Video Transcript: Aging from a Biblical Point of View (Professor Zomermaand)
Hi there. Hi there, welcome to Christian leaders Institute, and our course for senior ministers. This course, to me in terms of what I'm trying to do for you, because there are two others as part of the presenters here as well. What I'm trying to do is to help you see what kind of ministry could possibly take place when you are working with senior citizens in senior citizens are a, an important part of the church today, especially here in North America as we're aging so much. I'm glad you're here. And I hope you enjoy this walk with me through some ideas and thoughts that I have on ministering with seniors. My name is Bob Zomermaand, and I welcome you here. And I am a retired pastor, I am living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I'm recording this in my home. And I'm just happy to be a part of, of this course, in this experience for you and I, I pray that what I have to say, will be helpful to you. Today, what we want to do is to start off with some, some scripture, and this morning, this afternoon, whatever time of the day, it is that you're taking it as you're watching it. What I want to say is that when one desires to help others who are aging, and that's whether they admit it or not, one needs to have a grasp of what the Bible says about aging. This first lecture is going to take a tour through the Bible to listen to what God has said about a human being growing older. And as I say, whether they want to admit it or not, I have just one delightful person I know who is in her 80s. And she insists that she is not old, no matter how I might look at it, no matter how others might look at it, she insists that she does not have aging going on in her life. She wants to stay young, she wants to stay young, vigorous, and so on, even though her life is moving on day by day, and she keeps growing older day by day. And I think you're gonna find that with many, many people, that there's just a difficult time saying that they're growing older, and part of our cultural reaction to what is going on around us because we worship, the youth movement, anybody who is young is is always better than anybody who is old. And that becomes part of our whole mindset, even as Christians, as we grow with the Lord. And as we come to understand the Lord more, we still discover that we're so influenced by our culture, which says, you don't want to be old, you want to get rid of those aging lines on your face. You want to get rid of those stretch marks on your body. You want to do whatever you can to be a young person again. I think the Bible gives us a different way of looking at things. Let's take a walk. In Ecclesiastes 12, there's there's this beautiful passage that that reads like this. Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come, and the years drawn near of which you will say I have no pleasure in them before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain. In the day when the keeper's house tremble, and the strong men are bent and the grinders cease because they are few. And those who look through the windows are dimmed and the doors on the street are shut. When the sound of the grinding is low, and one rise at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of song are brought low. They are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the
way. The almond tree blossoms the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails. Because man is going to his eternal home The mourners go about streets is a poetic description of growing old. As we listen to this, we we recognize that the scriptures are very clear about the fact that there is a difference between being young and being old. That there are things that happen to our bodies and when the grinders are few, for example, I take that to refer to our teeth. in dentistry today in in our culture keeps talking about wanting to save those teeth, save those teeth and tell you until you actually die, we don't want to have any of them fall out. But back 3000 years ago, the teeth would fall out there would be gum disease and so on and the teeth would fall out or they would get cracked, they would get cavities, and sooner or later, they would rot away. And the grinders became few or it says when when the the windows are darkened then to me that talks about having cataracts growing in one's eyes i i personally have some cataracts beginning and when my optometrist looks into my eyes is Yeah, it looks like we're looking in a cup of green tea. And when it gets to be like a cup of coffee, then we'll we'll take those cataracts out. There are so many ways of growing old is reflected in how our body is functioning. And besides that, it says they're also afraid of what is high. And so many elderly people get the sense of being afraid of heights. Now will recognize there are others who who don't have that. But it's common for elderly people to be very aware when they are scaling heights with the ladder and so on. Once again, the delightful guy I'm aware of he was 80 years old, and he was working on a roof and he fell off the roof. And he broke several several bones and and was in kind of bad shape for a while. And as as the story gets told, it said his kids had been telling him over and over, you got to stop getting up on roofs and so on. Well, they came and they took his ladder away, and they told him you're not buying another one. Obviously, he didn't have that fear of heights. But most of us do as we're getting older. And that's part of what Ecclesiastes was describing. In Genesis 25, it talks about Abraham, Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people. Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age. An old man full of years that describes in a positive way something about who Abraham was and how he had this. The sense about him that he was that he was still good, and that he was still walking with God. That still even though he was growing older, he was still a person who was a man of God. I think that's important for us to to get across to some elderly people who have a sense that as they grow older that maybe God isn't that interested in them anymore. Or look at I Chronicles 29 Then David died and listen to us. I got a good age full of days. And that sounds so much like what it says about Abraham. He was a it was he died a good old age and old man full of years. So David died at a good age full of day's riches in honor. And Solomon his son reigned in his place. It's an honor to grow old. It's an honor to be full of days. It is not something to be avoided. It's not something to be dreaded. It is a recognition
