A week or so ago Sue and I watched a four-minute segment on Good Morning America in which Robin Roberts “aged” forty years. Of course, she didn’t really grow old in that amount of time. The clip we saw had to do with an experiment in aging in which she did a great deal to look and feel like an octogenarian. First, skilled Hollywood makeup artists used a combination of several small custom-made plastic masks and all kinds of make-up to build her face such that looked just like that of an 85 year old. Then after donning a grey wig she put on what is called “an old suit” a jumpsuit that is designed with special straps and chords to make you feel the muscle-aches and strains that people feel when they get that old. Her final touch was to smear Vaseline on her glasses so she could “see” what it’s like to have cataracts.
Now, one reason we watched this segment instead of taking the opportunity to go get another cup of coffee is because we are beginning to identify with the aged portion of our population. Our hair is gradually turning gray or in my case it has just turned loose. Arthritis is beginning to plague our joints. Wrinkles are replacing smile lines. Our backs and our knees and our energy levels aren’t what they used to be. Our metabolisms have slowed to a grinding halt. I mean the sad fact is we’re beginning—and I want to emphasize that last word— beginning, to feel the effects of age so we watched this segment of Good Morning America and listened to the things Ms. Roberts experienced so as to get kind of a preview of what is to come. And, lest you think this doesn’t apply to you remember, aging is coming to us all! No matter how many vitamins you take or how much you exercise or how much make-up you wear or how many plastic surgeries you have or how closely you follow current clothing trends or how hot a car you drive, we are all looking older because we are all growing older. In fact, you’re all about three minutes older now than you were when I began this message!
One way we deal with this inevitable aspect of life is to joke about it. For example my parents often compared their lives to mine and would say things like:
- In my day I walked to school up hill-both ways, or
- In my day all 12 of the children in our family slept in the same bed-we took turns using one pillow, or
- In my day we couldn’t afford shoes, so we went barefoot. In the winter we had to wrap our feet with barbed wire for traction!
I saw some interesting newer versions of this generation-comparing on the internet and they gave me a grin. Perhaps you will enjoy them as well. Here they are:
- Back in the ’70s we didn’t have the space shuttle to get all excited about. We had to settle for men walking on the crummy moon, or
- In my day, we didn’t have virtual reality. If a one-eyed razorback barbarian warrior was chasing you with an axe, you just had to hope you could outrun him, or
- In my day, we didn’t get that disembodied, slightly ticked-off voice saying “doors closing.” No. We got on the train, the doors closed, and if your hand was sticking out it scraped along the tunnel all the way to the next station.
We also joke about our increasing age with the ever popular, “you know you’re old if” statements. For example, you know you’re old
- if most of your dreams are re-runs, or
- if your knees buckle but your belt won’t, or
- if you try to straighten the wrinkles in your socks and you find you aren’t wearing any, or
- if you sit down in a rocking chair and you can’t get it started, or
- if everything hurts and what doesn’t hurt doesn’t work, or
- if you watch a pretty girl go by and your pacemaker makes the garage door open.
Well this kind of humor is funny but it doesn’t stop the encroachment of old age does it?! As Swindoll once wrote, “Each new dawn, each golden sunset, even each chime on the grandfather clock is a constant reminder that we are growing older.”
By the way, I don’t want to cause unnecessary alarm but we’ve all aged another three minutes, so we might as well all admit old age is coming like the man who said:
I get up each morning, dust off my wits,
Pick up the paper and read the obits.
If my name is missing, I know I’m not dead.
So I eat a good breakfast, and go back to bed.
Well, all kidding aside, what are we to do about this uncomfortable and unpleasant aspect of life? How can we deal with the unavoidable fact that we all grow old? In answer to these questions I want to direct you to the next part of our study of the book of Joshua where we meet a magnificent old man named Caleb, a man who, without the use of make-up or some modern “old suit” aged 45 years in the time it takes to read four books of the Bible. I mean, when we first meet him in Exodus he’s 40 and four books later, here in Joshua, he’s 85 and the Biblical record shows that the way he responded to those 45 years of aging and the years that followed can teach us a great deal when it comes to our own struggle with this inevitable aspect of life.
