Respecting God's Seniors

Happy Sabbath, all of you! Did you enjoy that camp video? I don't know about you, but after seeing that, I'm exhausted. I'm ready to take a nap for all that activity that was going on there.

Well, just a few minutes ago, we saw the 2018 camp video, and for the sermon today, I'd like to discuss a later aspect of human life, rather than the youth, which the video so rightly and beautifully portrayed. What I'd like to talk about today in this sermon are the seniors in the Church of God, or the elders in the Church of God. Recently, I've been working on a presentation that's given annually at the General Conference of Elders, and it's a tribute for the last year of those ministers and wives who have died in the faith, and the themes taken from Hebrews, chapter 11. This is the third year row that I've been working on this, and it is one of the most somber and emotional experiences of anything that I've ever done in my life. It always wallops me in a really sad and profound way, because what happens is everyone sends you information. They send you photos of their loved ones. They send you tributes. So, in a matter of minutes, you're looking at as these arrive, and you're starting to sort all the information. You see someone when they were a young child, and the excitement of life in their eyes, and you see the next photo, and it's their wedding day. They're so beautiful or so handsome, and they have the whole lives ahead of you. They're just excited. They have a zest for life, and you look at the next photo when they're 90 years old, and you just realize in a very profound and humble way how short this physical lifetime really is. So, let's go to Psalm 39 and verse 4. Psalm 39 and verse 4. What I have learned, and what always impresses me as I go through all of these photos and tributes to folks every year, is if it weren't for God, all of this is in vain. These folks lived their entire lives. They were young. They were energized. They were looking forward to life, and they all grew old, and they died. And if there is no God, then all of this is for nothing. Everything has no meaning if there is no God. And the only thing that gives this existence that we have any value and any purpose is the fact that there is a resurrection. Psalm 39 and verse 4. Lord, make me to know my end. Help me to understand that my life has a purpose, that my life has meaning. As I get older and I see less hair and I see more wrinkles and I see my body physically changing and all these things occurring in my life, help me to know that you're there. Help me to know that my life has value, that my life has purpose to you. And what is the measure of my days that I may know how frail I am? And no matter how strong that we think we are when we're 16 or 18, as we get older and as we lose muscle mass and as we get into those later years of our life, we truly realize how frail we are. Verse 5. Indeed, you have made my days as hand-breaths and my age is nothing before you. Even if we live to be 100, 120 years old, what is that compared to a God who lives for eternity? That's less than one drop of water in the Atlantic Ocean. That's how long a human lifetime is compared to eternity. Certainly, every man at his best state is but a vapor.

And again, as I go through these pictures and I look at these tributes of people and realize how quickly their lives passed by, I am struck with the profound understanding that indeed life is but a vapor. Selah, surely every man walks about like a shadow. We're like dead men walking. It just hasn't happened yet. But it's there out in front of us.

Every man walks about like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. They heap up riches and does not know who will gather them. And now, Lord, what do I wait for? Is there any purpose to this life? You see these beautiful pictures of a young child, wedding day, young adult with family of their own, senior citizen, and they died.

Is there any hope? Is there any purpose behind this existence that we have? My hope is in you, the psalmist writes, because there is a resurrection. Because this physical life is not in vain. This physical life has tremendous meaning because it is the preface to the rest of our existence in the Book of Life, our life.

It's very meaningful, it's very rich to God, and it should be meaningful to us. When you've lived a long time, you realize how short your life is and how short the life is of others that you have known. People keep themselves busy. We have a way as human beings. We keep ourselves busy to pretend away the inevitable death. We work, work, work, work. We do everything but think about our demise.

And then we do things that are rather silly, but that's what human beings do. We try to gather riches and stuff in the false hope that it will protect us from the inevitable. That it will give us a sense of security in this physical lifetime, a feeling of stability, a feeling of permanence.

But it's all in vain because the inevitable is still going to happen. Our hope is in the resurrection and being changed from mortal to immortal upon the literal return of Jesus Christ. So today I'd like to honor our senior members. I could use a lot of different definitions of what a senior is.

Here's one that I just came up with, and that is that I'm going to define a senior, someone who's over 70 years old chronologically, but I'm also going to include those who have been in the church for 40 years or more, no matter what their physical age. Certainly because of the experiences they've had. They may have been born into the church. And if you've been around for 40 years, you know a thing or two because you've seen a thing or two.

