because my mom would say, the time is coming, the time is coming, you're not going to have this or whatever. And because she was reading the Bible, she was learning certain things about prophecy, and she could relate to that. So when Joel talks about this, it brings up a principle that there's information to be passed from one generation to the next, and that information is valuable, whether it's how to save money to buy what you want rather than always using credit, and also to learn on a larger scale that nations come and go, empires rise and fall, times change, economic situations can turn on a dime. They can turn literally on a dime, and one should be prepared in whatever way they best to weather those times and to be prepared in the best way forward. But that comes from the older generation. That comes from those who remember the days of old, and the years passed, and they're able to pass those on. There are many other scriptures. One is in Deuteronomy 32 and verse 7 that brings out the same principle.

Let's turn over to Titus chapter 2 and look at Titus chapter 2.

Verse 3.

The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanders, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, and that applies to men as well, but that they teach good things, that they may admonish the young women to love their husbands and to love their children.

And that comes through example, but it also comes through words. And it can be the words that come sometimes in a good old, what I call a Dutch uncle or a Dutch aunt talk, where you pull someone in the side and you just read them the riot act about their behavior, about what's going on, and you tell them they need to straighten up.

Or you do it gently, or you do it by example. There's a time and a place for all of that, but that falls on those that are older. And there is a continuing moral responsibility for the elderly to pass on what they know. Back in verse 2, it says, to the older men, to be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, and in patience.

Not impatient, but to have patience. They are to be worthy of respect.

And through their example of endurance in life and in the faith, to be passing on an example.

That is a moral obligation and a moral responsibility of the elderly within the church. Let me go back to Andrew Wale's book. He goes on from Bourbon and he talks about cheese.

This can relate to all of us. We all like cheese, I think, I hope. But cheese is also something that gains in value as it grows older and offers another lesson for us. He wrote, one writer says that cheese is milk's leap toward immortality. Cheese is called the wine of foods.

Cheese started as a means of preserving milk. The key step in making the most famous cheeses is aging.

A process that the French call, avenage. And English speakers often call it ripening.

Ripe is a term to describe cheese in its phase of optimum maturity. You might call it stinky.

Stinky cheese. And you know, you turn your nose up at it. But the stinkier the cheese, the higher the price. And as far as I'm concerned, the better it is. But that's a matter of taste.

Cheese is a complicated process. Many things can go wrong in the process.

Wrong organisms can grow and dominate the cheese. Not only ones that create bitterness and other off flavors, but some that can reduce it to a slimy mess. The same processes of decay and putrefaction responsible for the rotting of organic matter can, in controlled circumstances, result in living food of great nutritional value and appeal. Hard to believe, isn't it?

That putrefaction and rotten, you know, if it smells like rotten cheese, it's because it is.

It is rotty. And yet, it has food value, nutritional value, and appeal. Unaged camembert, brie, and Munster cheese are green, one-dimensional, and uninteresting. With age, they develop the colors, textures, and flavors that make them great. In the hand of a skilled cheesemaker, decay and putrefaction create perfection. There are a range of odors and flavors associated with cheese that can be unpleasant. We have to embrace all the aspects of life, both the attractive and the repellent, not only in eating cheese, but in accepting the inevitable decay of our bodies. So, as he was bringing up, there's a lesson to learn. He goes on, aging is ripening. A glorious sunset at the end of the day is the ripening of the daily cycle, just before the plunge into night. The magnificence of autumn foliage is the ripe period of the year before the sleep of winter. Our bodies will decline and decay, but aging, if accepted and not resisted, can lead to maturity, and all of the promise implied in the colors of sunset and fall foliage, and the perfection of ripe fruit, and the pleasure of expertly aged cheese. So, next time you smell cheese and you think that it's rotten, understand that that rotting, which indeed it is, but it enhances the cheese and there is value, even nutritional value, in that whole process of cheese making. Those of you that have been able to appreciate that over the years, perhaps can relate to that. If you've been one that's always turned your nose up at it, at least appreciate that there is something there and that there is a reason for it. But, as he brings out here, it is, when you look at aging of our own lives, if we can approach it from a right perspective with these scriptural principles, certainly to enhance everything, our understanding, then we recognize that this is something of great value. And it is of great value to God, to the church, and to our all of our individual lives. Let's look at another category of scriptures that talk about the spiritual resources, the spiritual promises for the elderly, for the aged within the scriptures, and what we might learn there. Turn back to Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah chapter 46.

