Please take your Bibles and go to Joshua chapter 12, if you would please, Joshua chapter 12. We're gonna be looking at chapters 12 and 13 for the most part this morning. As you know, we've been going through a series here in the book of Joshua, as they have been conquering the promised land. I've entitled the messages or message here, Promises Made, Promises Kept. I'd like to read just one verse of scripture as we get started from chapter 12 and then verses 1 to 6 of chapter 13 of the book of Joshua. The Bible here says, now these are the kings of the land. which the children of Israel smote and possessed their land on the other side, Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, from the river Arnon unto Mount Hermon, and all the plain on the east. Dropping down here to chapter 13, verse one. Now Joshua was old and stricken in years, and the Lord said unto him, thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. This is the land that yet remaineth, all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshurel, from Sihor, which is before Egypt, even into the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite, five lords of the Philistines, the Gazathites, and the Ashtathites, the Eschalonites, the Kittites, and the Ekronites, also the Avites. From the south, all the land of the Canaanites and Mera, that is beside the Sidonians and the Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites, and the land of the Giblites and all Lebanon, toward the sun rising from Belgad, under Mount Hermon, unto the entering into Hamath. "'all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon "'unto Mizraith Thaum and all the Sidonians, "'then will I drive out from before the children of Israel. "'Only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites "'for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee.'" Our lives recently have been inundated with federal politics, to be sure, on the national scene as well as from the U.S. scene. Sometimes I wonder if we're more involved in listening to what's happening south of the border instead of what's really grabbing our attention that directly affects us north of the border. But it's amazing that many times in politics we find that the, those in politics will make a lot of promises. They promise this, they promise that. And I don't doubt their sincerity at all, but especially if they've not held office before, they get into office and then they realize that the system is such where it's not quite as easy to make the changes that one thought before they assumed office that they could make. And sometimes the promises that are made, they find hard to fulfill. But not so with our God. Our God fulfills all his promises. One thing is certain about our God, promises made are indeed promises kept. Every single one of them. As we look at these scriptures and we see the nation of Israel taking the promised land, God promised these very lands to Israel. I take us back and I'll just read it for you from Deuteronomy chapter four, verses 37 to 39. God says this, and because he loved thy fathers, Moses is speaking, therefore he chose their seed after them and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt. to drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this day. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord, he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath there is none else. In Joshua chapter 12 and verse six, the scripture says these words, them did Moses the servant of the Lord and the children of Israel smite. And Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave it for a possession unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh. I take us back to chapter one. We find here that Moses has passed off the scene. God buried him. And then we find here in verses two and following as the promises made from God to Joshua. He says, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore rise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you as I said unto Moses." Remember, promises made, promises kept. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even into the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and under the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. And so we see here time and time again that God brings words of assurance to his people. And aren't we assured of certain things as we move through the scriptures? God has made promises to his people and he keeps every single one of them. He is what we refer to as a covenant keeping God. Now, it's interesting in chapter 13, there in verse one, Gil mentions the fact that he believes that about this time, Joshua is about 100 years of age. We know that Joshua died at the age of 110. It took about seven years for the land to be divided amongst the various peoples, the tribes of the nation of Israel. And we find here that Moses was able to accomplish a lot for God. And sometimes I think we miss some things in regards to transitions that take place in God's work. And here we find not only has Moses passed off the scene, in this particular chapter, chapter 13, we find that Joshua now is an older man, and he too is reaching that time where he's gonna be called to God. And so we find that Joshua is nearing the end of his life, He's not drawing back. And that's something that really gripped my attention as I was studying the book of Joshua, is even though he's transitioning, we find that he's