03. Too Old, God Is Not Finished With You

Who Are You Preventing From Leading? · Part 03

At eighty-five, Caleb was not asking for an easier assignment.

He was asking for a mountain.

Forty-five years had passed since God first made the promise. Caleb’s body had aged, but his faith had not retired.

He declared:

“Now, behold, Yahweh has kept me alive, as he spoke, these forty-five years… Now, behold, I am eighty-five years old today.”
, Joshua 14:10 WEB

Then he made an astonishing request:

“Now therefore give me this hill country.”
, Joshua 14:12 WEB

Caleb did not deny his age. He simply refused to allow his age to define the limits of his obedience.

Our culture often tells people that their most useful years are behind them.

Unfortunately, the church can communicate the same message.

Older believers may be appreciated for what they once did but rarely challenged concerning what God may still want them to do.

But retirement from employment is not retirement from the Great Commission.

Age may change your assignment, but it does not cancel your usefulness.

You may not travel as often as you once did.

You may not have the same energy you had twenty years ago.

But you may possess something younger believers desperately need:

Years of walking with God. Lessons learned through suffering. Wisdom gained through failure. Faith strengthened through answered prayer. Relationships built over a lifetime.

These are not merely memories.

They are resources for making disciples.

You can pray for the nations.

You can disciple a younger believer.

You can open your home.

You can coach emerging leaders.

You can share the gospel with neighbors.

You can encourage missionaries.

You can invest financially in multiplying disciples.

You can pass on everything God has taught you before your race is finished.

Psalm 92 says:

“They will still produce fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and green, to show that Yahweh is upright.”
, Psalm 92:14-15 WEB

Notice the promise: They will still produce fruit.

The fruit may look different in each season, but fruitfulness does not have an expiration date.

Perhaps the church’s greatest untapped missionary force is not only its young people.

Perhaps it is the older generation sitting in our congregations, experienced, faithful, connected, and waiting for someone to remind them:

God is not finished with you.

Caleb did not ask for permission to sit down.

He asked for his mountain.

What mountain is God still asking you to take?

And church leaders, are we helping older believers discover their next Great Commission assignment, or quietly encouraging them to become spectators?

Challenge: Have we confused retirement from employment with retirement from the Great Commission?

You may be finished with your career.

But as long as God gives you breath, He can still give you an assignment.

Do not merely grow older. Keep bearing fruit. Keep making disciples. Keep asking God for your mountain.