I noticed the old man just now as I drove down the street to my office in the church library. He was ambling along, clearly having difficulty walking. My heart went out to him. As I drove past, I tried to estimate his age. “80-something,” I said to myself. Maybe 10 years my senior.

It’s no fun getting old. My dad, who lived into his 96th year, had cut out of a magazine and posted on a door facing his philosophy on the subject: “Growing Old is Not For Sissies.” Art Linkletter wrote a best-selling book by that title.

Growing old is not for everyone either. In fact, it’s a privilege denied to many who were far better people and more deserving than any of us.

We would do well to focus on the privilege of aging instead of the burdens. In fact, here is my list of the top ten reasons I love being a senior adult and cannot wait to delve deeper into seniorhood!

There’s no order, just as they occurred to me.

1. You get to see your kids grow up and raise families and begin to mature.

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First, a warning: this is not an article about the “gifts” of the Spirit.

Further, this is definitely not an article about the “fruit” of the Spirit.

However, it might be fairly close to “the evidence” of the Spirit. That is, how one can know that the living God is actually indwelling his life and the body of believers with whom he/she associates.

We can sit here all day and talk about gifts of the Spirit such as healings and prophecies and tongues, and for the most part we will be spinning our wheels. We’ll probably agree on little and disagree on much.

But there are three evidences of the indwelling Holy Spirit, around which I’m thinking all God’s children can come together. Surely none will find reason to opt out of these.

When the Lord is in your life and when He daily “lords it over” you, and when you are actively serving Him in a body of believers of the same sort as yourself (so to speak), then you should expect to see these three incredible gifts from the Holy Spirit making their presence known….

1. Joy in your heart.

2. Sweetness in your fellowship.

3. Passion in your service.

Call these fruits or gifts of the Spirit, whatever. But they are most definitely evidence that the Lord is in this place and flying His flag high.

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The Harold Camping episode of this past weekend–he predicted the world would come to an end on Saturday and bet millions of dollars he knew what he was talking about–demonstrates two disturbing facts of the church in these latter days: The overwhelming pride of many who call themselves leaders of the church and the mind-numbing gullibility of millions who call themselves disciples of Jesus.

Lord, help your church please.

Help us to know a Godly leader when we see one and to learn how to tell when he’s not one.

Help us to check the teachings of our leaders by the Word and to have the courage to say “Not so fast.”

It’s easy for the fellow in the pew to blame this kind of fiasco on false leaders. And that’s what Camping is, let me hasten to say. The Bible clearly says that if a man makes a prophecy that does not come to pass, he is a false prophet. That’s Deuteronomy 18:22, and it’s still in God’s Word.

But if people like Camping found no one to follow them, they would get tired of hearing themselves speak and shut up.

After his prophecy about May 21 failed, I said to some friends, “Okay, watch now. He’ll come back and say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I misfigured,’ and give out a new date. That’s what false prophets do.”

According to the daily papers (I live in New Orleans, so it’s The Times-Picayune), that is precisely what he did. Well, he did two things actually. He did say that the real date is something like October 21. And he said, “Well, the Lord did actually come back on May 21 in a spiritual way. The processes have been set in place beginning on that day.”

Uh huh. And I’ve got some Louisiana swamp land to sell you.

People who study these things will recall that the Jehovah’s Witnesses did this very thing nearly a hundred years ago.

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Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I will say, rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

I believe in rejoicing.

I believe in rejoicing when things are going great and when they are falling apart.

I believe in rejoicing when you feel like shouting “God is good!” and when you wonder whether He knows you are still in this mess and still needing His help.

I believe in rejoicing in worship services and in private.

My favorite–and most often preached lately–sermon I call “Rejoice Regardless,” based on three texts which loom larger and larger in my mind as the days and years go by.

The basic “regardless” text: Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines. Though the yield of the olive should fail and the field produce no food. Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet, I will exult in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

The Lord Jesus emphasized the same point: Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20) You won’t always have great results and big numbers to report and rejoice over, but if we are rejoicing in our salvation, we will never be without joy.

The third text shows how it’s done. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. (Acts 16:25) In the Philippian jail, locked into stocks and with their bloody backs beaten and left untreated, these two disciples of Jesus broke into prayer and praise. As a result, wonderful things happened.

It occurs to me, that the missing note in almost every sermon I’ve ever preached or heard on rejoicing is the practical aspect. There are good reasons for the Lord wanting His people to rejoice at all times.

Here are three of the most important.

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I’m not anyone big or famous. I’m not an over-achiever. Not a Phi Beta Kappa, never voted “most likely to succeed,” and not even close to being a Fortune 500 CEO. No one is ever going to look my way and be impressed that they are in the presence of a mover and shaker.

Maybe so. Maybe not.

But if you are a serious follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you can literally change the world and do it in a significant way. This is not unrealistic, not a dreamy preacher-type overstatement, and not out of the realm of possibilities.

Now, there are a few presuppositions we need to lay out before we name the three actions which you can do to change your world.

1) We’re talking about people who have genuinely received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

2) Okay, you’re a Christian in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Next, we’re talking about you taking seriously Christ’s mandate to be salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13) and light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

3) And, finally, we’re talking about you being willing to obey the Lord in whatever He assigns to you. That is, you read something in the Word and sense in your heart a tugging (pushing?) from the indwelling Holy Spirit that this one has your name all over it, and you get up and obey.

If that’s you–if you have received Christ and you are serious about making a difference for His sake and you are willing to obey Him–then, here are three actions for you to take which will be used of God to change your world.

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