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This morning, Reverend Dr. William Wann speaks to both the aged and the aging, encouraging us that when we face the obstacles that come with aging, to glance at the problems, glance at the challenges, but gaze at the Lord. Let's turn our hearts and minds to the Lord this morning.

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Aging positively for the Lord. Aging is something that happens to all of us. We can't escape it. We are aging every moment, every minute, every day. In fact, since we came here about uh 8 30 this morning, we have aged almost an hour. And you did nothing but just sitting there and worshiping with us. So don't think of aging as something that happens to old people, it happened to all of us. So the sooner we learn how to age um well and age uh graciously, the better it is for us. In fact, when I came here, our uh sister sitting right behind me, right now, sitting behind Richard, said to me that I I read your book. Uh the book is called the uh Through the Valley, The Art of Aging Well. And let me tell you this: that book is about living and living well, and you know what? It's gone into sixth reprint, and I'm out of print. So today I didn't bring that book, I brought something else, which I will introduce in a moment. But you keep your um eyes on the scripture, or at least on your whatever scripture you brought, uh digital or hard copy on Philippians chapter 4, and it's very easy to divide that into three parts. The first part is in order to age positively, we need to be joyful, verse 4 to 5. It's simple enough. Be joyful, rejoice in the Lord always, and I say, rejoice. The second is be prayerful, verse 6 to 7. In all things make your request known to God, right? Be prayerful, verse 6 to 7, and then the third thing is to be thoughtful, verse 8 to 9. Verse 8 to 9. Now, if you can think of just three things, all the full things, be full of uh joy, that is to be joyful, to be full of uh prayer, that is to be prayerful, and to be full of good thoughts, positive thoughts, that is to be thoughtful. Now, if you can do all that, I can almost guarantee you that by the grace of God we are going to age positively, we're going to age well. So, first, joyful, rejoice, because when we are rejoicing, it leads to a sense of uh peace in our lives, a sense of lack of anxiety, a sense of uh gentleness, a sense of uh being calm and tranquil. Because when we are joyful, we are not worrying about things. We are not anxious. The Lord Jesus said that when we are anxious, what happened to us? We add nothing to us, nothing at all. The Lord said in Matthew, look at the birds of the air, they're not anxious. Look at the flowers of the field, they're not anxious. Why? Because God provides all their needs. So, whatever we think we should be anxious about, especially when we get older, we worry about health, we worry about money, we worry about not having enough to live through the rest of our years, don't believe that for a moment. Why? Because God has seen us through, I'm 77 years old, God has seen me through 77 years. You mean to say if I've got another five years or three years, God is not going to take care of me? I don't believe that. So I am full of joy because I'm joyful in the Lord. The Lord is near. That's what he says. The Lord is so close to me, the Lord is in me because when I accept the Lord Jesus, he became my Lord, and He is going to provide all my needs. So why shouldn't I be joyful? There's so many reasons to be joyful. And when I'm joyful, then my countenance, my disposition is going to be that of a gentle person. I'm not going to be screaming and worrying and shouting and clamoring for whatever I need because I know in the quietness of my spirit, God is supplying all my needs. So when I rejoice, what do I do? I rejoice in the Lord. So I focus on the Lord. I'm not focusing on my circumstances. We all know when we get older, we're going to feel a little weak. We're going to feel a little, you know, perhaps, you know, sometimes we feel like you know we need more sleep. That's okay. That's all part of growing old. That's okay. But we need not look at the circumstance. Because the Lord is near. The Lord has already come in Jesus Christ. We talk about Advent today. The Lord has come and is coming. And we are waiting for him to come again and bring us to a better place. So, to rejoice, glance at the problem, glance at the challenges, but gaze at the Lord. Gaze at the Lord. Be focused on the Lord. The Lord has done great things. We know him. And he will provide our needs. Secondly, be prayerful. Prayer leads to peace. The peace that is that is beyond human understanding. The peace that is not dependent on external circumstances. The peace that is not about having no wars. In fact, God has warned us time and time again: there'll be wars and there will be rumors of wars. Peace is not something that we're going to see in this world. The peace that Jesus gives to us is not the peace without war. It's not a peace without trouble. It's not a peace without illnesses. It's not a peace without death. But it's a peace that is deep inside us. Because we know that God is near us. And so we pray. We pray. We pray because we know that