So we're going to consider you a senior in a spiritual sense as well. That means that some of our oldest seniors here today lived during World War II. They might have been children during World War II. Some of the younger seniors here were born after the war, or soon after the war. And obviously what they lived through influenced their entire lives.

For our oldest seniors, who may be here today, not only did they contribute to saving the world from crazed tyrants like Hitler and the Japanese war machine, some came back from that and then they built America. And then at the same time, and I knew a number of these folks in the 70s, some of them had another mission. God called them. They not only had served in the Second World War, they not only had come back and helped build America to be a great nation to provide a wonderful standard living that all of us are enjoying today because of their work and effort, but they came back and God called them and they made another great sacrifice. Many of them kept the Seventh-Day Sabbath, which meant, though they were very talented, their careers were muted because they wouldn't work on the Sabbath today. Most of them, because they believed in tithing and giving offerings and tithes, they had a little bit of a reduced standard of living compared to other people who weren't called the God's way of life. And much like they had been willing to sacrifice during the war, they were willing to sacrifice their entire lives in order to support the Church of God. If you think about it, our lives is a physical life cycle. If we're lucky and we fulfill all of that cycle, and if we're blessed to live a full physical lifestyle, it begins with being a young child. We looked on the video today. It's a time of boundless energy and exploring the world. You can hear that from the screams, and they're on the beaches, and they're doing all these exciting things, and they're learning about the world. They're learning about life. It's the fastest brain growth we have in our entire lives occurs even before we reach adolescence. That's when our brain physically is growing the fastest. When we get to the point, if we're blessed, we survive into being a teenager. We enter a stage of independence. We tend to think, when we are teenagers, and I certainly did, that we are invincible.

And teenagers tend to take greater risks at that point of their life than any other time in their lives. So statistics show there is a higher mortality rate among teenagers than there are of the other stages of this life cycle that I will discuss, because we tend to think we're bulletproof, we're independent, we get the keys to the car, we have access to very powerful things, like drugs and alcohol and other things when we enter those years. And during the teenage years, just one really bad decision can unfortunately influence the rest of our lives.

Then, if we're fortunate and we survive that, we become young adults. That's the age in which we begin to settle down to a domestic life. We think about starting a family. Couple bonding occurs. A man and a woman meet each other and they love one another and they decide they want to have a family. They want to share the rest of their lives together. That's a very exciting time in life. And then, you enter middle age. When middle age occurs, you have a sense of heavy responsibilities as a parent, as a family provider. You get the first understanding when you're in middle age, particularly as you look in the mirror, that this isn't going to go on forever. That this existence we have is just not going to go on forever. And usually, in middle age, is when we start thinking more about acquiring wealth and a pension and putting something aside. Oftentimes, we have a midlife crisis. I had a midlife crisis in my 40s. I decided to go back to college and get a master's degree after having not been in college for 20 years. But that's how I reacted to a midlife crisis that I had at the time. But we, in middle age, begin to sense the time is running out, that our life may have unfulfilled expectations. Expectations that we had earlier when we were younger.

Then we enter a time of old age. It's a time of reduced physical work. A time usually for more reflection and meditation. We have more time in our hands to think. Think about our lives. Think about things a little more deeply. If we're blessed with good health, it's a time to enjoy extended hobbies. If we are comfortable financially, we can indulge ourselves in enjoying some hobbies. We now have the time and hopefully the income to be able to enjoy these things in life in a greater degree than we were in earlier cycles of our life. So what do the Scriptures tell us about old age? About what our attitude should be towards seniors and old age? Let's go to Leviticus, chapter 19, and verse 32. If you will kindly turn there with me, Leviticus, chapter 19 and verse 32.

The book of Leviticus says here, it says, I'm going to read this from another translation because obviously this applies more than just a gray-headed old man. Wives and women were highly respected in Hebrew society. So I'm going to read this from the translation God's Word for today.

He created us, if we're fortunate enough to survive that long, to enjoy being a senior, to enjoy those stages in our life. You know, it's a rare privilege to live long enough to grow old. If you consider the odds of you even outpacing all of those other sperm to be the first one to reach your mother's egg, and then you look at all of the challenges you had in being developed inside of your mother, and as a child all the diseases that were hitting you, measles and mumps and chicken pox and viruses and all the things, and you survive in the old age, that is really something.

