The Testimony Of The Elderly

open your Bibles with me to Psalm number 71 Psalm number 71 mm-hmm Psalm number 7 2 1 verse 17 and verse number 18 and I want to preach about the testimony of the elderly all people have something to say testimony of the elderly Oh God thou has taught me from my youth and hitherto have led by wondrous works now also when I am old and grey-headed well God forsake me not until I have showed those strengths unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come thank you you may be seated it I mean let me let me let me let me let me get to the text the Spirit of the Lord is in this book the testimony of the elderly we do not know for sure who wrote this Psalm there is no superscription over this Psalm to make it a psalm of ascent or a psalm of degrees perhaps samuel in his old age writes this psalm after his own children do not follow his good example or perhaps david is the author after being betrayed by Absalom and usurped by Aten idea perhaps he was inspired by Samuel himself who anointed him Israel's future king perhaps Jeremiah is the author of this Psalm for he spent his last days in exile as an old man but really it is immaterial who who really wrote the song it is a song of old age and it suits all those who are growing older in Christ who find themselves as much beset by the difficulties and trials in life's later years as they were when they possess the full strength of their youth the psalmist found himself approaching the last lap of his journey he had spent his life his strength in the service of God and the psalmist pleads with God for strength to finish strong he's coming to the end of his years and as he heads towards the back stretch he cannot afford any missteps there some mistakes you make in youth that you can recover from but when you pass 15 you can't afford any missteps I wish I had somebody to help me preacher the older you get the stronger you are again I wish I had somebody to help me preach it the older you get the closer your relationship up be with the Lord because you don't have as much in front of you as you have behind you the elderly the aging grandparents desperately need to feel secure so often their natural defenses against life's injuries are gone you can't afford a fall you could break a hip on or injure a knee they are retired from their employment their health is failing their siblings and their old friends are dying their minds are not as sharp as there used to be their income is greatly reduced often they feel defenseless and vulnerable and the people they raise sometimes don't come back to take care of them my mother who sleeps the long sleep of death used to say it nothing wrong with getting old it's just so inconvenient if it ain't one thing is another you have to be over 50 to help me testify right here if it's not your shoulder is your leg if it's not your leg is your bad you get one child straight another one starts back on the food sometimes you have to take care of grandchildren when you ought to be really enjoying your sunset years and then you have to take care of aging parents Alzheimer's has set in and you are bathing them and taking care of them feeding them and they don't even know who you are because that's the way life is if you live long enough difficulties and trials will come with being old just like you had when you were young Benjamin Disraeli Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons and later serving two terms as Prime Minister of England under England's Queen Victoria look back over his life and he cried youth is a mistake manhood is a struggle old age is a regret because he has he had wasted his life and come to the end of his years and found out that all of it was vanity but not the psalmist the psalmist says Envy alone do I put my trust let me never be put to confusion deliver me in your righteousness caused me to escape incline your ear to me and save me be found my strong habitation wear them to army continually resolved thou has commanded me to save me for thou art my rock and my fortress you got to be old to talk like that you have to have had some experiences with God in order to be able to testify that no matter what comes my way envy Oh Lord do I put my trust you got to have gray hair to testify like that I wish I had two or three witnesses here you got to live a number of years and go through some battles and fight through some struggles and come through some difficulties and have God to hear and answer your prayers when it looks like no answer is about to come it is then that you can testify Envy Oh Lord do I put my trust this day being grandparents day don't ever be ashamed to count three hands don't ever be embarrassed that you're fifty five fifty sixty seven seventy two eighty one-years-old you ought to be able to testify Davis that I've been young I wish I had two or three Bible reading but now I'm old and I never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging for bread God will take care of you when your hair turns gray have a got a witness here there is a sweetness there is a beauty that God gives to the agent that you can't have in your youth because you don't have any experience maya angelou in her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings says that youth is wasted on the young young folk don't have any sense Maya Angelou says they they think they know everything fifteen years old and they know everything but youth needs the experience of age age needs the vitality of youth and and when you reach a certain amount of years you aren't like the psalmist to ask God to do some things for you well God verse 17 bow has taught me from my youth thou has taught me now has instructed me by has showed me from my youth two men were in church giving their testimony and one testified that he had been a drunkard and lived a profligate life he'd spent his years in riotous living he would fight and go to jail he'd spent some time in jail he he'd sold drugs he just been a fool all of his young adult life and