not drawing back from serving the Lord, even though he's an old man. And so we find that while he cannot wield a sword like in the earlier days, he can do work that is profitable. important and under the guiding hand of God. There's that passage of scripture where we find that Moses is standing on the hill as the Amalekites are being fought. And we find that Aaron and Hur hold up his hands, Moses' hands. And we find that Joshua is down in the valley and he's fighting, he's wielding the sword, he's leading the troops in the battle. Now we find him in the book of Joshua, he's leading them, he's guiding them, he's giving them counsel, and he's right there giving the people exactly what they need for that particular time. Not with a sword necessarily, but there with his walk with God and passing on that information and continuing to serve God, even as an old man. And I'd like to just give some pointers in regards to things as we consider age, as we consider our age and we consider our life. And I've got some points I'd like to just share with you, just a few here in regards to age. Number one, it's important for us to trust Christ as Savior while you're young. And you know, I know that we have 37 years being here. I know that we have a mix here of first-generation Christians. We have second-generation Christians, those that are parents here. You trusted Christ as Savior. You started serving God, God blessed your home with children and they've grown up possibly in this church. And so you have been able to instruct them and we've been able to teach them truth. And many have accepted Christ, some possibly yet have to accept Christ. And then we also have those that are third generation people here in this auditorium. And so I want to encourage those who may be still yet to make that decision for Christ. Let me encourage you, while you're young, trust Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. And you know, there's something that sometimes I think the second generation and third generation Christians miss out on is they don't fight the battles that mom and dad fought. They don't take the stands that mom and dad took. And so consequently, if they're not careful, they'll ride the crest of the wave, so to speak. And they won't really understand some of the things that the price that was paid as mom and dad trusted Christ as their savior and made some of those important life-changing decisions. But let me just say, I'm sure that a lot of the parents that got saved in older years, they would say, wow, I wish when I was a child that I would have been exposed to the gospel and I would have trusted Jesus Christ as my savior. That would have saved me from a lot of heartache and a lot of poor decisions and all that. And I want to encourage you to trust Christ when you're young. I get excited with the children's ministry. I get excited on the Master Club as they, the buses are going out and picking up boys and girls on Wednesday nights and Master Club is, the kids are coming in and we're hearing about this one getting saved and that one trusting Christ as Savior. And how exciting that is to hear about boys and girls, five years of age and eight years of age and 10 years of age, trusting Christ as Savior, getting that start in the Christian life at such a young age. And I want to implore you and encourage you. And even we older adults that we encourage and pray for the younger generation, that they too, as they sit under the sound of good gospel teaching in Sunday school and master club, and there in your family devotions, where they will be instructed in the things of God and that they will trust Christ as Savior. And that ought to be the heart's cry of every dad and every mom, that every one of their children would be saved. And let me just implore you that consider that as you get older, trust Christ while you're young. Number two, allow Christ to control your life at an early age. Allow Christ to control your life at an early age. And we call it surrender. We call it dedication. And I'm not talking about child dedication or baby dedication. I'm talking about where you as a young person will say, look, I want to give my life in service for the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll never be sorry no matter what vocation of life you may end up in. Just because you surrender your life doesn't mean that you have to be a preacher. Doesn't mean that you have to be a missionary. Doesn't mean any of those things, but you're just saying, look, I want whatever God wants for my life. And let me encourage you to do that while you're young. I'll be forever grateful for the times that I went to camp, the times. that I sat under the preaching of evangelists and preachers and good pastors who instructed me in the ways of God and as a young man, where I made a decision after I got saved at the age of 15, where then I made a decision that I would serve God with my life, not knowing what that meant, not really zeroing in on anything in particular, but God was able to have that idea planted in my mind that I said, I'm gonna serve God with my life. Oh, we have examples in the scriptures. You could go to 1 Samuel 1 and 2, and you see little Samuel, probably around the age of five, where he gives his life in dedication to the service of God. We find that as a young man, he dedicated his life, and mom and dad stood behind him in that. And it's so important for us as parents to uphold