It’s been a while since we last left our study of Joshua so before we go any further let me up date you on the setting. Joshua and the Hebrew people have fought for several years now in their conquest of the promised land. Our text takes place in a time when the land of Canaan is finally pretty much under the control of the people of Israel. There are still enemies to deal with but most of them are held at bay.
You should remember from our study that the land east of the Jordan had already been given to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manesseh. Well, with the fighting almost at an end it was time to distribute the Promised Land west of the Jordan between the remaining tribes, and this brings us to our text for this morning. Take your Bibles and turn with me to Joshua 14 and follow along as we read verses 6-15.
6 – Now the men of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me.
7 – I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions,
8 – but my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.
9 – So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.’
10 – “Now then, just as the LORD promised, He has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time He said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert.
So here I am today, eighty-five years old!
11 – I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.
12 – Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as He said.”
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Now, I want you to be sure and note that on this important day when it came time to divide the promised land the hero of our story asks for and is given the portion of land that had been promised him over four decades earlier. As he reminded his fellow Jews in our text, Caleb was one of the original 12 spies that Moses had sent into Canaan. Well, apparently each of these 12 spies was assigned a separate area of Canaan to examine up close and the area that Caleb explored was a hilly, mountainous region called Hebron. The name may be familiar to you because Hebron was, and still is, a place of great historical importance to the Hebrew people. You see, Hebron was where Abraham had lived when he first came to the Promised Land from Haran generations earlier. It was there that he built an altar of sacrifice. It was there that God communicated most of the covenant with him. I mean, Hebron was where God promised Abraham the Promised Land in the first place. It was where He said that he would be the father of a great nation and that a Messiah would one day come. Hebron is also where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah were buried-so it was and still is a very important piece of real estate in the Hebrew mind set.
Another thing I want you to note is that Caleb was not a Jew. I say this because in the listing of the 12 spies Caleb is referred to as son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite-and Kennizzites were not part of the Hebrew nation. So Caleb was a foreigner. We don’t know how Caleb came to be in Egypt enslaved along with the Jewish people but we do have a clue in his name. You see “Caleb” means “dog.” Now, would you call your son or daughter “dog?” No, of course not and parents would be even more unlikely to do that in that culture and time. To call someone “dog” in Old Testament times was a great insult. I mean canines were of no value in that culture, so this name hints at the fact that Caleb was of no value to his parents. It tells us he might have been abandoned, an unwanted child. Perhaps his cruel parents sold him into slavery and that’s how he came to Egypt but in spite of this by the providence of God Caleb was folded into the family of God. And not only that, he was placed in the tribe of Judah, which means he became a member of the Jewish aristocracy because from Judah came the kings the great spiritual, political, and military leaders of the nation.
In my mind, Caleb’s life is a testimony of Deuteronomy 10:18 where it says that God, ” defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.” And, Caleb responded to God’s gracious provision. I mean, even though he was a foreigner, he still regarded himself as a faithful follower of the Jewish God. In fact, he followed God whole-heartedly to the very end of his life trusting God more in fact than many of his Jewish peers. Remember? When the 12 spies came back, only two believed that God would enable them to conquer it were Joshua and Caleb. The other ten, all pure-blooded Jews, did not have his quality of faith in God’s power. In fact, because of their lack of faith the Hebrew nation was forced to turn away from the promised land and wander in the desert for 40 years until all the faith-less people had died out.
God rewarded Joshua and Caleb’s faith by extending their lives so when this day finally dawned they could claim the land God had promised them four and a half decades earlier. Okay, back to the main thrust of this message: what can this old warrior named Caleb teach us about this battle we all wage with aging?
(1) First, the way he lived his long and fruitful life proves that, aging is not a matter of arteries but rather attitude.
And I say this because the fact is aging is not just a physical thing. Let me put it this way. It’s inevitable that we will all grow old physically-but we don’t have to ever grow old mentally. It’s our choice. And unfortunately many of us make the wrong choice in that, as our bodies age we choose old attitudes. Ecclesiastes 12 refers to three of the main old attitudes that we tend to embrace.