God saved him and he testifies in this meeting of how God is able to save and the next man stands to give his testimony and he says the brother who just testified before me my testimony is not his I've never been drunk I've never been out in the world I was raised in a Christian home my mother rocked me to sleep singing jesus loves me this I know my father was a deacon in the church I've never known anything but church I don't have the testimony of my brother who was saved out of his riotous living he's testifying about a God who can save I'm testifying about a God who not only can save but can keep you and some of us were not raised in Christian homes and God had to find us out there by ourselves but somebody in hit like me had a praying mother and father somebody who called your name and prayer ask God to bless you and even when you went wrong you had your grandmother have a got a witness here I'm here today to somebody prayed for me somebody asked God to bless me and my testa for my testimony is not only can God save you but he could keep some of us ought to be dead this morning I wish I had somebody to help me somebody in here should have been in jail today but he looked me on your thoughts never got a witness here that's why you're the shout that's why your to testify that's why you ought to give God glory because what he kept you from I don't I don't only praise God for what he brought me to I praise God for what he kept me from I could have been dead I wish I had some noisy sleeping in my grave but God kept me when I didn't have sense enough to keep myself he's testifying about the past you've taught me from my youth and I want to declare your wondrous works but then he moves at the hurry to the present he says in verse 18 now also when I am old and grey-headed or God forsake me God give something to the elderly that's not in young fool he gives the elderly stability he will keep you in perfect peace if you keep your mind stayed on him because when you get a certain age you don't need much see when you in your 20s and your thirties you got to buy everything and even though you can't afford it you go after it with a vengeance because you're trying to keep up with all them folk that you don't like and who don't like you and so you buy things you don't need with money you don't have to impress folk you don't even like but when you get a certain age you don't care who likes you you say what you want to say talk back to me if you can you tell your children what you want to tell your children you tell your grandchildren what you want to tell your grandchildren you get up when you feel like getting up you eat what you want to eat you don't listen to nothing the doctor says you don't listen to nothing your children say they can't take your keys from you they can't stop you from talking on the phone cuz when you get over fifty and sixty you do what the hell you want to do this my house you don't like it something I taught to help me Bridget listen I'm I'm I'm still I'm still scared of my mama in her grave she's been dead ten years and I still fear her because she said she would come back and I believe she's crazy enough to come back I wish I had somebody who was raised like I was ringing grandparents have no business raising children unless you have to because you're too tired you don't feel like correcting and everything is funny when your grandparent now the stuff they do they really need a spanking but when you're a grandparent you let them get away with it and then your children look at you like you crazy and say mama you wouldn't let us get away with that you don't feel like fighting and whipping and chasing it's the grandparents job to spoil them and it's the children's job to raise them I wish I had one or two more believers here I go from time to time as a grandparent and I'm just as crazy as the rest of you grandparent I buy all kinds of stuff that Noel does not need because I'm a grandparent and that's what grandparents do so Victoria had the temerity the unmitigated gall to say to me daddy she needs some church shoes I say wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait with him I buy what I want you buy what she need with my money I wish I had somebody to help me I'm an accidental grandparent I didn't want to be a grandparent I'm too young to be a grandpa but not at the babies here I'm crazy about the child but I know I have no business raising her because I don't have the patience nor the inclination because when you get a certain age your life starts to settle down because the scripture says blessed is the man I was a headed Bible reader that was not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in that Lord of he meditate day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season his leaf also shall not wither and whatever he doeth shall prosper that's stability and then God gives you when you order a certain sagacity sagacity that means wisdom now listen wisdom does not always come with age cuz you know like I know there are some old food there's no more distasteful asite then a woman in her 60s trying to dress like she's in her 30s that's that's not pretty there's nothing more distasteful than an old man getting out of his place with young women that's distasteful you just like a dog chasing a cop when you catch up to it you can jog I wish I had time to stay right there age brings with it respect have a got a witness here drop respect you when you had turns gray because they ought to be some wisdom that has accrued over the year God teach me your statutes show me your Commandments I wish ahead a witness here help me to lock in your ways keep my mind keep my heart keep my thoughts so that when I get old I will be respected and then as I hurry you want to stay young I'm not talking about dyeing your hair because it don't make sense to have black hair and your face look like shoe leather - up from the floor look in your face until how old you are come on help me preach if you can you want to stay young the Bible