Christ in our home and uphold Christ and giving our children, giving their hearts to Christ in salvation, but also in service for the Lord himself. We have the example of Timothy in Acts chapter six. And of course we find Acts chapter 16, where we find that from a young age, we find a godly mother and a godly grandmother. It didn't say that there were dads there, didn't say that there was a granddad there, but there were two godly women who said, look, we may not have the men who are right, in our home, but we're gonna make sure that our children, our children in particular, our Timothy, that he's gonna grow up under the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And they gave him and instructed him in the scriptures. And so we need to learn to walk with God while we're young. And I appreciate the fact that my parents saw to it after they got saved, they got faithful to the house of God, they made sure that I was at the activities, they made sure that I was active in the activities, and they made sure that I was there when the church doors were open, and if I was too sick to go to church, I was too sick to play outside. And they made sure that I was getting the scriptures put into my mind and heart. And when we do that for our children, we give them a step up, so to speak. Yes, they'll make up their own mind. Yes, they'll go their own way. I understand that. But I tell you what, we need to do what we can do to give them the scriptures and give them the environment in our homes and in our churches to do what they need to do for the cause of Christ. Make much of the scriptures, I would encourage everyone here. especially when you're young, make much of the scriptures. I'll be forever grateful for a youth director that got us involved in scripture memorization, how we memorize the scriptures and we got involved in a scripture memory program where every single week we were learning several verses of scripture and we would get gifts for that. And some of the books in my library are from memorizing scripture and I find that What comes to my mind as I'm preaching and I'm going throughout my day, it's amazing the scripture that I memorized as a teenager, how it comes flooding back. I'll be talking to someone and a verse of scripture will come out and I'll realize that I learned that in a particular book there when I was in the youth department there at Open Door Baptist Church and then Franklin Road Baptist Church. And I want to encourage you to memorize the word of God, go to the scriptures, read with purpose. I mean, make sure that you go into the word of God saying, God teach me. I've got the scripture here. I want to know, is there a promise that applies to me? Is there an example that I can follow in my life? Because even the Apostle Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. And so God has given us good, godly examples throughout the scriptures that we can emulate, that we can follow. And then we can say, look, is there a command? Is there something that I need to be doing that God is instructing me from his word? Somebody says, when I pray, I'm talking to God. When I'm reading my Bible, God's talking to me. And so there's that communication that takes place and develop that discipline of daily getting into the word of God. And when you have the Holy Spirit of God in you, understand that he will make and it'll illumine your mind, he'll turn the light on and he'll give you just what you need in that particular time. I can remember time and time again, and it still happens, praise the Lord, where sometimes I'll be going through, say, a deep valley, maybe ministerial or maybe family-wise or something of that nature where I'll just need to hear something from God. And God will say, why don't you go to this passage of scripture? And I say, God, I don't even know what that's all about. And I turn there and I begin to read the scriptures. And I say, wow, that's exactly what I need at this particular time. And God will do that to anyone and everyone. He says, as you search for me with all of your heart, I will be found. Oh, what do you want me to do today, dear God? Help and just guide my steps. Help me to be effective for you this day. And let me just give you a word here as well. Spend time in Proverbs. It's wisdom literature. It tells us how to get along with our fellow man. Spend time in Proverbs, study those Proverbs, dissect those Proverbs, and then put them into your life day by day. And so trust Christ as your Savior while young. Allow Christ to control your life at an early age. Make much of the scriptures in your life. And then number four, surrender, I would say, dedicate your life to God. And of course, we know the passage of scripture in Romans chapter 12 and verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, the living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. I'll be forever grateful when we went to the camp of the woods as a 16-year-old boy, and there on the top bunk, Jesse Rollwagen on the next bunk over, he and I surrendered our lives to do whatever God wanted us to do. Surrendered there at 16 years of age. And then I had to, I asked God, I said, God sharpen my conscience. and keep me on track if you would please. And I realized that I am God's. And so whenever I would go this direction or that direction, and I wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but at the same time, when I'd get off track, then I'd