A. For example, verse 5 says that in old age, “The grasshopper becomes a burden” – which is a reference to the fact that for some elderly people, little things are seen as burdens to bear. I mean, one psychological characteristic of old age is that unless, we choose otherwise, little things bother us such that we have an increased sensitivity to the trivial things of life. Mentally old people are always fussing and complaining, cranky and irritable, upset about insignificant things. And this is not some side-effect of the physical process of growing old because I know a lot of younger adults who are this way. Even they are easily burdened by little things.
You know what I’m talking about. We notice they are angry, really ticked, and when we ask them why, they say things like, “I can’t find the remote control!” Or, “This guy in the ten item check out line has eleven items!!!!” Or, “This car in the passing lane is going the speed limit. What is he thinking? I’m going to be late for work!” You’ve obviously heard old young people say things like this. Perhaps you’ve even heard your own voice say things like this so you know what I’m talking about. Unfortunately we have abundant proof that one characteristic of mental aging is that little things, small inconveniences, the “grasshoppers of life” are a burden.
B. In verse 5 the prophet of Ecclesiastes says that another psychological characteristic of age is that they “are afraid of heights.” Solomon is saying that mental aging is characterized by a fear of risks in life-a fear of challenges and new things. And he’s right. We choose to be “old” when we want to keep things the same and play it safe. We’re “old” when we are afraid to take chances-afraid of the future.
This attitudinal choice is the opposite of a more youthful attitude-one that is characterized by an eager expectancy of life and an abiding confidence in the future. Do you “older” people remember how it felt to be young and believe that life was going to give you a great and wonderful experience tomorrow and the next day and the day after that?! Youth fall in love and don’t ask, how will we buy a house? How will we ever rear our children in this society that is going to pieces? They seldom think of things like this. They just say, we’re going to have the best marriage anyone has ever had. We are going to have a wonderful experience as we rear our family. We are going to have the richest and fullest life ever. Youth looks toward tomorrow with anticipation and expectation. But old age looks at tomorrow through the eyes of dread and fear. I ran across this poem which expresses this philosophy:
“My grandpa notes the world’s worn cogs and says, we’re going to the dogs. His grandpa, in a hut of logs, swore things were going to the dogs. His grandpa dressed in caveman’s togs, moaned, things were going to the dogs! Now this is all I have to state; the dogs have had an awful wait!”
This unknown poet is right. The world has been going to the dogs in the eyes of people who are mentally old ever since Adam was 51. But it hasn’t yet. The dogs are still waiting. Tomorrow is ahead. It can be better than today and mentally young people believe this!
C. And then one last characteristic of mental old age is glorifying in the past at the expense of the present and future. People like this think that the best times are all behind us. The greatest days of a church were 30 years ago back in the “good old days.” But, people who are mentally “young” believe the best is happening and can happen in the future. They don’t let the victories of the past limit the victories of the future.
Well, let me ask you-according to these three psychological characteristics of old age:
- Little things are a burden. You are easily ticked at the “grasshoppers” of life.
- Challenges and risks are something to avoid.
- The future is something to fear and so you live in the glories of the past.
According to these characteristics, How “old” are you? You see, ultimately age is not a matter of the physical but the mental, not arteries but attitude. As I said, it is certain that we are all going to grow old in body but we do not have to grow old in spirit. I have known people in their 30’s who have all the mental characteristics of old age. They are crabby, bitter, and hostile. But there are others I have known who are frail in body from the passing of years but their attitudes are young. They are excited, optimistic, friendly-they are not old! So again I ask “How old are you–not by calendar years but in heart and spirit? How old are you? How old do you want to be?” As someone once put it, “You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.” To win in our battle with aging you and I must know that aging is not just a physical thing. It’s an attitudinal thing. It’s a choice!
