The Scriptures honor old people; the people of God ought to honor older people.

 

A gray head is a crown of glory;

It is found in the way of righteousness (Proverbs 16.31).

 

The glory of young men is their strength,

And the honor of old men is their gray hair (Proverbs 20.29).

 

Listen to your father who begot you,

And do not despise your mother when she is old.

Buy truth, and do not sell it,

Get wisdom and instruction and understanding (Proverbs 23.22-23).

 

And Job died, an old man and full of days (Job 42.17).

 

Let’s keep dreaming for the kingdom of God as we grow older. What dreams are we dreaming for the Body of Christ, and what dreams are we dreaming for ourselves in our own roles in helping to build the Body of Christ?

 

AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,' God says,

'THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND;

AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY,

AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS,

AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS (Acts 2.17, [Joel 2.28]).

 

Older people and younger people alike are called to lead the people of God in praise.

 

Both young men and virgins;

Old men and children.

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

For His name alone is exalted (Psalm 148.12-13).

 

Let’s keep doing the works God ordained for us to do at this age. What are they?

 

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2.10).

 

Let’s keep teaching the faithfulness of God to the generations coming behind us as we grow older. Let’s disciple downward to the generations that follow us.

 

O God, You have taught me from my youth,

And I still declare Your wondrous deeds.

And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,

Until I declare Your strength to this generation,

Your power to all who are to come (Psalm 71.17-18).

 

Listen, O my people, to my instruction;

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will utter dark sayings of old,

Which we have heard and known,

And our fathers have told us.

We will not conceal them from their children,

But tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord,

And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

 

For He established a testimony in Jacob

And appointed a law in Israel,

Which He commanded our fathers

That they should teach them to their children,

That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,

That they may arise and tell them to their children,

That they should put their confidence in God

And not forget the works of God,

But keep His commandments,

And not be like their fathers,

A stubborn and rebellious generation,

A generation that did not prepare its heart

And whose spirit was not faithful to God (Psalm 78.1-8).

 

It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;

A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness (Isaiah 38.19).

 

 

Let’s keep praying for and influencing our adult children and their families. Let’s keep setting an example for them of spiritual faithfulness through all of life. Let’s pray fervently for them and the temptations they will face in life.

 

When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, "Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually (Job 1.5).

 

Let’s keep trusting God in old age - even when life may become extremely difficult, concluding with death. These years may very well be our most challenging years. He is in charge of our lives. He appointed the aging process. Our older years are His years, and they are ordained for His purposes.

 

My mouth is filled with Your praise

And with Your glory all day long.

Do not cast me off in the time of old age;

Do not forsake me when my strength fails (Psalm 71.8-9).

 

"Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,

And all the remnant of the house of Israel,

You who have been borne by Me from birth

And have been carried from the womb;

Even to your old age I will be the same,

And even to your graying years I will bear you!

I have done it, and I will carry you;

And I will bear you and I will deliver you” (Isaiah 46.3-4).

 

For He performs what is appointed for me,

And many such decrees are with Him (Job 23.14).

 

1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, "I have no delight in them";

2 before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain;

3 in the day that the watchmen of the house tremble, and mighty men stoop, the grinding ones stand idle because they are few, and those who look through windows grow dim;

4 and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly.

5 Furthermore, men are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags himself along, and the caperberry is ineffective. For man goes to his eternal home while mourners go about in the street.

6 Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed;

7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

8 "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "all is vanity"

(Ecclesiastes 12.1-8)!

 

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;

And in Your book were all written

The days that were ordained for me,

When as yet there was not one of them (Psalm 139.16).

 

 

Let’s purpose to finish well even as we grow older and near the finish line.

 

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12.1-2).

 

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 2Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9.24-27).

 

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing

(2 Timothy 4.7-8).

 

 

Let’s keep pressing the agenda as we grow older. Just as we have lived these verses in our younger years, let’s keep living this way as we grow older.

 

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;  in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

 

Furthermore, let’s not “hang on to” to the identity we had out of the years gone by. Let’s forget them and move on to identity in Christ and all He has for us in these new years and this new life stage which He has entrusted to us now.

 

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3.7-14).

 

 

Let’s press to proclaim Christ and exhort others to keep becoming more complete in Christ as we grow older.

 

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me (Colossians 1.28-29).

 

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ (1 Corinthians 11.1).

 

 

Let’s follow Christ as disciples, and let’s keep making disciples as we grow older.

 

And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself” (Luke 9.23-25)?

 

If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple (Luke 14.26-28)

 

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28.19-20).

 

 

Let’s keep using our spiritual giftedness in equipping the church as we grow older. As older members of the Body of Christ, are we using our spiritual gifts to help and encourage others?

 

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4.11-13).

 

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness (Romans 12.3-8).

 

Wisdom of Sages/Older people.

 

Wisdom is with aged men,

With long life is understanding (Job 12.12).

 

So teach us to number our days,

That we may present to You a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90.12).

(This is from the oldest Psalm in the Psalter written by perhaps the oldest writer of the Psalms, Moses.)