say, I dedicated my life to God. I am the Lord's. I am the Lord's. I am the Lord's. And that helped me stay on track and get me back on the way that I should be going. And so there's just something about saying, God, I am yours. And I believe that there needs to be that crisis time. There'll be a continual where Paul says, I die daily, but there ought to be that time where you say, look, I am giving my heart and my body and my mind to God. I am God's and God is mine. There needs to be that time of surrender and dedicating your life to God. And then I would say, Make every experience a learning experience. Make every experience a learning experience. During the prayer conference, as you know, as we've been reading from the scriptures every time as we start a service, and I read from Psalm 51, and you realize that after David sinned, What did he do? He confessed that sin. He repented of that sin. He got right with God. And then he said, restore to me the joy of thy salvation. And he says, then will I teach transgressors thy ways. And that's what we ought to do as we experience the things of life and God teaches us truth, maybe in the midst of our failure, maybe in the midst of a deep valley, maybe even on the mountaintop where we need to say, Hey, look, let me tell the next generation. Let me tell the generation that I am in right now. Let me tell those that will follow me some of the blessings, some of the lessons, some of the trials, some of the successes, some of the failures that I've gone through so that they don't have to do the same thing as far as failure is concerned, where they can keep and learn the truth that I learned, maybe through the school of hard knocks, maybe in the midst of my sin, where I get things right and I can say, hey, look, dear saint of God, don't do this. Don't do that. Make sure you go down this road and so on, but make every experience a learning experience. Even Paul said, I would rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest on me. And I would say this as you age, number six in my notes, as you age, get better, not bitter. get better and not bitter. Oh, many times because of the things that happen in our lives, the humanness of life. The successes, as I say, and the failures of life. Sometimes our expectations of life don't seemingly pan out the way we envisioned, and we find ourself in the latter years, and we say, boy, I wish, I wish, and this, that, or the other, and we have maybe some regrets and so on. But let me just say, make sure you get better and not bitter. Give those disappointments, those unfulfilled expectations to God and say, God, You know, I praise you that you have allowed me do what I've been able to do, and you've been patient with me, and I give all these things to you. And I want you to take them, and I want you to give me a renewed vision to what you have for my life right now. And remember, Moses had some things he wanted to accomplish and he got to the end of his life. And of course we know that he couldn't enter in to the promised land. Here we find Joshua. He's trying to fulfill the will of God for his life. He's leading the children of Israel. And you'll find that he comes to the end and he says, you know what? I'm gonna leave this for the next guy. And we find that even Paul said the same thing in 2 Timothy. He has to leave things for the next guy. He even on the Isle of Crete, he said, Titus, I'm leaving you here to set some things in order. He says, there's some things lacking. There's some things that I just wasn't able to accomplish here on the Isle of Crete. And so I'm leaving you here so that you can carry on the work and set things in order. And of course, Jesus, as he was getting ready to send up the glory, he said, as my Father has sent me, even so send I you. And so just as Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost, he tells his disciples, he says, look, as God the Father sent me, I'm sending you out to do the same thing, to seek and to save that which is lost. So as you age, get better, not bitter. And I would also say, as I mentioned earlier, as you age, pass on what you have learned. And that's what we're trying to do. That's what Sunday school teachers are trying to do. That's what preachers are trying to do. That's what master club workers are trying to do. They're just trying to pass on what God has given them. And God has brought that crystal clear in 2 Corinthians 1, verses three to five. He says, the same comfort that I've comforted you, you go and comfort someone else. You pass on what I've given you, you pass that on to somebody else. And that's the way the Christian life is. We're to receive and then we're to give. We receive it and we give it. We receive it and we give it. And so let me just say also, When you can no longer do what you have been doing, don't quit. When you can no longer do what you've been doing, don't quit. Just simply transition to another area of service for God. Did you hear that? It disappoints me as I see I'm getting older, And I realized, I've said to Brenda several times, I said, you know, what we did in the early days, I don't know that we could do it again. The late night phone calls, not just once a week, but maybe many times in the course of the week, and you're burning the candle at both ends and so on and so forth, but now I find myself at age 67 a bit different energy-wise and so on than when I was 30 years of age. We had the