And if you need an example to help you grasp this fact you need look no further than Caleb. I mean, even at 85 he had the attitude of a very “young” man. One reason I say this is because the land he chose for his own, Hebron, was one of the few places remaining in Canaan that was not yet conquered. There was still fighting yet to be done there. And I’m not talking about your normal, every day fighting-because Hebron was inhabited by the Anakites, a race of giants who arrived in Canaan hundreds of years before the Israelites got there. In fact, throughout the first five books of the Bible, the Anakites are referred to as enemies that were impossible to conquer. Another thing, this portion of the land was mountainous and filled with fortified cities like Jericho. Yet this magnificent old man specifically asked for that portion of real estate. He didn’t request some acreage in the “Leisure World” section of Canaan-something already conquered. No, when it came to choosing a place to spend his retirement years, he asked for the most challenging portion of Israel. Caleb didn’t avoid risks. He welcomed them. He didn’t live in the glories of the past. And, I would remind you that there were lots of past glories to dwell on, everything from the parting of the Red Sea to the fall of Jericho to that day Caleb saw the sun stand still. But Caleb didn’t sit around reveling in these victories of yesteryear. No! He believed in a future where many would have said there is none. Plus, to Caleb there was no such thing as a burden. What most people called a burden he thought of as a challenging opportunity. This leads to a second principle we can glean from this text
(2) for the follower of God there is no such thing as retirement.
You see, no matter how old we are physically we should never say, “Well, I’ve done my part for the Lord. I’m just going to sit back and let the young folks further His eternal kingdom.” No! We never retire from Christian service! I’m reminded of Dottie Vandeavander and her crew of women who man the nursery so that our younger moms can come to Tuesday morning Ladies Bible Study. I hear wonderful reports of the excellent job they do, not just watching these little ones but doing creative things with them: crafts, games, things the kids really enjoy. Ruby Bowerman is one of these ladies and as you know a few months ago Ruby took a bad fall. But even from her hospital bed she told me repeatedly how much she longed to get back to working with those precious children—that as soon as her wounds healed that’s what she was going to do. She wasn’t about to retire from doing her part in the kingdom of God.
And Caleb was like that. At an age when other men would have entered a retirement home, Caleb peered into the future with eyes that sparkled with enthusiasm, optimism, hope, and faith. He didn’t say, “Leave me alone. I’m tired.” or “I deserve a comfortable, shady spot.” or “You owe me some benefits for all those years I’ve worked and fought.” or “I’ve done my part, now it’s their turn!” Instead this magnificent old man said, “See that range of mountains-give me that to conquer! Bring on those ugly giants! Lemme at those fortified cities! Here, Joshua, you take the bedroom slippers. I’m putting on waffle stompers!”
Take your Bibles and turn to Joshua 15:14-17 and follow along as I read to you the account of how Caleb spent his “retirement” years.
“From Hebron Caleb drove out the three Anakites-Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai-descendants of Anak. From there he marched against the people living in Debir (formerly called Kiriath Sepher). And Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher.” Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s brother, took it; and Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage.”
So, Caleb spent his retirement years conquering that area of the Promised Land that younger men had said was unconquerable! And he nabbed a great son-in-law in the process! By the way his son-in-law, Othniel was the first judge of Israel. In my mind, he learned from his young father-in-law the importance of following God whole-heartedly and God used him to teach all of Israel that lesson years later in a day and age when they had forgotten that they were to love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their mind and with all their strength!
You know, if the Lord tarries we will retire from our careers. I’m already looking forward to my own retirement and Sue and I are planning on using our “retirement” years, doing things for God that we can’t do now, at this stage in life. We’re already dreaming of long-term mission trips and outreach Bible studies because we know we never cease our main job in life which is to be a 7-day per week 24-hour per day employee of God Himself. Christians never retire from Jesus’ service. And the more we realize this, the younger we will be.
Dr. Paul Brand, a well-known doctor and author, was raised in India. His parents were missionaries there. In his book, In His Image, he writes about his mother and says that when she was 75 years young she was still walking miles every day, visiting the villages in the southern part of India, teaching the people about Jesus. One day, at age 75, she was traveling alone and fell and broke her hip. After two days of just lying there in pain, some workers found her and put her on a makeshift cot and loaded her into their jeep and drove 150 miles over deep rutted roads to find a doctor who could set the broken bones. Unfortunately the very bumpy ride damaged her bones so badly that her hip never completely healed. Dr Brand said, “I visited my other in her mud-covered hut several weeks after all this happened. I watched as she took two bamboo crutches that she had made herself, and moved from one place to another with her feet just dragging behind because she had lost all feeling in them.” He said, “At age 75 with a broken hip, unable to stand on her own two legs, I thought I made pretty intelligent suggestion. I said she should retire.” He said, “She turned around and looked at me and said, ‘What value is that? If we try to preserve this body just a few more years and it is not being used for God, what value is that?'” So Mrs. Brand kept on working. She kept on riding her donkey to villages until she was 93 years young and she continued to tell people about Jesus Christ until she died at the age of 95.
