The following was a message delivered by Dr. Howard Sugden to the “Senior Saints” at Moody Week, Winona Lake, Indiana. We don’t have a date for this message, but we know that Dr. Sugden retired as pastor of South Baptist Church in 1989 and went home to glory in 1993 at the age of 86. As a point of reference, he graduated from high school in 1924, so the 50th reunion he references would have been in 1974.
My high school graduating class was holding its fiftieth anniversary reunion, and I was invited to attend. I was deeply moved by the invitation, but I was also just a little bit hurt. I was reluctant to go and spend half a day with all those elderly people! But I went, and I remember- that, although I was the youngest member of the class, I noticed that old age had crept up on all of us. They all looked so ancient! One lady asked me to meet her husband, and she introduced me to the oldest man I had ever seen. I couldn't believe it. And there was a time when I dated some of those old women! One little old man pulled down his glasses and said to me, “Do you keep fairly active in your old age?” I assured him I did.
But I learned something at that reunion. I learned that our Jewish friends are right when they divide old age into three stages. First, from sixty to seventy years, is commencement of old age. During the seventies and eighties is what they call “hoary headed” old age; and from the nineties to the end of life is “advanced” old age. God blessed some of His people and enabled them to reach “advanced old age,” but I don't know whether God will allow me to get old. Right now, I don't have time to get old!
When I visit in the hospital where my young doctor serves, as I run up the stairs two steps at a time, I often pass him. And he calls to me, “Keep it up, pastor! Keep it up! It'll help you live a long time if you don't slow down!” So, I don't slow down, I just keep going.
If you are a Christian, you should memorize Proverbs 16:31 - “The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness.” Your old age should be a crown of glow In at least three ways. First, there is the glory of ever-increasing faith. If the Lord allows me to grow old, I want to have an increasing faith in Second, there is glow of an increasing experience. I hope we never arrive at the place where we know it all. There is always a new experience in life for us. Life becomes dull when we stop growing in our experience. Third, there is the glow of an influence. You are a valuable person because of your age. God has given you valuable experience, and you should communicate experience to others. According to Titus 2:3-5, the older women in the church are supposed to teach the younger women and share with them from their vast experience.
I have always been grateful to God that in personal life gave me so many older friends. My first “older friend” was Dr. H. H. Savage, and what he contributed to my life and ministry, nobody will ever know. Another “older friend” who helped was Dr. R. E. Neighbor, a successful pastor, and a very great man of God. I still have some of the little notes he sent me when he was out preaching somewhere and just wrote to encourage me in my own ministry.
Then there was my great friend Alex Stewart, a gifted bible teacher and a blessed man. He was probably twenty years my senior, and every time I heard him preach, it helped me. When he moved out of the active ministry and I could not hear him preach, just thinking about him encouraged my heart. How I thank God for “older friends” who had a lasting influence on my life. No matter who you are, as you approach old age you can experience glory -- the glory of an increasing faith, an increasing experience, and an increasing influence.
Along with Proverbs 16:31, also memorize Ecclesiastes 9:10 —”Whatsoever thy findeth to do, do it with thy might: for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest.” Please don't get your theology from Ecclesiastes, because it is not a book of theology. It is a book of practical experience. But learn what King Solomon is saying in this verse: no matter how old you are, the only opportunities you will ever have in life are right now — and don't miss them! There are young people today who have never learned to work; they have wasted their opportunities. What a tragedy! You and I can plan for the glory of old age and the service of old age. Some of the greatest opportunities you and I will ever have will be during our older years. I can hardly wait for the time to come for me to do all the things I've wanted to do but have been too busy to do.
Let me tell you about a dear lady in our church who is, I suppose, over ninety. She always sits in the twelfth row from the front, and I see her there every Sunday. After the benediction, while our choir is singing a closing prayer, I walk down the aisle and always stop where she is and give her a little hug. (My people know that I love them, so nothing I do ever bothers them!) Then I say, “Mrs. … I love you.” Well, a few weeks ago there was a half—page story about her in our city paper. Do you know what she does for a living? She's an Avon lady! She can't drive her car anymore, so she delivers her orders by pulling a little wagon! I know people who are only seventy, and they are about to give up. Yet here is a woman in her nineties still earning a living. Older friend, please don't stop! When you stop, you are dead!