God is near us. We are not alone. He hears our prayer. He is with us in all situations. He's told us, Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be open to you. Shouldn't we believe him? Shouldn't we believe that he who sent his son Jesus to die on that cross for us will give us everything we need. We are told that if we ask our Father for bread, will he give us a stone? Of course not. Our Heavenly Father will provide all our needs. So we can pray to Him and not be anxious, and we will find this peace. Psalm 23, David says, I fear no evil, for you are with me. When he needs, whenever he needs his soul to be restored, David knew that God is with him. Whether it's in the valley, in the shadow of death, or whatever, God is with him. In the presence of my enemies, the psalmist David said, He will set a table before me, and he will be with me. Brothers and sisters, how wonderful it is to know that even as we grow older, as we age, and sometimes people say that when you grow old, you become very lonely. Why? Part of the reason is because we turn around and we realize that many of our friends have gone before us. And by and by we realize that, you know, the friends we used to go out eating with and you know, having a good fellowship with, or even in church or in church camp, they're no longer here. But need we feel lonely? The answer is no. Knowing God who is with us and community and communicating with God through prayer and worship, communion, that is good enough. And God will fill our hearts with his presence and we will know his love. And I can tell you that when we exercise spiritual gifts of praying, of communion with God, of reading the Bible, of letting God speak to us, we'll never, ever feel lonely. So we can be assured that when we pray, we need not worry, we need not feel lonely, we will not worry, instead, we will worry over nothing, but we will pray for everything. And we will know that God will answer our prayer, and we need not be lonely anymore. I believe we can also pray even in our later years in life, and there is this myth. I'll tell you, it's a myth. The myth says that when we get older, we can never make new friends. Don't believe it. In the last 14 years, I took time out from practicing my law to drive the kindness movement. In the last 14 years, I started at age 63. I just retired from that. Age 63 was the time when people retired at 62, and I just started a new job. And the 14 years have been wonderful years. I have made so many new friends. So many. Incredible. Do you know what? About two months ago, our grandson got married. My grandson got married. And uh he got married in Canada, and he said, you know, grandpa, don't have to come. It's so far, too far for you. My wife and I will come and we'll come with some of our friends, and uh, and uh Skylar, Skylar's the wife, and Skylar's father and mother will also come and then we will seek your blessing in Singapore. So I said, that's a good thing. They're gonna come here for blessing. Why not? So I said, okay, come and we'll invite a few friends. So we started with 50 friends, and then we look at the 50 friends, and we realize that they're all connected to another 50 friends. So it became a hundred friends. And then we look at the number again and the names, and then they're connected with another hundred people, and they became two hundred friends. And then we look at it again, and two hundred became 400. I called the restaurant and say, Hey, Mr. Eric, uh, how many can your restaurant take? And you say, Oh, max 400. Oh dear, I got 400. We'll stop there. And then we look again and realize that we have to add one more hundred to, and it became 500. So I beg Mr. Eric to somehow, you know, put more tables, squeeze a little bit, and we managed to squeeze in 500 people. And uh for for blessing our grandson and his wife at a restaurant far away. It's quite near here, actually, uh, Orchid Country Club. Very far away from town. It was on a Thursday night, and uh, you know, and my daughter said, Um, Dad, are you sure so many people will come? I said, We don't know, but we'll try. And then they came. They came. Almost everybody came. And I look at the list again of names, and I realized that half of them were friends I made in the last 14 years. My brothers and sisters, you who are older, please don't believe that you cannot make new friends. You can. God can bless you with new friends. I'm so glad that the young people, the children's theme is about loving your neighbors. We need to initiate that. We need to make our neighbors friends by choice, even though they they are all neighbors by chance. Make neighbors by chance friends by choice. By reaching out to them, we are called to love God with all our heart and all our mind and all our soul and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Go reach out to them, and they will become your friends. Finally, be thoughtful. Verse 8 to 9. We need to feed our minds, not with worry. Worry is negative. Worry and anxiety is negative. Worry and anxiety will eat us up, will kill us. So, what do we do? We say, Lord, take away all my worries. I'm praying to you because I do not want to be anxious. Lord, now I want to do a little bit of replacement therapy. Lord, now fill my