evangelistic services when I was 30. We had our first church services December the 11th. My birthday was the 8th, so I was 31 years of age when we started Pima Valley Baptist Church. I had a lot more energy. I had a lot more dark hair, too. I had a whole, well, now I have a whole lot of other stuff, but I just keep my jacket on. But you know, when you can no longer do what you used to be doing, that's not a time to quit. Older folks, let me appeal to you. Don't quit on God. Don't say, I'll just let the younger generation do it. The old people, older folks, we old people, the younger generation, whether they know it or not, they need us. They need your voice. You know, I'll just let somebody else do it. They're younger and all this kind of stuff. That's hogwash. What you need to do is transition to a point of service for God. Maybe you can't do everything that you used to do, but don't sit on the stool of do nothing. As somebody says, don't sit on your blessed assurance. Stand on the promises, amen. And so we need to understand the aspect of transitions. I'm always encouraged when I see pastors who stayed by the stuff for a number of years, they just transitioned from another aspect of ministry. That's what a lot of evangelists do. That's what a lot of missions people do. They transition because they have been there, they've experienced some things and they can go and help some younger preachers and younger missionaries and younger saints and add depth to their life and instruction to their life. And we need to understand that as we see here, as Joshua's old and well stricken in years, and yet he simply is transitioning in the way he serves his God. We look at the scriptures here in Joshua chapter 13. Let's turn to verse 14. I wanna talk about the Levites for just a moment. Only into the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance. The sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as he said unto them. You drop down now to verse 33. But unto the tribe of Levi, Moses gave not any inheritance. The Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them. You see, the Levites were the priestly tribe. It's interesting, if you're writing down notes, you can look at Numbers 1 and 3, and it gives an indication about the Levites, and they're the descendants of Jacob's son, Levi. Moses and Aaron were Levites. The high priest and his sons oversaw the work of the other Levites. You find that in Numbers chapter eight. They carried, interesting here, they carried, they set up and took down the tabernacle. They cared for the furniture as well. Not only did they do the physical work, but they also judged the people. They taught the people. You find that in Deuteronomy 17 and 19 and 21 and 29 and 2 Chronicles chapter 17 and chapter 35 and Malachi chapter two and verse seven. And it was interesting as you study the ages that the Levites worked in, you find that they would begin the work of the tabernacle setup as a trainer at about the age, a trainee, I should say, at about the age of 25. At the age of 30, they would actually take on the physical work and labor of being a Levite. And then they would retire from the physical aspect at the age of 50. And so we shouldn't get any ideas though at age 50 that we should quit. No, what they then did is they began to take that experience and their walk with God as they would judge the people, as they would teach the people, instruct the people in the ways of God. Then they would transition from one thing to another thing to another thing. That ought to teach us something. As long as we have breath, we ought to be serving God. We ought to be honoring God with our life. You might retire from your workplace, but you should not retire from being a Christian in the service of Almighty God. Wasn't it that famous pianist, Rudy Atwood, that was playing at the piano? I think it was in a meeting in Florida. I may be wrong on that. He's playing. about heaven on the piano, and he keels over with a heart attack. My, they're doing what God had called him to do. He was right there in the thick of it. I've heard of preachers being at their study, and they just slump over at their desk, and God's taking them to glory. Oh my, to die serving God. What a testimony that is. I say this. The Levites received the tithe to help keep up the tabernacle, and the people were encouraged to remember the Levites. And as New Testament saints, we can learn in regards to the older saints. And I am so thankful for the exposure I've had through the years of men and women of God that have been faithful through the years. And even this morning, I was listening to a sermon by Dr. John Rice. I finished one sermon that I started earlier in the week. And then I was listening to a sermon today about wasted days, wasted days. by Lee Roberson, and he was talking about how not to waste your time, how not to waste your days, your life. Oh my, I think we can learn some things from the saints of old. How I can remember as I would see Dr. Rice on a Sunday as I'm sitting there in a pew there at Franklin Road and Dr. Rice would not be in a meeting that week and he'd be walking around and people would come up to him and they'd say, Dr. Rice, would you pray that I would this or this and that and so on. And he would say, well, let's stop right now and pray. How many times have you told somebody you'd pray for him, and then you didn't pray for him? You forgot to pray for him. But