that God had been working in our lives and carrying us forward every day for All are years. In Psalm 71, it says, O God from my youth, you have taught me, and I still proclaim Your wondrous deeds so even to old age, and gray hair, O God, do not forsake me until I proclaim Your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. Here, David gives us a sense of what it is, when we're growing older what we can do in God's kingdom. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God do not forsake me. And then it says, Why until I proclaim Your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. We need to realize as we get older, that we have the privilege of telling of the Lord, to another generation, of taking our experience of God and our wonder of who God is, and imparting that gift to our children and to another generation, your spiritual children. And David wants us to realize that even in old age and gray hair, still, that is a role that we can have in our world, in our churches, and that we can encourage senior citizens to pursue it. Psalm 39 says, Behold, you have made my days a few hand breaths in my lifetime, is as nothing before you surely all mankind stands as a mere breath. This takes a little different view of something and it's reminding us that our lives are so short compared to who God is. My lifetime is as nothing before you it says to the Lord, my lifetime is short. When it is compared to the eternity of God and all mankind stand as a mere breath. Just think of how we get so upset, so wound up so full of anxiety over what happened yesterday, what might happen tomorrow. And yet, all of mankind just stand as a mere breath before God. We should not think too highly of ourselves, I think is what they're telling us. That there is good reason for us to be humbled before the Lord do realize that our lifetime is as nothing before God. And we need to take account of that. It's like when you go and you see go to a cemetery and you see all these tombstones and, and it has the year of their birth and the year of the death in between it just as little dash. And that dash encompasses everything that that person lived through and did. But really, when we come to the end of our days, it's just a little dash, my lifetime. He is as nothing before you when we're speaking to God and when we're standing before him, we realize that eternity is with God and not with us. Psalm 71 David said, Do not cast me off in the time of old age. forsake me not when my strength is spent. The fear that so many of us have as as that as we grow old and seem like God has forsaken us. We were our mind and our soul our heart is tempted to think that God isn't interested us when our strength is spent. Seems like we're cast off. Like, like we're just so much junk to be thrown away. But when we understand who we are in the sight of God we realize that God cares about us and Psalm 90 The years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength 80 and yet their span is but toil and trouble they're soon gone and we fly away. Yeah, the years of our lives are 70 or even by reason of strength 80, their span is but toil and trouble. They're soon gone. And we fly away. So Lord, teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. When we realize that we need to
number our days appropriately, that we need to realize that when we're young, we have many days in front of us. But when we get a little older, our days are going to come to an end. And it's so helpful when we're trying to minister to senior citizens to help them realize that even as they're coming to the end of their days, the years of our lives, or 70, or even by reading the strength 80 when you're talking to 80 year old, they realize that the number of their days is coming to an end. And then they're gone. We fly away. We return to the Lord. And we find his grace in our lives for an eternity. Proverbs 17, it says grandchildren are the crown of the aged. And the glory of children is their fathers.. Grandchildren are crown of the aged. Whenever you get together with people who have grandchildren, you're going to hear about them. It is very rare for grandparents not to be talking about their grandchildren. They want to tell others about them because they're the crown. Everything else is as nothing if you don't have a solid legacy to leave to your grandchildren. And it said that the glory of children is their fathers so that the grandchildren look at their their grandparents, and they say I want to be like them, I want to respect them, I want to honor them. But what that requires is that we go kind of countercultural, because we want to shut the elderly to the side and not bother with them. Let's put them let's put them somewhere where they don't need to bother us anymore. And yet, when we, when we live out what the Scripture has to say the glory of children is their fathers. Then we realize that the scriptures are teaching us how wonderful senior citizens are. They're the glory of children. And Psalm 128 said, May you live to see your children's children. Peace be on Israel. I was talking to a guy a few years older than me, and he was saying that there were going to be some some visitors coming that were asking them to prepare a spiritual thought, you know, what? What is there something in Scripture that that really speaks to what you want to say about your life at this point? And I said, do you got any ideas? Well, one of them said that I really like is Psalm 128:6, may you live to see your children's children. Peace be on Israel, it's a blessing. So you know, that's, that's where I'm at right now. That just says it's so well. It is a blessing to have these grandkids it is a blessing to realize that our children's children are such a wonderful thing. May you live to see your children's children. Peace be on Israel. That's how you see your children's children when you live in peace. And you're not ground down by other events of the world around you. Going to the New Testament, Titus 2 we see, older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self control, sound in faith in love and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine they're to teach what is good. And so Paul is telling his young protege, Titus that one of the things that we need to do for older men and older women, when we're ministering to them is to is to help them see what God expects of them in their lives, to be sober minded and dignified and self control. There are there are people who who aren't self controlling more they they find issue with everything
in their kids or their grandkids, they're always yelling at them or, and they're not sound in faith and love and steadfastness. Instead, they're there crotchety people, we're going to talk more about that down the road away, but we need to help senior citizens be people who are self controlled sound in faith, sound in love, sound in steadfastness. And that, older people can teach whats good. That it's not something to give up on, but it's something to pursue and follow. In II Corinthians 4 it says, so we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away our inner self is being renewed day by day. And indeed, there Paul is saying that we don't lose heart even, even if our outer self is wasting away, our inner self can be renewed by the Lord day by day. In Philippians 3 but our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself. Our citizenship is in heaven. But one of the things that really bugs me in in our culture lately here in in North America is that we've gotten this idea that we want to have what's called a forever home is this going to be your forever home? My wife and I were going to do a little bit of work and in our house and and when we would go talk to some people at stores about items to get they would say, Well, is this going to be for your forever home? Or are you just fixing it up to sell it again. And I just wanted to say to them that this is not my forever home, my my forever home I've got a carpenter working on my forever home and and when he has prepared a place for me, he will come and take me to be with him. That where he is I may be also but I didn't think they'd catch on to what I was trying to say. But any place that we have here in this world is not our forever home. until Jesus comes again and there's the new heaven and the new earth and and we have received our inheritance and life everlasting. That's when we will find a forever home and then our lowly body is going to be transformed to be like his glorious body. When we're living in this body, it's not a forever home no matter how we look at it Well, thank you for beginning this journey with me. I look forward to having you join me for the next several lessons as well. See you then