Can God Save “Old People?”
Our mind tells us that God has the power to save anyone. But how much do we really believe that God can save people in their last days? There are millions of unbelieving people living in nursing homes in the U.S, Canada and Europe. Yet, very few Christians take the time to evangelize them. These older people are a captive audience. Most of them would love to be visited. Most of them would let people read the Bible to them. If these things are so, why then do we neglect the opportunity to evangelize them? Could it be that deep inside, we doubt that God can or will save them?
You might be thinking that since these people have lived so long, they most likely have heard and understand the gospel. In case you believe this, let me assure you that most of them do not understand the gospel even if they have attended some type of church most of their lives. Let me suggest that most of them have been inoculated with enough religion to make them dull of hearing. Most of them have heard that Jesus died for our sins but do not begin to understand why Jesus HAD to die.
Several months ago, God moved my wife along with a few of her friends to begin visiting a local nursing home. Most of the people they met claim to be Christians. They met a couple of believers there but most of the ones they meet do not understand the gospel and relate to God on the basis of their works. My wife and her friends have formed relationships with several of the women in the nursing home. They have been able to explain the gospel in detail and have weekly discussions focused on gospel truth. The people look forward to these visits. Most of them have attended some type of church all their lives. Yet, they have only begun to understand the gospel recently. One of them may have recently begun believing the gospel from the heart. The point is that there are millions of people in these homes that really do not understand the gospel but could hear and understand the gospel if Christians would simply take the time to explain it to them.
It must be stated that any efforts to advance God’s Kingdom will be futile unless His Spirit moves. If a Christian attempts to do the work of evangelism in his own power, he will fail and eventually stop doing the work. It is clear to me that God is the One that moved my wife and her friends to get involved in evangelizing the women at the nursing home. It is obvious to me that He continues to empower them to do the work. They are not doing it out of duty. Rather, they are motivated by the joy of beholding God’s glory in it. The women they visit recognize that my wife and her friends are there because they want to be there. Deep relationships are forming between them. Bottom line, God is the mover. Those going have simply surrendered themselves and are enjoying the food of doing His will.
Perhaps you are wondering if God would bless you with a fruitful ministry to people living in a nursing home. Why not begin asking Him to direct you and offer yourself to do this work?
Ministry suggestions for nursing home evangelism
If you decide to try evangelizing people in a nursing home, make it your intention from the start to explain the gospel to them. You should state your intentions to the people you meet. Do not hesitate to tell them that God has put it on your heart to minister His word to people in the nursing home. If a person does not seem interested the first time you go there, don’t worry. Often, they begin to be interested if they see you coming back each week. Over time, people realize that you are there regularly and they begin to recognize you as a minister of God’s word, not because you are a pastor, but because you care enough to do the work that many pastors are not doing in the nursing homes. Even if you have very little experience and do not feel confident, there are many things you can do to minister the gospel to them.
1. Read the Bible to them. When you meet someone, ask if you can read a short passage of the Bible to them. Often, their attention span is short so keep the passages short. After reading it, you can ask them if they understand it and even explain it to them or discuss it with them.
2. Read a good gospel tract to them. If you have difficulty articulating the gospel, you can read a good gospel tract to them and let it do the preaching. You can stop every few sentences and ask if they understand what you read. Attached are two gospel tracts that you might consider using. The one called, It’s Your Choice can be read with no explanation. The one called, The Gospel We Believe is merely one statement after another. It requires more explanation on your part. You read one statement at a time and then ask if they understand that statement. Each statement should be discussed until the person comprehends it. Depending on each person’s attention span, you may want to read a little each visit rather than try to get through the entire tract in one visit.
3. Pray with them each time you visit. Pray for their physical needs and their spiritual needs.
4. If a person is so inclined, you can take them through a gospel study using “God’s Redemption Message” or something like it.
“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.‘ “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ (Matthew 25:34-40)
Maybe try reading a tract to them:
Immediately below is a tract that you could read to nursing home patients. If you read a tract like this, only cover a as much of it that their attention span allows. It is good to stop and ask if they understand sentences. Go slow.
It’s Your Choice!