he said, I don't wanna be a liar. So he would stop right there, right there in the middle of the aisle way, and he'd pray for that individual. I mean, you know, I saw that, and that spoke to me. And I look at some of these older saints of the Lester Roloffs, And the J. Harold Smith, I was there in a church service where there was some, over 2,000 people in the auditorium, and he preached on God's three deadlines. And over 300 people walked the aisle and trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. That made an impression on me. Here's this wide-haired man, and he's up there giving his soul to reach souls for Christ, and what, I mean, God's using him. Not just in his younger years, but in his later years. God's not through with you, older saint. Don't act like you can just sit back and say, I'll just coast. I'll let somebody else sing in the choir. I'll let somebody else teach a Sunday school class. I'll let somebody else work the bus route. I'll let somebody else, somebody else, somebody else. God wants to use you. And you find these dear saints still in the trenches serving God, doing what they can do. Find what you can do and do it. I say this. Number one, respect the older godly believer. I'm talking the younger generation now. Respect the older godly believer. I wanna go to these verses in Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus chapter 19. Just real quick like this morning. Verse 32, thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, that's the gray hair. When it talks about the hoarfrost, you get up in the morning, the moisture's been real prevalent throughout the day, or the night, and it's gotten cold, chilled, and you find the hoarfrost, it's all white. He says, thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man and fear thy God, I am the Lord. The younger generation, you ought to heed what I have to say from the Word of God this morning. You need to respect the older folks that have walked with God and they've seen God do some things that you haven't experienced yet. And if you take the time to listen, take the time to talk, take the time to draw the wisdom out of them, because that's what the Bible says. A man of wisdom is not just gonna throw out his counsel. You're gonna have to draw it out of him. And the younger generation needs to go to the older saints that have been through the trenches and the battles. I remember in Bible college working at Wildwood Manor Mount in Gary, Indiana, a 65 bed facility. And my family after the Sunday morning service would go to this rest home. And we'd go from room to room and we'd encourage people to come out if they could, get out of bed and we would bring them into the day room and we would have a church service for them. And what was exciting back in those days is the fact that there was still that generation that had been through the dirty 30s, they call them, and been through what they refer to as the Great Depression. And some of those old saints would share to me how God fed them and how God met their need and what an encouragement that was To me as a young man, I was there to encourage them and they were encouraging me. The older folks. Let me encourage and respect the older believer. Proverbs chapter 16. Let's go to Proverbs chapter 16. Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 31. The Bible here says, the hoary head is a crown of glory if, there's a condition, if it be found in the way of righteousness. Oh my, folks, younger generation, find those saints that have walked with God through the years. They have things to share with you. You see, not only do they know the theory, not only do they know the principle, not only do they know the command, but as they've walked with God, through the various aspects of life, up the mountains and down in the valleys and on the dry plains of life. As they've experienced all that, they can help you apply biblical truth to your life. They can take you to the scriptures and say, hey, look, do you remember when David went through this, when Daniel did this, and when Paul experienced that and Peter said this? And boy, they begin to share how that applied Their lives and their particular situation. Let me encourage your respect. The older godly believer. Number two, I say seek their counsel. Seek their counsel. Young people, you've never passed this way before. It astounds me sometimes that the young people, they've never held a steady job. They've never experienced They've never had to be responsible for their bills, the meals that they eat, and yet they can sit there in the seat of the scornful and say, well, if I was in charge, I'd do this, or I don't like this, and I don't like that, and they ought to do this, and they ought to do that, and boy, if I was in charge. And they don't even know how to come out from the rain, so to speak. You need to seek counsel. You know, in my library, I've got a lot of books, and they're my counselors. And I had one person say, a young person tell me, Pastor, I don't believe in reading books. I just read my Bible. I say, well, go to II Timothy. And Paul asked for the scriptures, but he also asked for his books. Paul was a reader. Read Titus chapter one. and he talks about the Cretans, where one of their philosophers said that they were slow bellies. That means they were lazy people. How did he learn that? He read about it. And so he was a reader. There's an old saying that leaders are readers. What