[Andy Duran] Well, it's been mentioned before. It's a little special of the Sabbath. You know, we're having a little different take on the day. We only have one service. As you can tell, were jam-packed in here. So it's good that we're all here. It's a great Sabbath so far. You know, the Sabbath has been special since, you know, it was ordained since creation, but we know we've added a little bit of a theme to this one and it makes it a little bit more special, maybe a little bit more happy or a joyful time. You know, as was mentioned, we're honoring and recognizing our seniors. If you haven't heard, I guess we had the brunch this morning, our younger ones… I heard it was a great success. Our younger ones got the time to, you know, share and to discuss and have conversations with some of our older ones or as Mr. Myers put it, maybe the younger at heart. Was that how some phrased it or recycled teenagers? I didn't quite get that, but nevertheless, it was an opportunity for them to be together. And it's good to take time to honor those that are older. You could maybe say the elders or the elderly because those that are older in our lives are very important, very important, both to us individually but also to a society at large.

You know, when I was growing up, I had a wonderful friend in my grandfather, a wonderful friendship that we had when I was younger. Unfortunately, he died when I was early in high school. I always wonder how different I would have been maybe if I had him around when I was through those teenage angst years, but he was a wonderful man that I shared all these wonderful stories and I have all these wonderful memories of being with him. He was always somebody I could rely on, somebody I could learn from, somebody that I really appreciated being around. When I think about today and I think about how we are in our society, in our system that we have now, if you look at sometimes the educational system or the child-rearing system, too little, I think, do we let young people spend time with other different ages. And we talk about it a lot in the public. You know, we say it's a good idea to go talk to the elderly or visit an elderly home or something for the youngers, but sometimes I think we create boundaries that make that difficult for our younger people.

You know, looking at the origins of where some of these divisions came from and where we would divide by age groups, you know, there's some roots in psychology, you know, different men and women throughout the years have observed that we have different milestones, right? When we grow up, we have different stages of our development. I found it quite interesting though. I was reading in...it was Psychology Today and actually, some of the divisions we have like, say you take the toddler stage, a lot of that's actually from the retail world. You know, department stores actually wanted to create these different categories to try to help push more product to these different ages. And that's kind of interesting. But, you know, we are at a point where we are dividing amongst ourselves. You know, it's interesting to note that most Americans even over a century ago, maybe a century and a half ago, didn't even know their own birthday. You know, they didn't know their age and many of them didn't even celebrate their birthday. That's more of a common or a more modern trend.

Separation is not always a good thing. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it's good to be separated from things, but by based on age alone, separation often leads to many negative outcomes. You know, when we segregate based on age, that can foster distrust among younger and older. It can lead to more stereotypical thinking of the groups. If we put people inboxes— you’re this age category or you're this generation, at least the stereotypical thinking. And often, it even leads to more misunderstanding between the generations. We have a hard time connecting, don't we? But the truth is we do live in a divided world. You know, we divide our people based on silly things. You can think of like simple scenarios, right? Well, I'm a dog person. Maybe you're a cat person if you… or maybe Pepsi, Pepsi versus Coke. That's a silly one to divide us by. We have the political spectrum, right? Left versus right. We don't necessarily work together for the good of everybody, but we have our fraction and you have yours.

And, of course, the topic for today, we are honoring the elderly, honoring the seniors in our lives. We have the division of young versus old. Generation, well, X is my go-to. That's a real Generation X versus Generation Y or the Millennials or the Baby Boomers. You know, we have all these divisions, but how should we operate with one another in the Church of God? You know, should we be divided as the world is? Maybe that's too easy of a question. Hopefully, the answer, what we all think of, is no. Of course, we shouldn't be divided. And so, for today, let's look at our role in the Church. Let's look at how we should operate with one another. You know, does the Bible speak about generational separations? Does it give different hints in how we should operate, different things? Of course, it does. As I hinted at, you know, we are not to be divided. We'll look at some of the theory here and then we'll get into a little bit of an application.

We are to be united by our faith and not divided by our age, united by our faith and not divided by our age. You know, I've mentioned it already, and you know it was, well, divisions occur in generations. You know, it's hard sometimes to relate to one another. It is. It's hard, but we must try. We must try to engage the different generations, try to bridge that gap.

