Video Transcript: Pastoral Issues: I Believe

As time of consideration together, we're going to be looking at the Apostles  Creed for senior citizens. It's, it's an attempt on my part to try to demonstrate  how the ancient faith of our fathers applies to people who are living today in their senior years, and how you and I can nurture that faith in the seniors that we  work with. Because to be able to say, I believe, is so significant. To say, I believe is the expression of who we are, before the face of God. To be able to say, I  believe, means that there is something about what God has expected and done  for us that that is real for me. And it's mine, it's it's my security in life and in  death. I believe in God, the Father, almighty, maker of heaven and earth, I  believe, to be able to say that I believe that I have a father and who is almighty  and the one who has made me when I was when I was being knit together in my mother's womb until this very moment. Now, when I'm looking at the demise of  my body, but the life that I'm going to live afterwards, I believe that there is one  that I can call my father. And because I can call him my father, I can trust him, I  can know that he is going to love me and care for me. And no matter what  happens, no matter how things go, no matter how painful life may be. God is  there with me because he's my father. He's holding my hand he's he's taking me in his arms and enfolding me in his love. And he's able to do this because he is  the maker of heaven, earth, He is Almighty, there's nothing God cannot do. God  is our fortress. A mighty fortress is our God sang Martin Luther and the church  has sung it ever since, a mighty fortress is our God, I believe that God is my  Father. He's almighty. He's the maker of heaven and earth. And not only that,  but I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ is my Savior.  His name, Jesus means the one who saves Christ means that He is the  Anointed One. He is the Messiah, He is the one that I can know is my prophet,  my priest, my king. And as I come into my senior years, those are words that  that become more and more real, because we look back on life. And as we've  seen before, there's regrets and their disappointments. And there's, there's  things that we wish had gone differently if only we had taken the path to the left  at the path to the right. And in all of these things, we need a Savior. And I  believe in Jesus. And it's not just that Jesus is a special person he's God's only  son. He's the second person in the Trinity. He's our Lord. He's the one who was  in charge of everything of our lives, and by His will and His Word and His law  that we live and we find life, Jesus came that we could have life and have it  abundantly. And that's true for senior citizens too just when they think that life is  becoming so closed in around them. They still We'll need to hear the truth that  Jesus came that they can have life and have it abundantly. It's a promise. It's a  promise as our bodies. But this is always the gospel to the third day he rose  again from the dead. And now, our flesh has ascended into heaven, our flesh as  a human being. As Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, the Father, I mean,  he's seated there he is in the place of authority over the universe. Nothing is  going to happen to the senior citizen, without Jesus. And he's going to come 

again, and he's going to come to judge the living and the dead, the dead are not  just gone and forgotten. They will be raised back to life. And that's what God  wants us to lay hold of. That His Son, Jesus, His Son, Jesus, is our judge. And  then we have, we have nothing to worry about, because our judge is already the one who has died on our behalf. Judgment Day, is not a frightening thing for the  Christian because all of our sin had been wiped away when Jesus died. He took it all away. And he gave us the freedom to be His people. Until when He comes  to judge the living the dead, we will stand with confidence. Because our Savior  stands at our side. I believe in the Holy Catholic, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the  Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saint the forgiveness of sin the  resurrection of the body, the life everlasting, in this section of the Apostles  Creed, where we're seeing that, that it is now the Holy Spirit who takes the  salvation that God has, has made possible for us our father had planned the  Jesus God's son has has accomplished on the cross for us. And now the Holy  Spirit the third person in the Trinity, applies it into our lives. So I believe I believe  the Holy Catholic Church, it's the gathering of God's people. It's the communion  of the saints, and that that communion of the saints is always going to be there.  We look forward to the life everlasting. Because then we're going to know the  forgiveness of our sins. Our bodies, when they're laid in the grave are laid there  in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection. And we look forward to life  everlasting. Make sure that as you're serving and ministering to senior citizens,  that these things come alive, in your conversation, in your prayers, in your  caring in your touch, so that the communion of the saints is felt in your hand.  The forgiveness of sins is spoken over them. George Mary, I believe your sins  are forgiven in Jesus Christ that's worthy of saying. I believe that your death is  going to be a death in Christ. And he is going to reassure you that he has  already gone to the grave and he has sanctified the grave for you. Make it  personal. Make it make it for them not just for Christians in general, but for them  as a personal human being. In doing that, you will be lifting them up and  creating a sense of wonder for them. And always, always talk about life  everlasting. One of the things I, I often heard from my senior citizen parishioners was they said, Oh, I just want to have a vision of heaven. Want to have a vision  of what glory is going to be. And together, we would look at some of the  scriptures. And together, we could say, we believe. And we could have the  feeling the God was speaking to us in His Word, in order to reassure us of what  was to come. The resurrection and life everlasting. Make it personal. So  beautiful thing to be able to say, I believe. Not just you know, well, they believe,  but I believe when you can do that. And when you bless people with that, they  will be so thankful that you were there. Because you showed the communion of  the saints, you demonstrated that the Holy Catholic Church is there for them,  with them, that their sins are forgiven and that they are welcome in the presence of God. That's that's why we believe make it make it personal, not only for them, 

but for yourself. Because that's how God wants you to minister to seniors.  Thanks for coming on this journey with me. I hope you've appreciated some of  the things that we've talked about. Thank you, and I bless you for taking this  course.