This is a particularly encouraging scripture. Beginning in verse 3, he says, Listen to me, O house of Jacob, God says, and to all and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by me from birth, who have been carried from the womb, even to your old age.

I am he, and even to gray hairs, I will carry you. That's a promise from God that even to your elderly days, to the time of your gray hairs, God says, I will carry you. I will be with you. I am there. I have made and I will bear. Even I will carry and will deliver you. That is a promise.

That is something for all of us to keep in mind, to mark and put on that three by five card and put wherever you put three by five cards or encouraging statements. And at a time when you may think that no one cares, pull that one out and realize God cares. And that is a promise, he says, that when you turn gray, I will be there. I will bear you up. God does that even in direct spiritual ways and through encouragement and comfort by our relationship with him and through the power of his spirit. He does it through others. He will do it through the church. He will do it through people that are not even called and into the church. God will do it. God is not limited in how he can act and how he can fulfill his scriptures, his promises to any of us. Bank on that one. Keep that one in mind. God also gives us gives strength to the elderly to endure suffering and infirmity. Back in 1 Peter 4. 1 Peter 4.

And verses 1 and 2.

Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, in the flesh, remember, this is speaking of his suffering that is death and a very real suffering, arm yourselves also with the same mind. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh, for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. The emphasis in the latter part of verse one on into verse two is on he who suffers in the flesh, has ceased from sin. In other words, we work against sin, we work against the poles of the flesh, that we should no longer live the rest of our time in the flesh, for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. No longer living strictly for human desires, but living for God's will in order to live the remaining time in our flesh, not driven by human desires, but for God's will. Now that is speaking about a turn of mind that comes at some point in a person's life when all the ladders have been climbed, when all the, maybe probably all the bonuses have been earned, all the goals have been achieved, and your values change, your life begins to change, the way you think and the way you approach things.

And it's not speaking strictly about focusing on physical matters, but, you know, speaking about desiring and really strongly desiring spiritual qualities, even more strongly than we once desired that house, that item, that job, that physical thing that we had to have and wanted and got and enjoyed. But you come to a point in life where there's, it's no longer the human desires, the physical desires that we want, it is God's will. It is to live for the will of God.

Now that for some comes earlier than others. For some it might not be till maybe they're past 75 or 80. I don't know. It's all happens up here, but it is, it comes to a point in your life where through whatever we've experienced and sometimes infirmity will cause, bring us to that point. And because of the suffering and the endurance that one must have, we come to a strength.

We come to a strength that is expressed right here, no longer living for the physical, but for the will of God. That is a resource. That is something for an older person to come to and then to draw on, to deal with life at that particular point in time. In Colossians chapter one, the Apostle Paul also spoke to this thought. Colossians chapter one, he talked about even his own suffering.

I now rejoice in my sufferings, verse 24. I rejoice now in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.

He looked upon all that he had to endure physically, all that was before him physically, as something that he filled up four people and he rejoiced in them for the sake of his body, which is the church. Paul had given his life completely to the church. And many elderly people, that's really the joy and desire of their life. One who doesn't miss services and will always be where God's people are. And so many of our seniors are like that. So many of you are like that.

That becomes what is your main goal in life, your main source of joy and comfort. Just as Paul gave his life for the church and suffered the afflictions that he did, that becomes a resource, a spiritual resource, again, to draw on, to learn from, and to understand. God gives deliverance as well through his promises from the fear of death. That's obviously a major, major fear for those who grow old. And as we see the years tick off, we realize we're faced with our own mortality.

And that begins at whatever age. I hear people, obviously Tim Russer appeared two weeks ago.

He died at age 58, immediately died, dramatically dropped over dead of a heart attack. I'm 56.

When I hear of younger men dropping over from cardiac arrest, that strikes home. We've all been through that situation, and we begin to think about our own mortality. And as the years go by, that becomes something that is maybe in the back of our mind, maybe in the forefront of our mind, but the scriptures give a great deal of encouragement and comfort from that.

1 Corinthians chapter 15, the resurrection chapter, beginning in verse 54, is a key thought of encouragement of God's deliverance, where he talks about this corruptible, is clothed with incorruptibility, and his mortal is clothed with immortality.

Then the saying that is written will take place, death has been swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?

And other scriptures describe the time when God will take away and wipe away all tears.

Revelation 21 speaks to the fact that death will no longer exist, no grief, no crying, no pain. Again, those are sources of scriptures of resourcefulness for us to go to be learning, to be understanding of what God says. Let's look over. We're close to Romans chapter 8. Let's go to Romans chapter 8.