Turn with me if you would over to Ephesians 4. When speaking about unity and being in united in our faith, Ephesians 4 is a wonderful chapter speaking on unity. Ephesians 4, we're going to start in verse 11. The whole chapter is a wonderful chapter concerning unity. I encourage you to read it if you haven't done so lately. Verse 11, "And He Himself" speaking of Jesus Christ here, "gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors that are teachers." You know, so they are given different abilities or different gifts as it mentions here. Different gifts. Why? Verse 12, "For the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry,” it's for the work of the ministry. "For the edifying of the body of Christ." You know, it's here for the edifying. If you think about that word, the building up, so often, when we look and we talk about other generations, it's usually in a negative tone, right?

I'm in the millennial generation. I know there's plenty of negative things said about my generation. That's a common thing, but there are differences of gifts and different things given in the Body for help of building up one another, not tearing each other down. And the Body of Christ, it says here, that's the Church, right? We see other scriptures that put those two together, that the Body of Christ is the Church. All right, let's continue reading on in verse 13, "Till we all come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; and we shall no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting." It says, “But, in speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head— Christ."

You know, there's interesting imagery that's given here that Paul is using. You know, he's talking about a person maturing and a person growing and he's contrasting that with maybe the foolish one, the one that isn't growing. And he's maybe painting this picture of a ship being tossed around on the waves, being tossed to and fro, here applying it to a person by every trickery that they hear being tossed around. And he's contrasting these two things. And this was common imagery of the time. You know, different literature around this time would have used these analogies of growing in maturity and they would apply that to the individual because that makes sense. But what wasn't maybe as common is growing the maturity wasn't always applied to a group or to a community. But Paul is going beyond the individual. He's saying, "For the building up of the body that we all come to the unity," right? That we all come to the maturing of the Body. Verse 16, "From whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth in the body for the edifying of itself in love."

And so, we're to be a Body, one Body made up of individual members all jointly fit together. You know this imagery and this analogy of or this application or illustration maybe of joint and knit is all throughout the Bible. You know, many prophets. You know, God spoke to the people through prophets about, you know, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knitted and joined you together." And now we're seeing it being applied to the Body as a whole, all the different members being joined together. You know, the literal translation of this... say you were to look in like Young's Literal Translation. That's one of my favorite literals. It puts it as “being fitly joined together in unity… being fitly joined together.” And it really makes you think about the join. It's fitly joined, a very strong bond, you know, bringing to mind this very strong, almost cement-like quality.

And this isn't going to break any moment there's a little bit of trial or hesitation. This is a strong bond fitted together, but also, it's fitly joined in a right place. It's prepared and it's placed there by God. You know each and every one of us are put into the Body where God sees fit. And He calls us into the Body and He places us where we would best… where it would be the most beneficial, not only for the individual to grow into mature but for the Body to grow. And we help one another, united in our faith. We're to be unified in purpose and in attitude, you know, working together towards one goal. You know, if you take the analogy of the body, you can't have one leg walking one direction and the other another. That wouldn't work. The same goes for the spiritual Body. We need to be working towards the same goal, working by whatever joint supplies. It's by everyone supporting one another is how we establish it. This is how this is a building up of the Body.

And I can't help but think about the physical body in this analogy. You know, we all have to be working together in the spiritual Body. Think about the physical body. You know, can you grow strong, can we grow strong and mature if our body's fighting against itself? I can't help but think of autoimmune diseases, right, where the body can't distinguish between a foreign object and itself and it starts decaying and eating at itself. Well, the body's not going to grow strong, and that's similar in the spiritual body. You know, if we're fighting against each other, if we're divided, we're not going to grow. We're not going to move towards what needs to happen. We're not going to mature as a whole. And so, we have to rely on God's strength and His Spirit to work together.

If we continue reading here, at the end of verse 16… so we read verse 16 joined together and knit together. But at verse 16, at the end, it says, "Of the body for the edifying of itself in love." You know, we are united in our faith by love. This is how this comes together. It's truly by loving one another that we're able to work together, that we're able to care for one another. You know, I think Paul, he phrases it in Colossians as well. "Knitted together in love," Colossians 2, that we're joined together in love. That's how this is made to be. It's only through love and the care for one another that we can serve one another in a godly manner, that we can give preference to one another, that we can be that body moving towards that same goal. And it's by avoiding selfishness and striving for that unity in the faith. You know, obviously, sermon upon sermon could be given on the topic of love. You know, God is love and as we're producing godly character and, you know, as God is producing that character in us, we strive to be more of a family together. And this is an obvious thing outside of the Body or it should be.