You can choose to ignore it or you can accept it. The choice is yours and the consequences are eternal. If you are brave enough to face the truth, then read on to find out what God has said about you and Himself.
You most likely will agree that you have “sinned” in some way. In other words, you have broken God’s laws. The Bible says that you have broken every one of the Ten Commandments. For example, you have failed to love God more than everything. You have failed to reverence His name continually. You have loved other things more than God. You have disobeyed your parents. In your heart, you have murdered people in your hatred for them. In your heart, you have committed adultery by having lust for other people. You have stolen that which is not yours. (Even cheating on a test qualifies as stealing.) You have lied. You have desired to have things that do not belong to you. If you are reading this, you are probably saying to yourself, “nobody is perfect,” or, “everyone has done these things.” But you cannot escape the fact that you are guilty of breaking God’s law and the Bible says that God will not leave the guilty unpunished (Nahum 1:3).
You might be falsely thinking that God will weigh the good things you have done against the bad things you have done in order to render a judgment against you that is favorable. This thinking makes God out to be unrighteous and it dishonors Him. Most people think that God is a God of love. This is true (I John 4:8). What most people fail to understand is that God is also a God of perfect righteousness. (“The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him…Psalm 92:15″) This makes it impossible for sinful beings to dwell in His presence. (Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong…Habakkuk 1:13″) He cannot judge according to human standards. He cannot accept plea bargains. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes (Deut. 10:17).
What does God deserve and demand?
The Bible says that God demands and deserves perfect obedience from His creatures for every moment of their life. Do not assume that this is unfair. After all, God created us and provided everything we need to exist all the days of our lives. He gives us each breath we take. We assume that food, water and shelter are things we provide for ourselves. While this may be true in some respect, God insists that He is ultimately the one who is providing the opportunity for us to get what we need to live. (Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground–everything that has the breath of life in it–I give every green plant for food. (Genesis 1:29&30).” We take for granted the air we breathe but the Bible says that it is a gift from God. This is what God the LORD says–He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it (Isaiah 42:5). The Bible says that all these things we take for granted are gifts, not rights. Since God created all things, He has the right to call the shots. And because we have all dishonored Him through direct disobedience, God would be perfectly just to destroy us all in an instant. According to the Bible, this is what we truly deserve and He has the power and right to do it at any time. This is why the Bible says that the only proper response is to “fear God.”
Is there any hope?
You may be wondering, if God expects us to live in perfect obedience with a heart of love for Him all of our lives, how can there be any hope for us since none of us have lived that way? If this thought has crossed your mind, you are starting to see things as God sees them. God has made a way of escape but before you can have it, you must agree with His assessment of you.
God has declared the following about you:
-You are not righteous.
-You do not seek Him (You have been the lord of your life.)
-You have turned away from Him rather than move toward Him.
-Your heart has a tendency towards violence and cursing.
-You do not know peace.
-You have not feared Him as the righteous judge who has given you life and preserved it. (see Romans 3:11-17).
–You deserve God’s condemnation because you have refused to let God rule over your life (because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will give to each person according to what he has done…Romans 2:5-6)”.
-You cannot escape God’s wrath by trying to keep God’s law. No one will be declared righteous in his sight by trying to keep the law(Romans 3:19-20).
–You cannot make up for your bad deeds by trying to do good deeds. All of your righteous deeds are as filthy rags in God’s sight (Isaiah 64:6)
-Since your chief sin has been the rejection of God’s rule over your life (rebellion), the just and reasonable punishment is to be cast away from His presence forever in a place called hell. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power…II Thess 1:8&9).
Until you feel the weight of this reality, there is no hope for you. But if you feel a desperate need for God’s mercy because of your sins against Him, consider yourself one of the blessed people on earth because Jesus came to save sinners, not people who think they are righteous. ( Matthew 9:13).
But there is still a problem!
Even though God is merciful, He still cannot simply excuse sin. His perfect righteousness will not allow Him to simply “sweep your sins under the carpet.” God’s perfect righteousness demands that punishment must be applied for every single sin you ever committed.