And when you realize in Hebrew culture, at the time this was written in context, there were no antibiotics. People died in wars all the time, because in that part of the world, virtually every summer, there was some invading army coming through, either from the north or the south or the east or the west. So to survive that long to have gray hair to be elderly was really something. When you're young, you tend to think you know it all, and you think you have an answer for everything. I can remember before my wife and I had children, we would watch other people's children, well, they should be doing this, and they should be doing that, and they should be doing this.

Well, until you have children of your own, you're clueless. You can have all of the great theories and ideas in the world, but until you've experienced it and your own children, I would caution you in being too hard on other people and the way that they raise their children. But the difference in that is when you grow old, you've lived those experiences, which are far different than having youthful theories and opinions about everything.

When you've been around a while and your hair's getting gray, and you've experienced the challenges of life, you've been there, done that. It's no longer theory. It's no longer, well, I just think this is the case. You've been through the hard knocks of life, and it changes you. Unfortunately, in our Western culture, it's youth that's idolized, and the elderly are ignored, often isolated, often warehoused in our Western cultures. And in the West, this is done because we have an emphasis on individualism and independence. That's what we cherish in the Western world. Individual rights, and everyone's independence, where in Eastern cultures, the priority is on honor for the family. It's the family unit.

And not doing anything to shame our family name, because our family name is thousands upon thousands upon thousands of years old. And because of that, people in the Eastern cultures value elders with the utmost respect. Far different than what we face here in the Western world. Eastern cultures are similar to what the Scriptures teach us. Let's take a look at a couple of Proverbs. Proverbs 20 and verse 29. Proverbs 20 and verse 29. It says, So there are two different types of glory here. A young man delights to show their strength, their speed, and the agility of their body.

When you're young and you're a young man, you don't mind taking your shirt off and showing everyone on the beach your six-pack abs. Then when you get to my age, you're trying to hide the keg. So there's a difference between the glory of a young man and the splendor of old men, of course, is the physical strength should have been replaced by wisdom and life's experiences, rather than just trying to impress people with how you look physically as you get older.

Your splendor should come from your life's experiences, from your growth, and from your maturity. Proverbs 16 and verse 31. It says, I'm going to read this also from another translation. This is Proverbs 16 and verse 31. Gray hair is like a crown of honor. It is earned by living a good life. What the author is saying here is there's no guarantee that having gray hair equates to being righteous or knowledgeable. I mean, I know a lot of gray-haired fools. So the author here isn't saying it is just you have gray hair, suddenly you're experienced, suddenly you're mature, suddenly you're righteous. He's not saying that. Again, it says here, the silver-haired man is the crown of glory if it has found in a way of righteousness.

So God says that we earn a crown of glory represented by our gray hair if we understand through His calling. And we've learned those lessons and we've matured and we've changed our lives and have been mentored by God's Spirit and have grown. Let's go to Exodus chapter 3 and verse 16. Exodus chapter 3 and verse 16, look at a few scriptures here regarding the elders in the Old Testament. Exodus chapter 3 and verse 16.

Notice what God told Moses when he first came and revealed himself. Told Moses he was sending him on a mission and God was going to help Israel to get out of slavery in ancient Egypt.

And the Jebusites to a land flowing with milk and honey.

You know, at this point, the elders, this isn't talking about religious office. These people have been in slavery for hundreds of years. They're thoroughly pagan. They've been paganized by the Egyptians. That's why God had to give them so much law and instruction to restore to them what he originally had revealed to Abraham and Noah and other people that he had worked with. So, gathering the elders at this time, this is not a religious office. This meant those whose age and life experiences within the community of Israel had shown that they have wisdom and they were respected and they had credibility for their leadership skills. So this isn't at this point in time a religious office at all. It's those by their examples showed that they had credibility and could lead. So that's very important for us to understand. Exodus 24 and verse 9. Let's take a look here at another example.

This is a later time, obviously, here in chapter 24, and God is going to instruct Moses to do something with just 70 of those elders.

It says, in Moses went up. This is chapter 24 and verse 9. In Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of the elders. Again, some translations even say the older leaders of Israel. So this is not yet a religious office. It soon will be, but it's not yet at this point in time.