I guess we could turn there real quick. John 13? John 13. Let's go there. Yeah, John 13:34. Jesus Christ is giving, He says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another." Verse 35, "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." You know this is going to be an obvious sign outside the Body. If we're doing this right, if we're working together in unison, this is going to be obvious. It's something we should strive for in the Body. There's a wonderful example of being knit together. Turn with me if you would over to 1 Samuel 18. 1 Samuel 18 is a remarkable story of this very thing happening with two individuals, at least. 1 Samuel 18 starting in verse 1. I will give you a little context here if you haven't read this recently, right? 1 Samuel 18. At least chronologically, we're leaving the battle of the Philistines with Saul's army, right? David has defeated Goliath.

We have these whole conversations happening in chapter 17, then we get to 18 verse 1, "Now when he had finished speaking to Saul," so David, he's finished speaking to Saul, sometime in the future, "The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David." Let's stop there. What we see here happening is a wonderful covenant relationship between two individuals, two individuals starting a very deep and meaningful relationship. The Hebrew here is fascinating. I love words and I love other languages. I was never smart enough to learn one, to speak one other than English. And I only do that so well. But the Hebrew here that we see here, it literally is spirit or you could say life, life bound with life. So the two lives are bound together. And what's interesting about that is it's quite unique in the Hebrew. There's only one place in Genesis 44:30, and you don't have to turn there, that's a little bit similar to... It's the closest Hebrew parallel in the Bible to this life bound with life. And if you remember the story of Jacob and you have Joseph. He's in Egypt as… he's in authority and he asked for Benjamin to stay back. And they give the response, "No, we can't keep Benjamin back because, you know, our father's life is bound with his life." It's a very close connection. It was like… the translation of that is “life closely bound with life.”

And so, the Hebrew here though with Jonathan and David is life bound with life, strong and unique. It's interesting that it's unique in description. Some more things that we can pull out of here that we can actually read from the Hebrew, you know, the narrator's putting some interesting choice of Hebrew words in here, obviously, inspired by God. But if you look at like Expositor's Commentary or Theological Word Study of the Old Testament, those are some my two favorite word study type things. Expositor's a commentary. But there are both... In this little section here, there's two Hebrew words that are used very subtly in the Hebrew and we maybe dismiss it in the English, but there's the word that's for love. It's actually not a... I mean, it's used for love and like, but it's not the most common one used for love in the Hebrew.

You know, some obviously like to bring in an over-sexualized framework into the story, but that's obviously not what's happening. But the word here for love has both meaning and overtones that have political and diplomatic and a commercial setting. So not only do they have a love that you could say like with a friendship like I love my brother or something but also you would use this term for political settings. Maybe a king would love another king in a type of treaty situation or maybe an agreement. You can think of this word is used with king Hiram of Tyre when it says he “loved David very much.” You know, they have a very good agreement. I think NIV translates that as like has a great relationship or a wonderful treaty with. So it's an interesting aspect that it adds a little bit to it and we'll pull another word here and we'll kind of bring it together.

The other word is the Hebrew word that's translated for knit. The Hebrew word here is a root word that also has both relationship, but also political overtones. It can mean bind or conspire, both in that positive and negative sense of the term. You would maybe conspire with the government but also knit. So it has this meaning of political and non-political, which it's kind of interesting the way that the story is being put together. Maybe foreshadowing. Maybe the narrator is showing us, you know, there's going to be some political tensions here, right? We have Saul. If you know the story, Saul tries to give David his armor. It doesn't quite work out, but here as we read on, Jonathan gives him his clothing. And there's a little bit of a political thing going on here, but there's a wonderful relationship that's coming or being built with these two. No matter what the word studies are here, there's a wonderful relationship that's being built. Actually, one of the many covenants Jonathan and David make throughout their life.