tells you how to stay young it's right here in verse number 18 until I have showed your strength under this generation you want to stay young invest your life in some young person as an old woman tell these young women the truth you ain't been in the mission all your life you ain't been going to choir rehearsal and singing at church all your life tell these young women you made some mistakes have a got a witness here you know how Crown Royal tastes you know what Tanger a gin tastes like you know what Courvoisier tastes like you would just be coming in this time of morning from Friday night every once in a while you ought to look back but don't go back look back from where the Lord brought you from but don't go back there tell some young person I've been there I've done that and there's nothing to it you whole min tell these young men the truth I wish to have some noise right here young men off the wall old men off for council old man you ought to tell some young man I walked in your shoes I made some of the same mistakes you make him right now but God's been good to me God was patient with me and he let me live long enough to overcome my mistakes have a got a witness here I want to declare your wondrous works I want to show your strength to this generation and your power to everybody who is to come he talks about God's been good in his past God is being good in the present and then he wants to pass on what God has done for him to some future generation I want to tell my young granddaughter that in 2012 I almost left here but God came in my hospital room put his hands on me and I'm alive today to show you that God is a good God I want to tell some future generation I made some mistakes that I'm not proud of I wish I had somebody to be on his head somebody hit ought to tell some young person I did some stuff I'm ashamed to talk about there's some decisions I wish I had me there's some stuff in my past I wish I could go back and undo but God's been good to me I wish I had one or two more witnesses here be honest enough to admit that you haven't always been what you are right now but God was patient with you and like the psalmist he starts to testify about God's goodness you really want to know how good god is read The Book of Psalms I wish I had one or two more witnesses Lord thou has been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou has formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God thou turnest man to destruction and says return eat children of men for thousand years in your sight a but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night the Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid when the wicked even my enemies and my fools came upon me to eat up my flesh this stumble and they fell one thing have our desired of the Lord and that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life for in the time of trouble he shall hide me the Lord is my shepherd come on you can help me say I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters he restoreth my soul he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake yea though I walk through the valley and the shadow of death hasn't God been good to us the earth is the Lord's and the fool is there own the world and they that dwell therein I wish I had a witness it lift up your head over the gates and be lifted up he everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in who is this King of glory the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in the battle lift up your hands lift up your heads o ye gates and be lifted up he everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in who is this King of glory the Lord of Hosts he is the king of glory won't he keep you tear your hair turns gray wani open doors that were closed in your face won't it make away I don't know it is there anybody here been walking with Jesus 30 or 40 years every day with Jesus is sweet up been the day before why don't you grab somebody shake somebody's hand tell them I've been here but not and I never ah no he's our I wanna I want to finish strong I want my last days to be my best days I want to live so that God can use me right down to my dying day I don't want to make in the next 54 years the mistakes I made in the last 54 you know I want to live these last 54 years drama-free crazy free foolishness free because that's some things you ought to be in your old age that you couldn't be in your young days because you didn't know any better but thank God some old person came along and showed me the way you want to stay young invest your life in some young person and you will always be alive because what you put in them they will pass on to future generations I thank God for cream praying grandparents I thank God for praying mother and father my daddy was a deacon at our church and he'd get on his knees and called every one of our names and then he'd ask the Lord if you see my children walking in a way that I didn't raise them catch them by the reins of their mind and turn them around before it'll be a dinner time to me and then he see marked death and judgment across that pass and bid them no further to go that way every time I get ready to do wrong even now I hear my dad and see mark death and judgment across his path and I said him I said how come you got to put that in the prayer I mean I ain't trying to kill nobody nothing like that I'm just you know no good but I'm gonna straighten up here in a minute but I feel that prayers pushing me forward and that's what the prayers of grandparents will do for their grandchildren you want them to do right you just stop praying for them and correcting them and showing them from the wisdom of your years God keep me alive to put in them what somebody put in me

Channel: lillygrovembc

Views: 136,928

Rating: 4.7270694 out of 5

Keywords: Reverend Terry Anderson Pastor Lilly Grove Missionary Baptist Church Houston Texas

Id: DaNaP_dKUtE

Length: 35min 53sec (2153 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 07 2014