Are you getting older? Yes, of course! We all are. In fact, we’re all about 25 minutes older than we were when this sermon began. Well one way to avoid this-one way to stay young-one way to enjoy life is to commit to never retire from the Christian life-to always look for ways to share the love of God.
(3) Another thing Caleb’s life can teach us is that we stay “young” when we face struggles in any stage of life by trusting in God’s power and provision.
I mean, the secret of Caleb’s young attitude was not the discovery of some fountain of youth. No, it was fueled by his absolute confidence in God. He believed that if God said it, that made it a fact. If you read through verses 7-12 of the 14th chapter of Joshua you will “hear” Caleb say over and over again to his fellow former spy, “The Lord said.” In those six verses he repeats this “faith-phrase” five times. In other words, Caleb says, “For 45 years now I have been in the wilderness with all of you. We have been in battles and hardships and crises and sufferings. We have seen our friends die. We have known heartbreak and sorrow. And I have endured all this by trusting God. I have literally lived on the promise of God that I would live to see and claim this Promised Land.”
So, Caleb trusted God. In verse 7 he said he couched his report in his conviction that God would enable them to take the land-just as He had promised. Like Abraham, Caleb ” staggered not at the promises of God.” He was a magnificent old man-a truly great man-because in faith he looked at God rather than the circumstances. He saw that when compared to God the giants in Hebron were grasshoppers. Do you remember his words to the Hebrew people 45 years earlier after he had returned from his spy mission? In Numbers 14:9 he said, “Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”
I wish more of us could be like this old guy because the secret to enduring life in this discouraging nightmare of a fallen world of ours is to build your life on the promises of God!
You know, whenever I yield to temptation and get negative and critical and start thinking that things aren’t going to work out (which I do almost weekly) when I do this I am displaying a lack of faith in God. I’m yielding to the temptation to try and live this life on my own feeble strength. I mean, the fact is a negative spirit is the mark of the flesh. It is carnality at work. As II Timothy 1:7 says, “We weren’t given the spirit of fear” but of hope, confidence and optimism. II Corinthians 1:20 says that in Jesus the answer to all God’s promises are yes and amen! So when we worry and fret we are displaying not the spirit of God, but the spirit of carnality. People who are mentally young are people who have absolute confidence, not in themselves, but in God’s power and provision!
This week, Donna Lechak e-mailed me some new lyrics to the song we all loved when we were young, “Jesus Loves Me.” I think this was a providential e-mail because it fits this point of my message so very well. It reminds us that no matter how long we live we still live by trusting God. Let’s act young and sing it together:
Jesus loves me, this I know, Though my hair be white as snow.
When my sight is growing dim, Still He’ll bid me trust in Him.Yes Jesus loves me! Yes Jesus loves me!
Yes Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.When my steps are oh, so slow, With my hand in His I’ll go
On through life, let come what may, He’ll be there to lead the way.Yes Jesus loves me! Yes Jesus loves me!
Yes Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.When I am no longer young, I’ll have much which He’s begun.
I will serve Christ with a smile, Go with others the extra mile.Yes Jesus loves me! Yes Jesus loves me!
Yes Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.
Jesus does love us! And He shows that love by empowering us to do His will. We are “young” and like Caleb do amazing things in His name when we trust His promise!