If we continue reading on, so it says, "And Jonathan was knit to the soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." So he loved him as his own life, right? Nephesh, life or being. He loved him as his own life. You know, does this phrase remind you of anything? Well, maybe lots. There's a lot of people here. Surely we have different thoughts, but it reminds me of one of the greatest commandments. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” You know, Jonathan was just loving his neighbor. He was having this relationship with his neighbor as himself. He was loving him like he was his own life. And as we can see from this example here of David and Jonathan of being knit together, we too should be knit together in love for one another, strongly knit and fitted together, never divided, especially on the basis of age, right? Not generation versus generation, but as one body, one family unified in the faith, firmly knitted together.

You know, if you think about this story of Jonathan and David, as I was going through this, you know, when I was younger, I heard the story of Jonathan and David. And without reading too much into it, I always thought they were probably very similar in age and probably just good friends. They grew up and they'd met each other and they were great buddies. And this grew into a wonderful friendship. But an interesting point on top of it is likely they were at least 10 years apart in age. Sometimes you can fit maybe 20-something different in age, 28 years, maybe. You can't be too sure because it's not so definitive in the Scriptures. You know, it doesn't give all the ages, right? But what we can see here is that Jonathan most likely was at least 10 years older than David, and yet he maybe bridged a gap of an age difference and built a friendship on that. You know, they were able to unify through their faith and their love for one another, regardless of their age. You know, it's not always like it is in today's society where we tend to live and operate in our little age groups.

Let's, let's turn to another example of Jonathan and David here as they get older. And 1 Samuel 23. 1 Samuel 23:14 because regardless of their age difference, whatever it really was, they were able to come together and form a bond. 1 Samuel 23:14, "When David stayed in the strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains of the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand." So David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life and David was in the wilderness in the forest. So let's pause there. The context here, if you remember David's running for his life. As it's saying here, Saul is seeking him every day to take his life. There's a lot of political struggles going on here. But in the moment of all of that, as David's hiding out in this mountainous or maybe hilly region in this forest, Jonathan enters the picture and they have this wonderful bond that we see here in verse 16. "Then Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, 'Do not fear, for the hand of the Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that.'" And it continues on, so they made another covenant.

No matter what was happening, Jonathan reached out to his friend. He contacted him and he goes through this encouraging situation where Jonathan says, emphatically, "You will be king. You know, don't worry. God has promised you. He's anointed you as the next king. You will be king.” The Hebrew for the you is very emphatic. And then I. He's emphatically saying, "I will be next to you." You know, Jonathan and David kept in touch even so much to know their struggles. Obviously, Jonathan is Saul's son. So he knows that Saul is seeking him. But no matter what, no matter what the situation was, he reached out to David in that forest. No doubt Jonathan probably was putting his life on the line. Right? Maybe Saul would be angry and kill him. And when I think of situations like this, I think about my personal life. You know, can I have any excuse that's good enough for not keeping up with our friends that we make, with not connecting with them, not having conversations with one another, with my lack of staying in touch?

You know, we live in one of the biggest technological ages that have ever existed that we know of. We have the ability to talk to each other in nanoseconds, a small amount of seconds, very little effort. So then I wonder, "Do I have any excuse that's good enough for not keeping in touch?" Jonathan did. Jonathan was knit together with David and he sought him out to encourage him when he was down. Now, think about that because when it comes down to it, you and I and everyone sitting next to you is a family, a wonderful family that is to be knit together and strong. You know, Paul instructed Timothy… we don't have to turn there, but Paul instructed Timothy not to rebuke the older man, but to exhort him as a father and the younger as a brother. He says, "Look at the older women as the mothers and the younger women as your sisters." "With all purity," he gave them instructions.

You know, we're a family. That's not just a throwaway term. That should mean something. We are a strong knit family. We should be a strong knit family striving towards the same goal and purpose. You know, one thing we can think about when we think about this topic is maybe a challenge. You know, we have a remarkable opportunity when we come together on the Sabbath. If we all had the ability to see each other's addresses on a map, we may be spread out. Maybe we're all together. I guess I've never looked at the map of Cincinnati, but we're all spread out. But if we have this remarkable opportunity once a week where we see each other let's take that opportunity. Let's take that time to engage with one another, not just in our own little age groups. That can be the easiest thing. And I definitely fall prey to that. That can be the easiest, but we should take the opportunity to delve deep and to have those meaningful connections and having those meaningful conversations.

