Sr. Adult Appreciation Day 2017

Psalm 90:12-14  The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;  planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.  They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green. 

Today is Sr. Adult Day at Lexington Baptist Church.   I am so very thankful that each year on the first Sunday of May we, as a church Body, choose this day to recognize the ones who have lived longer, experienced more, and have given the most through the years not only to build up and support the ministries of Lexington Baptist Church, but in a larger context the Kingdom work of our Heavenly Father on earth.  To you I want to say thank you for the leadership you have provided and the Legacy you have already left for me and many others to follow.  I praise and thank the Lord for each one of you.  You are, and have been, a huge part of who I am today,  and I am so very grateful that God has placed us together in serving His Kingdom together.

And being 60 myself and having the privilege of being the Sr. Adult Pastor, I consider it a great blessing from the Father to have lived long enough to now be among those who have achieved the ability to say, "Well, I remember when...."  So here goes:

I remember when telephone numbers had letters (I grew up with CR5-2293) and all of our phones were rotary dial, just like you would find on a 10-cent pay phone at the airport where you could check every booth in a row of about 15 phones and maybe find about 50-cents worth of change left in the phones which equaled the amount of my 50-cent/week allowance out of which I remember tithing a nickel to put in a weekly offering envelope collected in Sunday School that had little boxes to check off if you were present, giving, had studied the SS lesson, had read your Bible everyday, or brought a visitor.

I remember when we had one black and white TV in the house with 3 different channels you would have to change by actually getting up and walking to the TV to turn the knob, but then we got a TV with a UHF knob that gave a couple more channels where I could watch Speed Racer and Ultra Man after school everyday and eat slices of Oscar Meyer baloney right out of the package and sing, "My baloney has a first name, it's OSCAR, my baloney has a second name it's MEYER. Oh, I love to eat it everyday and if you ask me why I'll say, "Oscar Meyer has a way with BOLOGNA!"

I remember when I got my first job - I was a 5th-grade paper boy for the Journal Herald newspaper in Dayton, Ohio, and I had 50 customers who expected me to get up at 6 AM every weekday and load up all the newspapers into saddlebags that fit on the leopard-covered banana seat of my Shwin 3-speed bicycle with monkey handle bars and ride around my neighborhood by myself placing newspapers on their front porches before walking 2 miles to Belle Haven Elementary School where I went from Kindergarten to the 8th grade in the same school building, just down different hallways.

But my favorite "I remember when" story is the one in which I remember getting saved!  I was nine years old and my dad who was the preacher, had been preaching on Rev. 3:20 where Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock!  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and fellowship with him and he with me."  It was a Saturday night in the early Fall and I could not sleep.  All I knew was that Jesus was outside of my heart and wanted to come in.  I went and woke my dad out of bed and said, "I can't sleep, I think it's Jesus."  My dad immediately got out of bed and we went to the kitchen table and there I confess myself to be a sinner and I asked Jesus to forgive me and come inside my heart and save me so I would for sure go to heaven when I died.  I immediately felt a burden lifted off of my shoulders and I knew Jesus had entered my life.  The very next day was Sunday and I made my public profession of faith and then the next week or so I got baptized.  That was 51 years ago!

I want to challenge each of you on this special day with this:

#1 Thank God for every day of life He has given to you.  Ps. 90:12 says, "Teach us to number our days, O Lord, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."  Don't focus on how many days you think you may have left in this life, but be thankful for the number of days you have been given.

#2 Serve the Lord and continue to bear fruit.  Remember that Moses was 80 years old when God called him to go lead the people out of Egypt.  Most of you in this room are involved in at least one ministry of some kind, whether it be through SS projects, LBC Mission trips, Back-pack ministry, School Time Bible, LBC VIP ministry, The Legacy Choir, or ministries not directly connected to LBC that you support or are involved in like the Gideons or LICS or Compassion International.

 You have a lot of living left to do and my prayer for you is that you will fulfill Psalm 90:12-14 and be like a tree flourishing fresh and green, bearing much fruit in the courts of our God.