are you reading these days? Good literature or a bunch of junk? Or are you just watching one show after another show after another show that doesn't amount to a hill of beans? Respect the older godly believer. Seek their counsel. And I say, consider seriously their advice, whether sought or not. I remember in Exodus chapter 18, you have Laban coming to Moses. And he says, Moses, I mean, people were coming to him all the time and he was just, he was, from morning till night, People were asking his counsel and advice, and Laban looked at them and says, Moses, you're gonna wear yourself out. You need somebody to help you. You need to get some people in place where they can take care of some of the lesser matters so that you can deal with the more serious issues. Moses didn't say, who are you to tell me what to do? You're my father-in-law. You stay out of my life. You stay out of my family business and my work business. Sometimes we guys are like that. You're not gonna tell me what to do. And here, Moses lays out this plan, and it was so interesting, the qualifier, he said, if the Lord tell thee so. He said, you know, I'm giving you some counsel and advice, and you check it up with God, and if God gives you leave, implement this. And it was great advice. And you know what Moses did? That's a smart idea. And he did that, and it helped Moses. Isn't that interesting? He sought counsel, and you know, he didn't, I should say, he didn't seek that counsel. Laban just looked and said, I'm gonna give you some words of advice. So Moses didn't go to Laban and say, hey, what do you think? Laban just went to him and said, look, I've been noticing some things, and I love you, and I wanna see you last. I wanna see you go for the long haul. I want you to be effective. So let me give you this counsel and advice. Laban's the older man, and he's passing on what he sees and the truth he has experienced, and he says, look, here's what you need to do. And Moses wasn't too proud. Even though he went up to Mount Sinai, Spent time with God 40 days and 40 nights on several occasions. But he wasn't too proud to take counsel, good counsel from another man. Let me just say this as well. Older folks must teach the younger. Older folks must teach the younger. Let me close with this passage of scripture. Let's go to Titus chapter two. Titus chapter two, and I want to encourage the older folks of our congregation. Paul's writing to Titus, and he says these words, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Doctrine is teaching, sound means healthy, it's good counsel, good teaching. He says that the aged men, The aged men, all the older guys here, I'm not putting an age to you, but you aged men, be sober. That's more than just not being drunk on alcohol or drugs. It means to be seriously minded. You need to be serious about where you are in life. Not just for your retirement. Not just for the money you have in the bank, or you wanna have in the bank, or the lands you possess, or the houses you wanna build. You need to be serious about the things of God. Because the fact of the matter is, if you're older, you have less in front of you than you have behind you. There's less days ahead of you than are behind you. You and I have to come to grips with that. If the age of man is three score and 10, but by reason of strength, four score, that's 70 to 80 years of age. Wow. We definitely all are here by the grace of God, but I'm 67. If by reason of strength, and hey, look, we live in a sin, curse world, God may not give me 70 years. He may not give me 80 years. I don't know. But it is appointed that a man wants to die, and after this is the judgment, all I do know is, I have more years behind me than I do in front of me. And so, I need to be serious about life. I need to be serious about the days that God has left for me. I didn't know when I'd be born. And I don't know when I'm gonna die. But I know one thing, when I meet God, I don't wanna be there ashamed. I don't wanna have to sing that song that some people sing, I wish I'd given him more. I wish I'd given him more. I don't wanna have to sing that song. I wonder how many saints in glory today are saying, oh, I wish I could have a do-over. I wish I could give Him more. I wish I could go back and... Folks, we need to grab hold of the opportunities God gives us now. Quit crying over your past. Paul said, forgetting those things that are behind, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Press on. Be sober, grave, temperate, sound in the faith. Be godly, older folks, in charity and patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviors become of holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. What's he saying? Hey, teach. Older folks, transition to be a godly teacher to the younger generation. People are always, I guess preachers are always struck by the fact that we have a church with so many children. We have a good cross section. We have the older generation and we have the younger generation. We all have a job to do to the glory of God. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's ask God, God, what will thou have me to do? What will thou have me to do? Just as Joshua transitioned, Moses transitioned, and there's been generation after generation after generation where transitions have taken place. And if God carries His coming, you'll transition too. Let's all stand with our heads bowed or eyes closed, please.