Maybe engage in biblical discussions. You know, we are a church. We are Christians. Engage in, "What have you studied for the week?" You can maybe ask one another, you know, "What have I studied? What have you studied? Is there something interesting that you've read about this week?" You know, if you don't want to be too engaging or too attacking, you could maybe talk about what you studied and say, "You know, I read this, this week. What do you think about it?" You could ask one another these things. Especially if you're younger, you can go find an older person. The Bible, and we'll get to it, but it talks about the gray headed, right? Those that are wise among us. Seek them out. Talk to them. Ask them their thoughts on different scriptures. We can get the conversation going each and every week to sharpen one another and to lean on each other's experiences.

This is a remarkable thing that we need to do in the Body of Christ. We need to be united in our faith and not divided by our age. And so, how do we do that? What's our job today? We each have a job. We each have a job in the family and one that we can all take, whether older or young is we should be ready to learn. Be always ready to learn from one another. Look at Proverbs 1:5. If we look at this one proverb, in the beginning of the book of Proverbs, it's kind of like a little introductory to why the book is made and some of the purposes, so Proverbs 1:5. All right, verse 5, "A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel." You know, kind of foreshadowing of why the book is made is no, it's not just for the ignorant. It's not for those that don't understand, but it's for the wise as well. You're to seek out knowledge.

You know, a wise man will hear and increase in learning. He'll be ready to learn. The wise will hear. You know, the wise, they're not conceited. You know, the wisdom literature in the Bible always compares the wise versus the fool, right? The foolish are the conceited, the self-interested, the ones that don't really look around for anyone else's interest but their own. But if we're wise, we're ready. We're listening for the knowledge, ready to learn from one another, you know, ready to learn from our family, from our friends, from our acquaintances, from anyone. You know, there's always something we can learn. Let's be ready to learn and let's increase in our learning. Why? Well, there's many things that come from that, and the next is in verse 6. But at the end of verse 5, it says, "And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel."

You know, the Hebrew word for wise counsel here is a nautical term, surprisingly. It's a nautical term, giving imagery and illustration of pulling ropes and turning the ship, you know, dividing and moving the ship in the waters. You see, when you grow in knowledge and understanding, you learn how to direct your way. I think the NIV translates wise counsel as skill. So you get the skill to direct where you're going. You know, God gives us that wisdom, of course. Oh, sorry, my notes said RSV. So not NIV. That translates to skill. I know. Very important. But the metaphor that's employed is that those who are ready to learn, those who gain understanding and gain that skill, are able to then guide or direct their paths, you know, rely on God and the information that he's providing to direct their ways.

And so, as a family, regardless of any generational differences, we should have the ability to learn from one another, younger versus older. It doesn't matter, that whole spectrum. We should learn from one another. Let's look at the perspective from a younger person, right? From a younger person, what is our job? What is one of our jobs? Well, if we look in the Body, as a younger person, we should give honor to the youngers in heart, right? We should give honor to the older ones, to the ones that are experienced. Look at Leviticus 19. Leviticus 19 is an interesting chapter. It's laden with a mix of ceremonial and moral laws. Leviticus 19:32. Leviticus 19:32. It says, "You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man." We’re to rise before the gray headed.

You know, there's this interesting thread throughout the Bible. There's many, of course. But there's an interesting thread of many words that are translated fear, or respect, or honor, and even sometimes reverence. it talks a lot about, obviously, fearing the Lord, but also, we should rise in this action of giving honor. You know, it's just moral command of, you know, let's rise in a manner of showing respect, giving preference to the experienced, to the gray headed among us, to those that have lived and experienced. We should show honor to the men and the women that are older, showing them respect. And this, no doubt, goes beyond the immediate family that we have. You know, I was taught when I grew up to honor my grandparents. My parents were great parents, so they told me to honor everyone that was older. But sometimes we can think of just in our individual family, well, I got to honor my parents. Of course, that's a command in the Bible. We also have to honor our grandparents, but there's really no limiting element here.