My father lived an active life on the farm, with four boys to raise. When my parents got older, we boys went to them and suggested that they leave the farm, with all its chores, and move into a comfortable house in town. Well, we moved them, and it killed my father! When he died, he wasn't old — perhaps seventy-nine, but if he had stayed on the farm and stayed busy, he would no doubt have lived longer. Keep busy! I am doing more now than I did when I was forty, and I am sure it keeps me feeling younger. Never say, “Well, I'm old now and there's nothing I can do.” Do you know what our lady friend does beside sell Avon products? She prays for me. Every Sunday morning, she says to me, “Pastor, I prayed for you this morning.” Just think of what would happen in our churches if all the “senior saints” really started to pray!
Let me tell you about my neighbor across street, a retired man about seventy-five years old. Nearly every morning when I get in my little car to drive to the office I find that car has been washed as clean as a pin. My neighbor comes out at 6:30 each morning and cleans my car for me! Here is a man who could lie in bed and moan over the fact that he Is seventy years old; but he doesn't - he gets up and does things for somebody else. And as I drive my car during the day I give thanks to God for a dedicated neighbor who helps his pastor be a better testimony for the Lord.
You have no idea what you can do, so give God an opportunity to lead you. I know a lovely elderly lady who went to work for a photographer in our city. She set up an office, got a telephone, took the lists of people to be called, and made her calls each day, Just think of the contacts a group of ladies in a church could make each week just by using their telephones: Now is the time to serve Lord; when you are in the grave, it will be too late. Go to your pastor and offer your services. He may faint, but take the chance. You could start a revival in your church by getting the “senior saints” busy for God.
We thought about the glory of old age and the service of old age. Now think with me about the strength of old age. I go to our corner drug store and see all the pills that are on the shelves. You can get a pill for almost anything today. One of the sins people often commit as they get older is the failure to take care of the human body. No matter how old we are, we need to eat right and have proper exercise and rest, but this is especially true in our senior years. Well, listen to that great old man Caleb as he says in Joshua 14:10-11 — “And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as He said, these forty and five years… as yet I am as strong this day as I was the day that Moses sent me…” What a testimony! “The lord has kept me alive!” If the Lord didn't keep you and me alive, we would be dead! Here he was, eighty—five years old, and just as strong as he was when he was forty! Notice what Caleb says next: “Now, therefore, give me this mountain!” He dares to ask God for something difficult when he is eighty-five years old! Caleb knew that it is God who gives us strength day after day. One verse that all of us need as we grow older is Deuteronomy 33:25 — “As thy days so shall thy strength be.”
One of the greatest Christians I ever knew — and he was a Hebrew Christian — was Dr. Max I. Reich, who served on the faculty at the Moody Bible Institute. He came to our home one time, and as he mounted the stairs, he took two at a time. And he was an old man. I said, “Dr. Reich, how do you do it?” He replied, “God gives me strength.” How we need the strength of God in our old age! This doesn’t mean we can neglect the proper care of our body. Somebody asked an elderly gentleman, “Do you jog?” “No,” he answered, “I jiggle.”
I read an interesting article recently about an older couple that put an ad in their local town paper: “Grandparents available for baby—sitting jobs.” They didn't know what to do with all the jobs that camel They never saw so many babies their little town! And this couple is using this opportunity to testify for Christ, because they are dedicated Christians. You and I do not know how much longer we will live, but let’s use our years to serve Christ. When you get up tomorrow morning and put in your teeth, or put on your hair, or polish your bifocals, look up to God and say, “I’ve never had it so good!” Then go out and find some way to serve Christ by helping somebody else.
This leads me to my last point, the prospect for old age. Do you know what lies ahead of us? The grave? No! GLORYI That’s right – glory! A friend said to me, “If I knew where I was going to die, I’d stay away from there!” Well, I suppose most of us would stay too. But we don't have to fear the future because the future for the Christian means glory. Here are two elderly people, Abraham and Sarah. They have been walking with each other, and with the Lord, for years. As they walk along, hand in hand, Abraham says to his wife, “Do you see what I see?” “What do you see, Abraham?” she asks. “I see a city! I see a city whose builder and maker is God!” At the end of life's road, Abraham saw glory.
Do you know what I saw when I was saved? I saw a city! And you saw a city when you were saved. We saw that same city that John saw when he wrote: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:1-4.)
My friend, let's not belittle ourselves or excuse ourselves. Let's not say, “Well, I’m too old to do anything. I'll just let life close in on me.” No! There is glory as we grow older — the glory of increasing faith and experience and influence! There is service in old age, and you had better seize the opportunities while you can. There is strength for old age: “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” And where does it all lead? It all leads to glory —heaven — the Father’s house!
Never regret growing older. It's glory all the way!