Perhaps you are convinced that those who are older or who have health issues should be active in serving God, but you find it hard to picture what that looks like. After all, you might not be able to preach or lead a congregation or head to the mission field. If age and health issues are limiting factors for you, what might your service of Jesus look like?

God loves to use the weak to shame the strong
It is a natural thing for us to honour those who are strong and young. Olympic athletes grace the covers of magazines, and younger people advertise beauty products. Even in the church, often it is the university student ministry that is prioritised as ‘strategic’, while ministry to older believers or those with disabilities can be overlooked.
God doesn’t value strength the way that we do. In fact, God seems to love using those who are weak for his purposes. We see this all through Scripture. God chose Moses to lead his people out of Egypt, even though he couldn’t speak well and didn’t want to do it. Jesus chose a ragtag group of men to be his disciples, impetuous men like Peter who were fishermen instead of scholars or aristocrats. Many of the people remembered as having great faith in the gospels are foreigners, women, prostitutes, disabled, or poor.
We might honour the apostle Paul for his tightly reasoned letters in the New Testament, but he was derided for not being very impressive in person[i] and he struggled with a “thorn” problem his whole life. When he asked God to remove this “thorn”, God’s answer was:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)[ii]
In the end, Paul realised it was good for him to have his limitations. His problem, whatever it was, was an ongoing struggle that kept him from becoming conceited. God used someone with significant struggles in his life so powerfully to make it clear that the power came from God and not from Paul. In fact, Paul could conclude that it was when he was weak that he was actually strong. He came to depend on God in his hard times instead of himself.
Paul explained God’s use of the weak over the strong in another place:
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)
Do you see how freeing Paul’s point is here? You don’t need to be an impressive strong young person to be used by God. God loves to use people who are weak in the eyes of the world for his purposes. You might be incredibly useful to God, not because of your innate abilities, but because people can see the grace of God working through someone like you. There are few things more encouraging to younger believers than to see older saints who struggle with their health remaining faithful as servants of the Lord Jesus.
But what could I possibly do to serve God in my situation?
Perhaps you are convinced that those who are older or who have health issues should be active in serving God, but you find it hard to picture what that looks like. After all, you might not be able to preach or lead a congregation or head to the mission field. If age and health issues are limiting factors for you, what might your service of Jesus look like?
There are examples all around us in our churches if only we would look. Many older people in churches I have been part of have been incredibly faithful in prayer. Even if you have some limitation that means you cannot leave your house, you can pray. Perhaps God has given you the great opportunity to spend more time in prayer than you ever have before! Don’t focus on your limitations; think about your opportunities to serve. A focus on prayer will change you as well as you present your requests to God, reminding you that even in your time of challenge, your Father hears you.
Several retirees I have known have used their extra time and resources well by showing hospitality to others in the church. Inviting others over for meals is a dying tradition for many struggling to balance busy careers with their home lives. Opening your house to others, or taking them with you to a restaurant, can be a great way to show love to other people and encourage them.
With age comes experience and wisdom. Oh yes, I know that even older believers who have been in the church for decades still feel their lack of understanding! But the reality is that if you are older, you most likely have a more robust Bible knowledge and experience of living out your faith than many younger people. Consider how you might use those talents. You could meet regularly with new Christians to read the Bible with them. You could take the opportunity to serve as a Bible study leader or visit others. You can phone people or use email to encourage others. Even with limited energy, there are so many ways you could use what God has given you to benefit others.
If you find yourself with a more severe disability or limitation, even then you can see your situation as an opportunity for service. I have known many Christians with severe disability and chronic diseases to be a magnificent witness to the health staff and doctors who cared for them. If you have carers come to your house to help you with everyday tasks, the way you treat them and interact with them can shine the light of the gospel into their lives. Never underestimate the influence a faithful believer can have on the world around them simply by living a joyful, faithful life in difficult circumstances.
Simon van Bruchem is a Teaching Elder at All Nations Presbyterian Church in Perth, Western Australia, where he has served since 2007.
This is an excerpt from Distinctively Christian Retirement: A Biblical call to serve Jesus well in older age. You can find out more about the book at www.writtenforourinstruction.com/distinctively-christian-retirement/. You can purchase the ebook from Amazon here, Kobo, Apple Books, or anywhere ebooks are sold. The print book is available in many places including Book Depository and Amazon. The audiobook is available at Audible here and soon in many other places as well.

[i] In 2 Corinthians 11:6 Paul admits he is unskilled in speaking, and 2 Corinthians 10:1 implies he is accused of being bold only in his writing and yet humble in person.
[ii] Unless specified, all Bible references are from the ESV Bible (Holy Bible English Standard Version), copyright ©2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Written by R.C. Sproul |
Sunday, August 13, 2023
When we close our eyes in death, we do not cease to be alive; rather, we experience a continuation of personal consciousness. No person is more conscious, more aware, and more alert than when he passes through the veil from this world into the next. 

