On those Sundays when churches observe “Senior Adult Sunday” and invite me to speak, I address the younger adults in the congregation.

Don’t you wish you were a senior adult! You don’t have to go to work in the morning. You can sleep as late as you like. (Well, you ‘can’t,’ but if you could you could!) You get to see your children grow up and to know your grandchildren. You have finally become the person you’ve been working at becoming all those years. You have attained a degree of maturity. And (don’t miss this!) every month the federal government sends money into your bank account. It’s a great life.

My sermon has four points:

1) Don’t you wish you were (a senior adult).

2) Don’t assume you will be. Not everyone is blessed to live so long.

3) Don’t put off doing things for the latter years of your life. You may not live long enough to get to them.

4) Determine to finish strong, no matter how much longer you live.

The Lord’s Word gives us a wonderful picture of God’s “senior saints”–three promises, if you will.

The righteous will flourish like the palm tree…. They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap and very green, To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. (Ps 92:12-15)

FRUITFULNESS

They will still yield fruit in old age. The righteous man or woman of God who remains faithful through the years does not get put on the shelf by the Almighty when the hair turns grey and the steps become shorter. Instead, He uses them in subtler, mightier ways. Their ministry in most cases focuses on their influence, their words, their presence.

Their words are words of wisdom. The help they offer is kinder, gentler, and firmer. Their presence provides stability and encouragement. Their spirits are ballasts to keep a church, a family, steady and on course.

Too many old people grow barren a long time before they should. They become preoccupied with their own survival. The day-to-day routine of ceaseless rounds of doctors’ appointments and a thousand trivialities take over their lives. They have to work at finding the time or energy to make an investment in the lives of people around them. This may feel normal to them, since it seems to be more the rule than not. But it is a long way short of God’s plan.

YOUTHFULNESS.

They will be full of sap and very green. I love that. I can’t read “full of sap” without smiling. Modern paraphrases provide renderings of “fat and flourishing” or “vigorous and sturdy.” But what’s wrong with “full of sap and very green”? We know what those mean. Don’t reinterpret the obvious for us, Bible translators.

The sap gives life to the plant. Without the sap flowing through the trees’ conduits, a limb dries up and dies and is broken off.

The godly elderly one who has served the Lord through thick and thin over the decades, who still lives in the Word and on his/her knees in prayer, will be characterized by a youthful spirit. And what, we may ask, are the traits of a youthful spirit? I’m glad you asked.

Laughter. Joy. Enthusiasm. Creativity. Acceptance. Love for people. Energy. Vision. Openness to new ideas. They have fun. They are fun to be around.

The opposites of a youthful spirit include joylessness, negativism, intolerance, aloofness, an unwillingness to adapt or change, inflexibility, impatience, resistance to anything new. Know any seniors like this? I do. And a lot of non-seniors too! Anyone want to be around them? I sure don’t.

TRUTHFULNESS

To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

These are truths we learn about God over our years and thus, realities we get to share with those coming behind us.

So, what does a senior saint know? Three things (at least!):

1) God is upright.

That word means “straight” or “just.” He is a straight-shooter. Fair. We think of Jesus saying, “If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him” (Matthew 7:11). He can be trusted to do the right thing.

2) God is my Rock.

How many times do we read in Scripture that God is our Rock and our strength. One of my favorites is in the last words from the prophet Habakkuk: The Lord God is my strength and He has made my feet like hinds’ feet; He causes me to walk on my high places. (Hab. 3:19) And of course, everyone’s favorite, Isaiah 40:30-31. Even youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly. But those who wait upon the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired; they will walk and not become weary.

He is our fixed point, our stability, our stabilizer. Our “rock in a weary land,” is how Isaiah described Him (Isa. 32:2).

3) There is no unrighteousness in Him.

No iniquity. No impurities. No meanness. Unlike the deities of the Romans and Greeks who were more immoral and childish than the worst of the men they were governing, our Lord God is righteous. How blessed are we that in this world, we have the best of all possible Gods as our personal, Heavenly Father!

As we grow through the years, as we experience life’s frustrations and joys, as we endure the hardships and survive the sufferings, as we mature and persevere, we learn these truths about God. They are no longer abstract concepts. We have proven them in life’s testing grounds.

Then, in our latter years, we have the opportunity to testify to this. We find ourselves telling (advising, counseling) younger people who find themselves bogged down in life’s perplexities, “Trust the Father. He’s on the job. He is eminently trustworthy. Stay faithful. He is a Rock. Stand on Him. Lean on Him.”

In the flesh–that is, on our own, living without the daily nurture of the Holy Spirit and the instruction of God’s Word, but leaning upon our own understanding and trusting only in ourselves–we tend to become the opposite of what God promises to make His senior saints…..

–Barren.

–Old.

–Empty.

I’m not saying I’m there yet. I’m a kid of 71 years, with a long way to go before satisfactorily reaching the kind of fruitfulness, youthfulness, and truthful witness God intends. But I’m on the way. And, may I say, this path is the best of all possible avenues, because it leads straight into the Father’s House where we shall see….a) the fruits of our labors, b) the Divine Source of all joy and creativity, and c) just how true His Truth really is.

“Father, help us to be faithful today so that our tomorrows may be what most honors Thee.”