minds. Fill my minds with positive thoughts, not with negative thoughts. With thoughts of beauty, with thoughts of honor, with thoughts of goodness, and make me a positive person. Because worry is paying interest before it is due. So, what do we need to feed our minds? When we feed our minds, we will have an impact on the way we think, on the way we feel. Mind is so powerful. So, this is the book that I brought today, which is published by the School of Positive Psychology. It's called Rising Above Stories of Strength and Courage. These are stories of younger people, not older people. Younger people have been through trauma, been through challenges in their life. One of them, the founder of this school, of which I'm now the senior fellow, they had a graduation uh yesterday and I was their commencement speaker. Stephen Liu, you must read about him in this book, the last story out of the 23. For years and years and years, he never ever celebrated his birthday. Never ever. And you know what happened? His friends were all celebrating birthday. And he kept asking his parents, why am I not celebrating my birthday? And nobody told him anything. They all refused to speak. Subsequently, he discovered as an adult that on his birthday, when he was very little, the uncle's side of the family, they were all murdered. And the murder has still not been solved. Many years ago, murdered on his birthday, and the family refused to celebrate his birthday because they are not Christians and it's all Pantang and all sue and all everything else. And for years, this young lad growing up felt so unloved, so abundant, so isolated. And he went through a lot of trauma just trying to trying to find meaning for his life. This is how eventually, through positive psychology, this is a book about positive psychology, he has overcome that trauma. And many others have done so. I am part of this movement because I am also trying to inject our Christian faith into positive psychology. We do not need to be afraid of positive psychology. In fact, we are told that whatever is admirable, whatever is good, whatever is beautiful, think on all these things. This is a book about very wonderful, beautiful people. Many of them are not yet Christians. I'm working with them, but they are beautiful people who have found positive help through this therapy. So I want you to read about it, to just think positively. And one way you can think positively is that all these things that God has given us, whether it is medicine, the healing of the body, or psychiatric therapy, healing of the mind, healing of the heart, all this knowledge eventually must be traced back to God, the giver of common grace. And we all share the common grace. God allowed the rain to allows the rain to fall on the believers as well as the unbelievers. What is our job? Our job as we age, as we grow, as we as we think positively, is to think of ways we can reach out to them. And we cannot reach out to them by just staying in church. We cannot reach out to them by just being friends among our own people. We must reach out to these organizations, these schools, in the public square and become friends with them and bring them some the most positive thing that we can ever bring to somebody, the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. And we need to look at that very positively. So whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, think on these things. So get hold of this and think about what these people have found, and then pray for them. Their names are all there, and I'm praying that some of them who are not Christians are be able to reach them for Christ. So, in conclusion, how do we age positively? We age positively. Number one, by being joyful, smile a lot, be happy about what God has given you, be contented. Secondly, be prayerful when you read something in the papers, when you read a book like this with all the names of these people there, make it your job, make it your ministry to pray for them by name, especially now that I mention it to you. I am trying to reach out to them. I've edited their stories, I know them. I can work with them, and we can reach them for Christ together, you with your prayer and mine with my personal evangelism. And then finally, fill our minds with positive thoughts. For positive thoughts about our belief. We have a wonderful God to think about. God's creation is so beautiful, we can think about those things. Positive behavior. We seek to applaud and to affirm people who conduct themselves well, even though they may not be Christians, but we can reach out to them. And we ourselves must watch our behavior that it is positive. Our conduct is positive and affirming and kind. And then finally, we rejoice with all the beauty that we see around us. God has given every one of us beauty, and when we can affirm others' beauty, we can become their friends and reach them for Jesus Christ. So live positively, age positively, and may God bless us and help us.

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We pray that you've been ministered to by the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about Eastern Christian Church, please visit our website at ycccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.