Sunday School Lesson for October 16, 2011: Growing Old with Wisdom (Ecclesiastes 11:7–12:14)

Psalm 37:25
I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.





Philippians 1:21
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.





Ephesians 4:14
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine,







I’ve resisted writing this lesson. Excuse after excuse. The truth is, this lesson makes me uncomfortable. I have to stop and think about…. Aging. There are certain eventualities in life, Aging is one of them. The writer of this week’s lesson, presumably Solomon, progresses through a beautiful alliteration of the onset of old age. I won’t go into each step in the process outlined in scripture, but rather, the warning that he provides both at the beginning and end of the passage: Remember God. The exhortation here is to find God early in life. In all of the getting in your youth, get God. Have fun within the appropriate boundaries, live life to its fullest. Enjoy yourself, but honor God. Honor him in your youth and He can and will guide you into a purpose greater than yourself. Don’t squander your youth, your vitality, your energy and your time on the vanity of seeking pleasure for pleasure’s sake alone. Remember God. Revere God. Learn to Rely on God. These three R’s will serve you well later in life when the eventuality of age begins its onset.

If you remembered Him when you were young, spent some time in His Presence, when your confidence in you begins to wane, your confidence in Him will build. As young Christians, when challenges arise, we go into a kind of ‘Are you there’ mode with God, but over time, we come to know that He is there and He is there for us. Literally an Ever Present Help in the time of need.

Revere God: time spent in supplication and prayer. Time spent in devotion and service. Time spent early on in your Christian experience will build a life of restraint before God because of God and who He is to you. Boundaries are important. One of the most destructive forces of youth is the lack of boundaries. Reverence learned early will protect and preserve you through youth to a place of maturity and preparedness for a place of leadership in God’s purpose.

Reliance. Reliance is the end result isn’t it. Reliance is a major aspect of … Faithfulness. That’s what we tell folks. Leaning on the Everlasting Arm. Reliance. Reliance on God who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that you can ask or even think. Reliance on God becomes a fixture as we grow older, if we learned early that God is Reliable, when we are old we rely on Him with a trust that transcends this temporal realm. David said, “I was young, and now I’m old, yet I’ve never seen the Righteous forsaken…”. Paul wrote, “For me to live is Christ, for me to die is gain”.

There is something to be said for ‘Eldership’. Preferred leadership in the Church of God has as one of it’s components: age. Whether it was Paul, the Aged or John, the Elder, faithfulness over time is one of the principal tenets of Leadership in the New Testament. Throughout Church History and into our present day; aged, responsible, mature, faithful leadership continues to ground the Church foundationally, so that we are not tossed to and fro by every whim or trend or fad that comes along. So then, what we find her is that, if God tarries (do you know what tarry means?), we all have something to look forward to: Growing old gracefully. Growing old with Wisdom. He’s been there for you from the beginning. Guess what? He’ll be here with you into Eternity. Good News. Very Good News. Be encouraged! We’ve got some exciting things to look forward to!





Blessings,



.wb



1 Timothy 5:17
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.





James 5:14
Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:





Revelation 11:16
And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,