Verse 38. Paul writes, For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. On a dark night, or in a moment of despair, or questioning, or doubt, that's a scripture to read for an older person, to draw again on God's promises, and again on the fact that there is a great deal of strength and care of God for those that are His, and for the aged. Let me go back one final time to Andrew Wiles' book, Healthy Aging. And the last thing he talks about that I brought out, excerpted from his book, was on trees. Trees. Written in the shapes and forms of old trees are experience and wisdom. Experience of many seasons and many changes. Wisdom of how to adapt to those changes. Old people are not ashamed of their aging and are proud of that fact, can reflect the same kind of wisdom and experience. Old people are survivors who have avoided the pitfalls of reckless youth and the common failings of middle age. Their white hair and wrinkled faces as signs of frailty or distractions from human beauty. Those features are the banners of survivorship. Just like an old tree. Think about an old tree that you've seen or may have on your property or you drive by all the time. All different bins and shapes to it because of storms, lightning strikes, and it's endured. On the south end of my home, I have a pin oak tree.

Been there for years. It's probably a middle-aged oak tree. About nine years ago, one of these thunderstorms lightning struck it, blew out the whole gable into my house there on the south end.

And I was happy to be in the garage when it struck and it really popped. And I saw that how it had blown out the siding there. And I knew that I looked at it. I saw one limb that had been sheared off from the lightning strike. We fixed the house. And it was not until the next year, actually a few weeks later when I had some workmen in to repair the house, we were looking at that tree and we had seen that there was a gash running down that tree from where it had been struck sometime in the past. That tree had been struck more than once by lightning. And there was a big gash that you could tell that it was running down the length of the tree. Actually from the same angle that the last strike hit it and did it endure. And I didn't realize, but it took me until the next year to realize that that particular strike of lightning back in 99, nine years ago, also damaged a number and killed a bunch of limbs as it came through. Because they didn't come out in leaves the next year. And I've never gone up into it. I haven't had them cut out.

So every year when the leaves come out in this oak tree, I look up and I see three or four dead branches up there in a line right where that stroke of lightning came down. I got to get them trimmed out of there one of these days. But trees will survive a lightning strike. They'll survive a drought. You can cut an old tree down when they do. They can go back through the rings of the tree and they can find the lean years of water and correlate that to the weather records and see exactly according to the growth rings on the tree when how those particular seasons came and when.

They adapt. They survive. Those that make it to old age, you know, get cut down or struck down, whatever. They have a story to tell, just like an older person does as well.

Weil goes on in his book. He said, there are many areas of human experience where the value of aging is obvious. Aging has the potential to bring greater worth to human life. It can, number one, add richness to life. Two, replace the shallowness and the greenness of youth with depth and maturity, like a piece of stinky cheese. Three, aging can develop and enhance desirable qualities of personality while lessening undesirable ones. Five, or four, it can smooth out roughness of character. Five, enhance the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of life by the same process that caused decline of the physical body. Six, confer the advantages and power of survivorship.

You survive something that's an advantage, and it's also a measure of power. And then lastly, it develops one's voice and authority as a living link to the past.

The value of aging, healthy aging, is his book. The Bible talks about many aspects of aging and our responsibility to one another. What we did here this morning with this brunch is just a very small matter to at least reflect on and honor and talk about and shine the light for a little bit upon our senior citizens. We do something at the Feast of Tabernacles every year, and other things throughout the year should be done. But the very presence of our older people within the congregation is a sign of strength and maturity and wisdom and honor. And all of these scriptures that we have talked about, the church obviously has certain responsibilities to its older generation. But it is a positive matter. Old age from the scriptures is considered something that's positive, and the fulfillment of a good life devoted to God. The blessings and the responsibilities of aging should be accepted with grace and with a sense of stewardship that they are given by God.

Not with fear, not with anything that should cause us to shrink back.

But through the Spirit of God, as indeed that Spirit of God is a source of love and power and of a sound mind, as 2 Timothy 1 verse 7 brings out, God's Spirit should give all of us as elderly, and those of us who look to the elderly and look after those that are aged in our midst, we should strive to engender exactly what that scripture says. Let's go ahead and turn and read 2 Timothy chapter 1.

For what we do and how we approach it reflects this approach from God's Spirit.

God has not given us a spirit of fear. The old age should not be something that is feared.

We should not fear it. But if we understand it from these scriptural principles and many, many others we could go through, we should have them the power and the love of God and the sound mind to handle it and to use it well. So let's keep these in mind as we go through the older years, as we get older and approach it from a sound, positive, godly perspective.