This week I read about Doug Layton, a businessman from Nashville, Tennessee who had an experience several years ago that is a great example of this. You may remember that right after the Gulf War, the United Nations and the U.S. set up a no-fly zone about the thirty-sixth parallel in northern Iraq so that the Kurdish people would have a place of safety and protection from Saddam Hussein. The United States also worked to repatriate a number of Kurdish nationals, and six thousand of them came to Nashville. Doug and his wife got connected with seventeen of them through their church. He said he adopted one guy and ended up with 17 because of mothers-in-laws, brothers, grandkids, etc. God put a burden on his heart for the salvation of these Muslims who were in our country, and so he worked with Campus Crusade to get the Jesus film translated into the Kurdish language. He even had some Muslim Kurds from Nashville speak the parts in the Jesus film. This was all completed in 1991.
Then Doug said God gave him a burden to get the Jesus film into Kurdistan, in northern Iraq. But he didn’t know how to do it-it was a huge obstacle. He tried to get other people to take it but nobody would. Now you need to know that 30 years earlier, before he met Jesus, Doug himself had been a drug smuggler in Turkey and he had a criminal record there. He said, “Lord, there’s no way I’m going to get from Turkey to Iraq.” But God kept telling him to go. So in obedience Doug flew to Turkey and took both the film version and the videocassette version of the Jesus film to Kurdistan. Like Caleb, he trusted in God’s power instead of his own and there are several amazing stories of how God used Doug’s faithful obedience but let me tell you one.
A Kurdish Christian friend of Doug’s took the film to a commercial theater in a large city in the north. He met with the manager and said, “I have an American film release, but it’s in the Kurdish language.” By they way, back then there were no films in the Kurdish language; everything they showed had subtitles, or they’d just watch a movie and listen to it in English, trying to figure out what they were saying by what they were watching. Well, the manager said, “I’d love to show it but tonight I’ve advertised the premiere of the newest Rambo film.”
Now, you also need to understand that the Kurdish freedom fighters are warriors of warriors and they love the high adventure of the American super hero movies. Knowing this, the manager said there was no way he was going to show a film about Jesus instead of the Rambo film. But Doug’s friend was persistent and said, “Look, I think they’ll like it. Tell them it’s a double feature and put it on first. If they don’t like the Jesus film, we’ll just shut it off and go right to Rambo.” And the manager agreed.
The night of the showing the theater was packed with big Kurdish men with their rifles and swords. They were smoking up a storm. Can you picture that crowd in your mind— guns and cigars everywhere? Well, the manager was understandably afraid to tell them what he was doing so he just started the Jesus film. It got very quiet and it stayed quiet. You could have heard a pin drop through the entire showing. At the conclusion the manager scurried down to the front and said, “Thank you so much for your patience. Now since this is a double feature we will show the newest Rambo film!” A tall man up front stood up and said, “No, to watch a film about Rambo would be blasphemous after what we have seen about Jesus. We should not see that film.” And they all got up and left. Now, isn’t that a great story?! Doesn’t it make you feel “young?!”
Doug’s hope was realized! God’s power and provision made it possible for Muslims in Kurdistan to be exposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that kind of adventure will keep anyone young! You see, just as He did with Caleb, God still empowers people no matter what their age to do His will no matter how challenging it may be! Do you remember the words of the prophet Isaiah in 40:30-31? “Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Well, we have all aged about an hour since this service began, further proof that growing older is indeed inevitable — walkers and wheel chairs will be available at the door! But I want you to know that it is possible for us win our battle with aging as along as we remember that .
- Our attitudes are more important than our aging arteries.
- We never retire from your service to the Master , and finally
- We stay young even in the struggles of life as long as we trust God and rely on His power.
Now, there are many ways for us all-young and old alike-to respond to God today. God may be calling some of you to out of spiritual retirement to join this church and get back to work in His kingdom. You may be here today and you just want to confess to God that your attitudes have been kind of ancient and that you want to ask Him to help you “act and think” young! Or you may be here today and you are not a Christian-and I would remind you that the decision to commit to give your life to Jesus is the most rejuvenating decision of all. You see, the Bible teaches that the cause of our physical aging is sin. As Romans 8:21 says, because of our sin we are all subject to a “bondage of decay.” But it also says that when we confess our sin and ask for God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ we do find the only true fountain of youth as God gives us eternal life. I would love to tell you how you can drink from this fountain yourself. Won’t you come now as God leads?