The guns of secular naturalism, when aimed at the Christian faith, resemble not so much shotguns as carefully aimed rifles. The chief target of the naturalist is the biblical doctrine of creation. If the doctrine of creation falls, all of Judeo-Christianity falls with it. Every skeptic understands that. Thus the constant shooting at Genesis 1.
But along with the assault against divine creation comes an assault against the biblical teaching of a historical Adam who is involved in a historical fall, the result of which is the entrance of death into the world. If Adam can be confined to the genre of mythology and the fall set aside with him, then we see death as a purely natural phenomenon with no relationship to sin.
Much is at stake with the biblical teaching of the fall because this doctrine is linked to the doctrine of redemption. The historical function of the first Adam is matched and conquered by the historical life of the last Adam, Jesus Christ.
In the eighteenth century, when Jonathan Edwards wrote his lengthy treatise on original sin, he argued not simply from biblical teaching. He also maintained that if the Bible itself were completely silent about a historical fall, natural reason would have to suggest that idea based on the reality of the universal presence of sin. If sin is simply a result of bad decisions that some people make, we would assume that at least 50 percent of the people born in this world would choose the right path rather than the sinful one that is so damaging to our humanity. The fact that 100 percent of the human race falls into sin indicates that there must be an inherent moral defect in the race. Of course, Edwards points to the fall, a historical event, to account for this universal fatal flaw.
In the Genesis account, we are told that the soul that sins will die. In His warning to our original parents with respect to disobedience, God declared that “the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). But the record goes on to say that the day Adam and Eve disobeyed their Maker, they did not experience the fullness of what the Greek translation of the Old Testament calls thanatos—physical death. Because of this, some have argued that the death that God promised was not physical death but rather spiritual death.
To be sure, spiritual death set in the very day that Adam and Eve sinned.
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The pastor’s ministry does not replace mine; it refines mine. It makes our ministry better, more effective. Your pastor equips you for the work of ministry, for the building up the body of Christ into mature manhood (Ephesians 4:12–13). This ministry finds some expression on Sunday mornings as you serve, you prepare, and you exercise your own gifts and acts of love within your local body. Much of the best ministry in healthy churches happens by those who never hold a microphone.

The first step is to survive the coordinated attacks from the children. An ex-nihilo stain suddenly appears on my daughter’s dress. An episode from my son responding to his sister’s “help.” A well-placed plastic Lego planted strategically at the bottom of the steps. And of course, a soiled-through diaper just as we head for the door.
Safely in the car, we prepare to play our part of our church’s ministry for that Sunday’s gathering. I have no formal duties this week — I am not preaching or welcoming or giving the prayer of thanksgiving — but I ready myself and my family for ministry nonetheless.
A worship song plays. Swerving along the main road cratered as the moon, we arrive at the chosen traffic light signaling time to pray for the service. The music pauses, and a hush falls on the car.
Father, please be with us as we worship you in spirit and in truth. Bless the pastor to preach your word with power. Give us ears to hear and obey your word. Have mercy on your beloved people. Let us see Christ. If any do not truly know you, save them. And Lord, prepare us now to be a blessing to your people.
After we park, we turn our energies to greeting the saints and getting all of our kids into the pew.
As the service begins, we focus on the lyrics being sung, asking God to warm our hearts and the hearts of those around us. My two oldest, imitating their parents, throw up their hands. We praise him with our whole person. Lord, accept our songs in your Son. Forgive our coldness and distractions.
As worship continues, my wife and I see some new faces, some faces we have not seen in a while, some faces we have been praying for. We note people we want to make sure to talk to after the service.
The preacher soon mounts the pulpit. O Lord, give him love for your glory, love for your people, love for your word. Bless him to preach as one speaking your oracles. Speak to us through this man.
After the preaching, after the final song and benediction are given, we look around — a big part of our ministry begins. Who would you have us speak with, encourage, welcome to the church, pray for, confront? How do you plan to use us to bless those around us in the pews this week?
Does My Church Need Me?
Here is the main point, the truth that can revolutionize your walk with the Lord and your experience of the local church: If you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, you have something to contribute to your local church every Sunday morning.
Do you believe that? Do you come not only to receive — which you should — but to also bless?
This has been hard for “normal” Christians to believe ever since the beginning. In the early church, members looked around the house churches in Corinth and saw different usefulness in the Lord, different giftings. Some seemed more essential, and others more dispensable.
Responding to such thinking, Paul writes, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. . .” (1 Corinthians 12:21–22).
Indispensable.
In too many churches today, the feet, hands, and ears say of themselves, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body” (1 Corinthians 12:16) — because we do not preach, teach, or host small group — we are not needed. Hands show up on Sundays, listless, merely to listen to the mouth speak. They rest in the audience, treating the local church as a theater that welcomes spectators to watch more prominent saints do actual ministry.
You are not leading worship. You are not formally greeting, nor praying in the service, nor giving communion. You aren’t ushering, or serving in the nursery, or leading a women’s ministry. What part do you really play?
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