And it says, they saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. Similar to what it says in the book of Revelation, like a sea of glass is what they experience here. Verse 11. And on the nobles of the children of Israel, he did not lay his hand.

In other words, he didn't harm them because they saw God, which was a unique blessing. Most people would die if they were to see the presence of God, but God allowed this to happen, continuing. So they saw God, and they ate and drank. Then the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain, and higher on the mountain, to the top of the mountain, and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone, and the law and commandments, which I have written, that you may teach them. So here are 70 individuals of these elders who have are given a very special treat. That is the ability to see God. And what a privilege that must have been. The nation of Israel was entering a formal covenant relationship with Yahweh, and these 70 elders were a witness to what is happening here, what's going on. They were called to lead, to continue to be those wise sages, those ones with credibility and experience who could be the right kind of examples for the congregation of Israel.

Let's go to Numbers 11 and verse 16. See something else that happened here. Numbers 11 and verse 16. This may very well be the same 70 men.

Numbers 11 and verse 16. So the Lord said to Moses, Gather to me 70 men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you.

So God says to Moses, bring 70 of people who are renowned, who are showing maturity, who have credibility, who are respected among Israel, and bring them here and have them stand right here with you. Verse 17. Then I will come down and talk with you there, and I will take the spirit that is upon you and put the same upon them.

So God is saying, I'm going to give the same Holy Spirit, Moses, that I gave to you, and I'm going to share at this point now and give it to those same 70 who by their actions, by their conduct, have shown themselves to be responsible individuals, and I'm going to give them the gift of my Holy Spirit. And they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not have to bear it yourself alone. So here we see the word elder being expanded from the original idea of just wise, mature sages of experience and credibility to now a bit of a religious significance because they were given God's Holy Spirit.

Well, during the period of the Judges, beyond this time that we're discussing here and later on in the monarchy of Israel, the elders were prominent in the political and judicial life of Israel. You may recall it was the elders that demanded that Samuel appoint a king. They said, this isn't working, your kids aren't ready. Your kids cannot handle this. You need to get us a king. It was the elders who went to Samuel and made that very clear. They played a critical role in David's getting and retaining the throne. They represented the people at the consecration of the Temple of Solomon. In the legal codes of Deuteronomy, as you go through the book of Deuteronomy, it's the elders who are responsible for administering justice and sitting as judges in the city gate, deciding difficult cases, affecting family life, and even executing some decisions that are making sure that those decisions are completed as they should be.

And later time, as we go into history, Israel's history of the elders, they had leading roles when the synagogues were formed. And the government of the synagogues, as a matter of fact, the term that we use elder in the Church of God today, because we came out of the synagogues. And that was a term that already existed in the Jewish synagogues. They already had a title for an individual called elder, and we borrowed that, and we used that same term in the Church of God today, 2,000 years later.

At first, elders always referred to seniors whose lifetime experience gave them wisdom and maturity to handle difficult and serious matters, but eventually the term was also used to refer to spiritual offices.

And even to younger individuals, yet those who showed by their maturity in their example could love and care for God's people, even if chronologically they were younger. So this is kind of a little bit of the history of elder and elders' ship and seniors coming from the Old Testament. Let's take a look at a few things in the New Testament. We'll start with Acts chapter 15, and we'll pick it up here in verse 1.

We, of course, know that there was a controversy over circumcision. Some were coming into the Church saying the circumcision was required for salvation. Paul didn't agree with that, and obviously others didn't agree with that, so they decided to call a conference known as the Jerusalem Conference that probably occurred in 49 A.D. Acts chapter 15 and verse 1. And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

Therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them. They determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem. So there was an argument. It got pretty heated, it says. And they decided that they would go up to Jerusalem and have a conference to decide this matter. So the whole Church would be in unity. It would be one decision that everyone would enforce and respect in the Church of God. And who were they going to? Who was in Jerusalem that they were going to approach this subject with?

Them, that they should go to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question. So although there are a few specific details about the function of elders here in the Jerusalem Church, they apparently served as part of a decision-making council because they were there. They are often mentioned in conjunction with the apostles. And some passages give the impression that the apostles and elders of Jerusalem considered themselves to be a decision-making council for the Church.

Let's pick it up now here in verse 22. When a decision had been made, and of course the right decision was that we were not going to require Gentiles to be circumcised. The important thing of the New Covenant is being circumcised with a heart.