The good news:
God made a way for someone else to take that punishment instead of you! God loves you so much that He sent His own Son (Jesus) into the world to take your punishment for you! Two-thousand years ago, Jesus was whipped, beaten and then hung on a cross to die even though He had never sinned. Though He was completely innocent, He willingly hung there, taking your sins upon Himself and He bore the wrath of God as your substitute. This voluntary sacrifice He made for you satisfied the righteous demands of God. Now, all who place their trust in Jesus as their only way to God receive forgiveness of sins once and for all. . “Of Him (Jesus) all the prophets bear witness that through His name, everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43).”
Through his death, Jesus gained victory for God!
Within three days after He died, Jesus rose from the dead (not just His Spirit, but His body too). During the next forty days, He was seen by over five hundred people before God raised Him up to sit at His right hand as Lord and Judge over all. Before He left, Jesus promised He would come back to raise all the dead (bodily) and judge all people. He will re-create the heavens and the earth where His people will live with Him forever in bliss, and all who do not know Him will be cast into hell forever.
God’s loving invitation to you:
If you believe you are a sinner condemned by God and unable to save yourself, then God invites you to receive His gift of eternal life through Jesus His Son. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).” To receive Jesus, you must stop relying on your own righteousness and begin following Him. You must let go of your life completely and let Him have complete control. Jesus said, “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it (Luke 17:33).” You must believe that God is good and that He knows what is best for you. If you don’t come to God through Jesus believing these things, you simply cannot come. If you truly wish to follow Jesus, you can prove your allegiance to him by being baptized.
The joy of following Jesus!
Because of Jesus, you can begin enjoying a personal relationship with God, your creator. Your life will be changed forever! “To all who received Jesus, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12).” In response to God’s free offer of forgiveness in Christ, I urge you to surrender yourself to Him today! If you have decided to surrender your life to Jesus, start reading the Bible to learn about God and His promises to us. (Perhaps start with John, the fourth book of the New Testament.) To be strengthened in your faith, you should begin spending time each week with other believers.
If you persist in viewing yourself as “ok” and reject the viewpoint of God, then heed His warning: “no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:26-29).”
Or try reading single gospel statements at a time and then discussing each statement after you read it:
Below is a statement by statement articulation of the gospel (with Scripture references) to use as an example:
The Gospel we Believe
God is the One who gave us life and He has the right to take it away any time. God is the King with absolute authority over us.
“I hold the keys of death and Hell”(Revelation 1:18).
He has declared that those who rule over their own lives are His enemies because they are living lives in rebellion against His rule over them. Those who are not a part of His Kingdom are not on “His side.” They are a part of the “kingdom of darkness” (Colossians 1:13).
Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.’ The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath” (Psalm 2:1-5).
All those who are not in God’s Kingdom will be cast into hell away from His presence and the glory of His power forever.
“When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord (II Thessalonians 1:7-9)
If a man is the one running his own life, then he stands justly condemned to spend eternity in hell for his rebellion.
“Whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).
Contrary to what most people think about themselves, there is no one who is good.
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).
Good deeds cannot make up for our rebellion.
All of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).
All people are guilty of breaking God’s commandments.
“You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol…You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God… “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. “Honor your father and your mother. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house…or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:3-17)
God cannot simply ignore a man’s sin. All sin demands punishment for God to remain righteous.
The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished” (Nahum 1:2-3)
God has made a way for you to be reconciled to Him.
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18)
Jesus absorbed the wrath of God as our substitute. This voluntary sacrifice He made for us satisfied the righteous demands of God. Now, all who place their trust in Jesus as their only way to God receive forgiveness of sins once and for all.
“Of Him (Jesus) all the prophets bear witness that through His name, everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins” (Acts 10:43).
Through his death, Jesus gained victory for God! Within three days after He died, Jesus rose from the dead (not just His Spirit, but His body too). During the next forty days, He appeared to over five hundred people. Then God raised Him up to sit at His right hand as Lord and Judge over all.
If a man believes he is a sinner condemned by God and unable to save himself, then God invites him to receive His gift of eternal life by believing in Jesus, His Son.
Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
To receive Jesus, a man must stop relying on his own righteousness and begin depending on Him alone. If he believes these things from his heart, he will be willing to let go of his life completely and let Him have control.
Jesus said, “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Luke 17:33).
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