There's no reservation or quality or quantifier that's given other than a gray headed person. It says, "Rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man," the Hebrew, man or woman, right? This is something that, at least, I rarely see in society. In America, we don't do this as often. Other cultures still do this. When an older person walks in the room, you rise. You pay honor and tribute to them because they've been around, they've experienced, and they deserve respect. God says they deserve respect. I think sometimes, you know, how different would our society be in America if we did this, you know if we still stood for the elderly when they walked in the room. You know, a lot of times you can do a service act, right? But if we really lived by that principle of honoring those that have gone before us, that could be a great impact on society.

Let's look at a parallel scripture here. Proverbs 16:31, Turn with me to Proverbs 16:31, because as the younger, and almost all of us have somebody older than us, so as that person, you have to give honor to the older. Proverbs 16:31. I like the way this one is at least translated. Proverbs 16:31, "The silver-headed hair is a crown of glory." Silver-headed hair. You know, in our society, we like to cover up silver, right? We'd like to cover up gray. And I'm not commenting on that, but that is done. But the Bible says “silver-haired on the head is a crown of glory.” It's a good thing. This gray and the silver hair, you know, the crown, it's a common term for crown. It's not really a royal or a priestly crown. It's a general used in the figurative or the metaphorical sense to show honor, that this person is honorable or should be respected because they have gray hair, because they've been around, they've experienced.

One thing when we're thinking about how we can honor them, you know, can you really honor someone that you don't truly know? You probably can on the surface a little bit. All right? You can stand for them. You can open the door for them. But when we're as a family in the Body of Christ, we should really get to know one another. You know, this harkens back to being unified in the faith through love. We need to make sure that we're engaging with others of different generations. And this can be very difficult in a big congregation, right? It's very easy to stay within our own groups. But it's something we should really ask ourselves, "Am I doing all that could be done to know the seniors in our congregation or to know those that have gone before me? They've experienced a lot. Am I seeking counsel and wisdom from them?" You know, "Am I reaching out?" Ways that we can honor the older ones in our midst is, well, we touched on it already, but spending quality time with them. Spending quality time with them.

Many people write about some of the biggest regrets people have at the end of their life. You know one of the biggest regrets people have at the end of their life? That they didn't have enough time spent with the people they love. It's not about making money or how much wealth you obtain or fancy cars you drive. That's what we're taught when we're younger. Go get a good job. Go get a lot of money. Go get all the land. But when people are at the end, they realize it's the relationships that matter. That's one of the number one things that people regret is not spending enough time with one another. And when we're spending that quality time, let's make sure we're listening, truly listening. You can ask for their advice. That's how you can honor older people. Ask for their advice. They've been around and they've done a lot. If you're younger and you're just starting, if you're about to do and you're about to do all those things, ask for their advice, looking for... You know, we've looked through the Scriptures to the gray headed, the wisdom. We should lean on those experiences learning from the wisdom that they have.

Another element of a way that we can honor older people is speak well of them. This is something that is not commonly practiced today. Almost everybody speaks illy of everybody. They speak poorly of one another. If you have a Twitter account, just go check the comment sections. We speak poorly of our governors, poorly of our bosses, of our parents, of the elderly. We put people in boxes and we say, "You can't do this. You're so-and-so." We speak poorly of each other. One way that we can honor each other is by speaking well of each other. You know, our words have power. They have power to extend honor and they have power to extend dishonor. We should think about that more as we talk about somebody, you know, as we're... You know, if we're about to say something, think about our words and our attitudes concerning the elderly. You know, God tells us to “extend honor to whom honor is to be granted” in Romans, Romans 13. You know, they deserve honor and we should do that, give them honor by speaking well of them.

Okay. What about the other perspective? How about the other side of the coin from the older, from the senior perspective, what's their job? Well, we all have many jobs. I'm focusing on one. Let's turn to Psalms 71. As a way of sharing this point, let's turn to Psalms 71 because we all have many jobs. I don't want to just say there's only one job and it's this easy, but this is one element. Psalms 71:17. You know, I guess for context here, Psalms 71, it's got a little heading in my Bible, "God the Rock of Salvation." David's contemplating old life and he's asking God not to leave him or forsake him and what his part will be no matter what. But in verse 17, it says, "O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I'm old and gray headed, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strengths to this generation, and Your power to everyone who is to come."