Repentance and belief in Jesus Christ. That's the kind of circumcision that God wants, not just cutting off a piece of flesh. Verse 22, then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole Church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who was also named Barsabbas and Silas, leading men among the brethren. They wrote this letter by them. And here it is. Here's how it starts. The apostles, the elders, and the brethren, to the brethren who are of the Gentiles and Antioch, Syria, Cilicia, greetings.

And then they go on to explain what the decision wanted. But again, I want you to notice how respected the elders are because of their, not just a spiritual office, but because of their experience, because of their maturity, because of their credibility, and living and learning through a lifetime of experiences. So again, notice that the apostles worked right alongside those who were the older brethren serving the congregations. There were only so many apostles. So it was therefore the elders who were responsible, they were the glue who was holding together the congregations.

The apostles were limited. Most of the apostles traveled extensively, so they weren't there Sabbath after Sabbath to provide order and balance in the congregations. It was the elders who were the glue who held the church together at this time. Let's take a look at Titus chapter 1 and verse 4 and see what Paul instructed Titus to do. Titus chapter 1 and verse 4. Paul wrote here, he says, to Titus, a true son in our common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, for this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you.

So Paul says to Titus, we need more order, we need more structure in the church of God, and one of the things we need to do to make sure that things are organized, that we have structure and balance, is to make sure that you appoint elders in every city, in every congregation, so that there's a glue from mature, seasoned, spiritual individuals to help hold the congregations together.

And then he gives some of the descriptions of the qualities that these appointed elders should have.

If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of dissipation or insubordination, for a bishop must be blameless, the steward of God, not self-will, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

So why does Paul say to appoint elders in every city to look after the congregation? Paul wanted individuals who were demonstrating in their lives experience and seasoned maturity to shepherd the local flocks and the care for God's people in these congregations. It takes time to see who's holding fast to the faithful word. In contrast to those who are supernovas, the individuals sometimes come into the church and they have a goal to be an elder, and they push for it, and sometimes they're artificial and they push too hard because they're seeking a title. They're seeking for the wrong reasons the desire to serve in the church instead of the right reasons. The right reasons are because you love people, because you humbly want to serve them and put them before yourself. Those are the right reasons. Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 22, he said, Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily, and thus share responsibility for the sins of others. Keep yourself free from sin. So he said, wait a while. Make sure that they're spiritually mature, that they're balanced, that they're not some knee-jerk reaction to everything that they see, that they're not like a reed floating in the wind every time a new doctrine comes around, that they're not too hard on people, that they're not arrogant, that they're not narcissistic. Give it some time. Don't lay hands on someone too hastily.

These are God's people and the care of God's children that we're talking about. It's important for someone to have church leadership responsibilities. They need to be spiritually mature and to show growth from their previous life experiences. Of course, we've all made mistakes. That's what repentance is for. But we do need to get into a point of time when we've put a line in the sand, and from that time on, there's a demonstrated example of growth and maturity and balance in our lives. And Paul, that's what Paul was looking for. That's what he told Titus to look for. Titus chapter 2 and picking it up here in verse 1.

So these are some of the responsibilities that the older women are encouraged to do. Verse 5. To be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their husbands. Did I say obedient to their husbands? That the word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise, exhort the young men to be so reminded in all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works. Who said, what's important if you are a young man? Not to have it a goal. All right. I'm a member of the Good Works of the Month Club. Each month I do one good work. No, he's not saying that. He says that there be a pattern of good works that someone can observe you consistently, methodically, showing a pattern of doing good things in your community, good things in the Church of God, because it's ingrained in you. It's part of your value system. When something is part of your value system, it's not even work anymore. You just do it naturally, because you're wired to do that. In all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works in doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say to you. Yes, they may be able to criticize your doctrine, and they may like the fact that you keep a seventh-day Sabbath, and you keep those holy days, or that you're not eating pork. They may criticize you for those things, but when it comes to observing your life, your integrity, your values, your contribution to the community, they have nothing to criticize you about. That's what he's talking about here. So this was Paul's advice for Titus to make sure of the things that were going on there.