The one role or job that we have as older people, whenever we look at anyone younger, is we should take time to mentor those of the unexperienced, really build those relationships and teach and pass on the knowledge that we've gained. You know each and every one of us has that responsibility to train up the next ones. You know, whether you're 30 years old or 80 years old, there's always somebody that's coming up. And we should train them, mentor them up, and we should strive towards that goal of mentoring the next generation to come. We can ask for God's guidance, leaning on His power and His might. You know, he's saying, "Even when I'm gray headed, even I'm old, please don't depart from me." You know, "Even when I'm losing all my mind and my strength, stay with me. Let me declare Your works to the coming generation." It's a wonderful opportunity each of us have to teach the ones coming up.

Let's look at another scripture in Psalms 78, just a couple of chapters over in verse 1. Psalms 78:1. We're going to start in 1 for a little context. We're going to narrow in a little bit deeper or further down. Psalms 78:1, "Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to your words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; and I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We have not hid them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done." Verse 5, "For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, as they should make known to their children." We should make known to our children. And Verse 6, "That the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children."

You know, we should give these things that we learned and these experiences we have and the knowledge of God and what He's done in our lives. We should pass that onto our children, both physically but then also part of the Body of Christ, the spiritual children if you will, or younger people. I guess they'd just be brothers and sisters. But the younger ones in our lives, you know, we should be repeating that process of passing that knowledge down to save them from some of the headaches I've gone through in my life. You know, "Don't make this mistake. I did that," or, "This is how God saw me through a difficult time. I know you're having this difficult time, God saw me through it in this pattern or this way. God is our rock. He is our foundation. Don't worry about it." That's where we can help the next generation, mentoring them, helping them as they go through life.

Let's continue reading on. Verse 7. Why do we do this? "That they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments; and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its hearts aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God." You know, hopefully, that's not our generation when we're talking about this context. You know, hopefully, we're following God and we're passing those things down so that our children and the children's children and those to come afar off, when God calls them, that they'll answer and there'll be strong in the faith and they'll end in the faith. They'll finish the race successfully. You know, mentoring helps the next generation to succeed. It's one of the biggest benefits we can give to our younger people, you know, not falling into the previous problems, as I mentioned before. You know, it helps the next generation to receive the baton, if you will. You know, if you remember, if you like race analogies, I haven't been in many races, but, you know, they pass the baton. If you're doing a relay race, you pass the baton to the next person. Well, in life, we pass that baton to the next generation and it helps them to succeed in that moment, helping each member provide its share, you know, to help and to build up that next member for a life-long service to the Body of Christ. That's a remarkable thing.

I was having a conversation this week with somebody concerning this topic and this really reminds me… And he brought to my remembrance over in Numbers 8. We don't have to read there. I guess we can turn there. Numbers 8. It's not too big of a Bible. We can move real quick. Numbers 8:24, if you think about the Levitical priesthood situation and time and life, Numbers 8:24, this is speaking about different divisions in the Levites. Verse 24, “This is what pertains to the Levites: From twenty-five years old and above one may enter to perform service in the work of the tabernacle of meeting; and at the age of fifty years they must cease performing this work, and shall work no more." Verse 26, "They may minister with their brethren and in the tabernacle the meeting, to attend to their needs, but they themselves shall do no work. Thus you shall do to the Levites regarding their duties."

You know, they have this thing and if you partner this with other scriptures, really the job of the Levites doing the priestly roles have been 30 through 50. So maybe 25 to 30 has been theorized that this was more of a training period at 25 to 30. And then they would work fully until 50, but then they were to retire, if you will, putting a modern spin on it. They wouldn't do those strong works anymore, stuff that required the might of a young person, but they would be there ministering to their brethren and to the other Levites. They would be passing on the knowledge. They'd be helping with what needs to be done, but not the physical work, just the teaching maybe. You know, being there as almost like a mentor, a responsibility to pass on the knowledge, instructing and directing the younger ones. You know, if you're 51 years old, you could be helping the 50-year-old, right, because he's just that young pup. I think that's how I'd look at it. I'm that snarky individual.

But we have that opportunity to share with one another. When thinking about mentoring, let's turn to Titus 2 because it's very important. Conduct is very important in mentoring. It can't be speech alone. Conduct is very important. Titus 2. The heading over Titus 2 in my Bible is, "Qualities of a Sound Church." A pretty applicable title. But in Titus 2, Paul's writing here to a pastor. "But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine." This is verse 1. Verse 2, "That the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, and in patience." You know, conduct is important. That these people are to be doing things that are mindful of the older generations. Continue reading on in verse 3, "That the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, and teachers of good things— that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands."

Why? "That the word of God may not be blasphemed." You know, we are to teach the coming generations. I love how it focuses on all women here, right? They're to teach the younger women. That's an exciting thing, I think. I mean, I'm not a woman, but my wife has a remarkable opportunity to teach her children and to teach the younger women as she gets older, you know, instructing them. But it's not only in teach, right? It's not in precept, but it's in conduct. It's about how we act and how we live our lives, being sober and well-minded is it says, and patient, not slanderers. That's a wonderful one. You know, we are to talk well of each other, right? It says, "Bringing happiness to the home. Loving the husbands." That's a good one. Got to love the husbands.

It says, "So that the word of God may not be blasphemed," you know, because when people look at us when we take the badge or the title of a Christian, if we're not acting like one, that's blasphemy. You know, that's saying bad things about God because you're saying you're following God, but you're not acting like it. This is a hypothetical, of course. But that's important, that “the word of God may not be blasphemed,” just an aspect of that at least. You know, to effectively mentor younger people, they must be built on a relationship where we're truly there for one another. There has to be trust and loyalty, right? There has to be sacrificial love, the willingness to give it all and no envy, you know, that you're legitimately joy… You have joy for one another when they succeed because you're helping them along and you're building a wonderful relationship. I think back about Jonathan and David. You know, there was probably some mutual mentorship going on, but to effectively mentor, think about the time when he encouraged David in the wilderness. You know, we read about it. That was a difficult time. He was committed to being David's friend. He was committed to being there, to being an encourager, and to looking after one another, no matter the risk or the personal cost on Jonathan's part.

To be an effective mentor, we need to be aware and sensitive to key times in our mentoree. Is that a word? Those being mentored in their lives. We must be aware of their times of discouragement. You know, are they low and in the dumps right now or are they happy and excited? Let's be aware of that. We need to be aware of the times of crisis in their own lives so that we can be there to help them and to guide them, to be that aid and that hand, to lift them back up when they're down. That's a remarkable thing that we can do from the perspective of the older ones. We can mentor the younger ones because we do need to be a family, strongly knit together. You know, being unified is truly an important action. Unity in the faith through love is what God is seeking in His family and one of the things that He's building. He wants a unified family, working together in love for one another.

Even though the world is divided around us, we should always take time to evaluate ourselves in the Body of Christ. Are we divided by age, this generation versus that generation? It's easy to slander the younger generation or the older generation. “They just don't understand” or “They don't have a work ethic.” That's easy. But we should be united, not divided. You know, hopefully, not though. Hopefully, we see ourselves as we ought to, as a family knit together by whatever each member provides in that Body. We should remember our responsibilities in the Body. You know, whether we're older or we're younger, whatever we have, we have a job to do and we have a responsibility to one another.

Important in this action is understanding, honor, where honor is due. You know, as a younger member, let's honor, respect, and treat with dignity those that have gone before us, those that are experienced. Let's remember them in our lives. You know, as an older member, let's remember our responsibility to build and maintain the relationships that we find, truly looking towards the mentoring relationship, truly looking to mentor those that are coming up in a life-long service to God. You know, as an older member, let's remember that our conduct, as God inspired Paul to write, should be conduct that is fitting for the wise, for the gray headed. We should work and we should be in a right attitude for the younger ones among us.

And in turn, as we close, let's turn to Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13:7. We'll pick up where the sermonette left off in Hebrews 13:7. Let's remember as the younger part of the relationship, in verse 7, "Remember those who rule over you." You know, those that have kind of gone before you, that are in the authority picture, they're teaching you. They're leading you by the way. "Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you,” those that are teachers. It says, "Whose faith follow, considering the output of their conduct." You know, let's remember those that have taught us and led us where to gone, see where they ended. You know, if they're faithful and they finish the race, let's remember them. Let's honor them. And so, let's remember each other. Let's be unified in the faith through love. Let's not be divided, but instead, let's be generations firmly knit together.