So for the sermon today, there have been two important messages that I've wanted to touch upon. Number one, for those of us who are seniors, those of us who do have gray hair, let's make sure we reflect the dignity and the maturity of an enriched life with our personal learning experiences. Sure, we've all made mistakes, but let's make sure that we are setting a good example for others. People won't honor us for long if we're grumpy, if we're harsh, if we're rigid. As I said before, gray hair is no guarantee of wisdom. I've known a lot of gray-haired fools in my lifetime. So we want to make sure that we are not only physically gray, but that we are spiritual elders, that we are setting a good example. God wants us to set a mature example for everyone in this congregation. Look for younger children to strike up a friendship with, if you consider yourself a senior. We have many in this congregation. Look for children to strike up a friendship with. Be a mentor and an encourager. Remember, it's important to encourage them. They face enough challenges and problems and trials in their lives, living in this world that we have today. They primarily need to be encouraged. So don't nitpick them. Don't correct them for their grammar. Don't do all of these kinds of things that stereotypical grumpy old people do. Just love them and encourage them and be there for them. Initiate a relationship with the young people in our congregation. And then the second part of the sermon today is for the younger brethren, especially children and teens. We certainly, as parents, want to teach them to respect and honor those gray-haired brethren in the Church of God, to make sure that our children aren't flying through here so fast that there's a risk of someone being knocked over, knocked for a loop. We want to make sure that they're respectful. You know, yes, sir, yes, ma'am, that our children are respectful to those who are seniors. Most of them have earned their stripes by serving in the army of God for 30, 40, 50 years. So go up and talk to our seniors, young people. Initiate a relationship with one of our seniors. Ask them questions about life. Ask them questions about God, about what they learned from their lives, some of the mistakes that they've made. Begin a relationship with them. Become a friend with a senior in our congregation. Sit down and talk, but most importantly, listen. Initiate a conversation and listen. Our final scripture today, Isaiah 46, verse 3. If you'll turn there with me. Isaiah 46, verse 3. In time, we all grow old. That's part of God's plan. That's part of what God intended all along. And there's something to be learned through each one of those stages of the life cycle that I mentioned earlier in the sermon. They're all important, and if we've been blessed to survive and do all of those, it is indeed a wonderful blessing because each stage teaches us something new about life and about God. If we're listening and if we're paying attention. And what the scripture reminds us is God, no matter what our age, God is always going to be there for us, especially if we are seniors. Isaiah 46, verse 3.

God says, I've always been there with you. You didn't realize it. You didn't notice it. But I've always been there keeping an eye on you. I've always guided and directed your life. And I've patiently dealt with you with the many mistakes that you made. I was still there. Even though you did some pretty dumb things, I was there by your side to help you all along the way. Continuing, verse 4. Even to your old age, I am He. I'm still there. I'm still your God. I'm still pulling strings to make things work out the way I want them to for your life to turn out the way I want it to. Continuing, and even the gray hairs, I will carry you. It doesn't matter how old you are. I've been carrying you your whole life since the day you were born. I've been there. Maybe silently, you didn't see me, but I've been there. I'm still there, even in your old age. I have made and will bear. Even I will carry and will deliver you.

To whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me that we should be alike? I'm going to read this quickly from the translation of New Century translation because it's much better. It says, Family of Jacob, listen to me. All you people from Israel who are still alive, listen. I've carried you since you were born. I've taken care of you from your birth. Even when you were old, I will be the same. Even when your hair is turned gray, I will take care of you. I made you and will take care of you. I will carry you and save you. Can you compare me to anyone? No one is equal to me or like me. God says. I think that's a much better translation. This is obviously a spiritual promise of hope and salvation to the aged because it is appointed for all men to die once. And we all will grow old and we all will come to a point when we die and we lose consciousness, awaiting God's hope and promise of the resurrection of the dead. Well, I'd like to thank all of you who are seniors. For those of you that may have lived through the Second World War, maybe lived through some difficult times, thank you for helping to make this nation a nation that's truly blessed, that's made the kind of lifestyle that many of us enjoy possible because of your sacrifice during the war, whether you were in the military or too young for that and just gathering cans or at a victory garden or whatever you may have been doing, thank you for your service at that time. And for those of you who are spiritual seniors and elders in the Church of God today, thank you for your contribution to God's people, to this congregation here in Cleveland, Ohio. I wish all of you a fulfilling and a wonderful Sabbath day.