Robert Breakout | Find your Purpose 2026

0:06 Hey guys, it's Pastor Robert Johnson. I serve on staff at Resurrection and currently serve as a location pastor at Resurrection League Summit. We've been going for about a year and having an amazing time out there, but it's good to be back with you. I don't know how many of you all were with us on last year when we did the 55 Plus Conference, but it's great to have you back with us. And I'm glad you're here for my workshop. Let me give you a disclaimer. You see this bright red shirt, and I want to apologize for all of you that this shirt is so bright that it's blinding, that it's irritating, that I thought I'd wear this just in case, just in case you find my presentation so boring or so lifeless that at least this red will help keep you maybe keep you awake. I keep you alert for a little while. It won't last forever, but maybe for a little while, it'll keep you tuned in. So if it works for you, then great. If it doesn't work for you, if it's irritating, please forgive me for this bright red shirt. But it's great to be with you.

1:08 I want to congratulate you on reaching this point in your life. God has been amazingly good to you and you've survived so much. And so here we are. And I want to share with you today some surprising benefits of aging and what to do with them. So some surprising benefits of aging and what to do with them. So let me begin with this. Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, announcing some great news. The silent generation, the baby boomers and generation extras together are going to blow the roof off of what it means to get older or to be older. Let me say that again, That silent generation and the baby boomers and Generation X are going to blow the roof off of what it means to be, quote unquote, older. And I think the world, according to social scientists, the world should get ready for what they're calling the silver tsunami.

2:07 What do I mean by that? That means what I'm referring to is that measured by advances in technology, medicine, communication, education and quality of life. The generations born between 1946 and 1971 have participated in one of the greatest periods of innovation and human progress in history. It has been the most progressive era in human history. And so in the same way that our generations have attacked life and have lived life to the fullest and have changed the world, that I expect us and social scientists are expecting that we're going to do the same thing with the process of aging, that we're going to live into it with a kind of liveliness, a kind of courage, a kind of tenacity and persistence that we're going to redefine what it means. to be old. And I hope you're ready for that. So we're retiring earlier, healthier, and wealthier than and more energized than any generation in history. We're retiring earlier, healthier, wealthier, and more energized than any generation in history. I see that at Resurrection League Summit. We probably, our congregation there is probably made up of about 50% people who are 45 plus and 50 percent 45 and under. So it is a very chronologically or age-wise diverse congregation. And when we have events, we see all of those people who are 55 plus. Most of them are showing up. They serve. They sing in the choir. They're in the handbell choir. They're forming small groups. They show up to volunteer for kids ministry. They show up to volunteer for student ministries. And I think that what we're seeing is that these people are retiring.

3:59 They were able to retire a little earlier. They are retiring with resources and they want to still change the world. They have led over the last 40 years. They have led in changing the world and they still want to find purpose and meaning. And I bet that's true for you as well. So I want to help us live into that. This workshop is only a beginner's course, an introduction to identifying and gathering the unique assets, strengths, and advantages that come with growing older and putting them to work to redefine old age, improve the quality of life for older adults, and help us change the world for good. But before we get into the heavy stuff, I want to give you just 10 random observations or 10 random benefits of aging that I think we should at least be aware of. Number one, number one, people assume you are wise so you can answer objective questions with your preferences and still be taken seriously.

5:09 Now, guys, if you're at home, you're supposed you should be at least chuckling right now and or laughing over these. Then I've got nine more to go as we go through these. Please, like, turn on your sense of humor and just have a little fun with me. People will assume you are wise so you can answer questions that are objective questions, but you can answer them with your personal preferences and people will still take you seriously. Number two, you can give unlimited sweets to your grandkids and give them back to the parents to deal with the aftermath. It's one of the benefits of aging. Number three, you know exactly how to manage your body for every occasion. So all of those embarrassing moments of adulthood you had when your body did things unexpectedly in front of guests and around coworkers, you are now old enough.

6:12 you've been living long enough that you know exactly how your body works and you know how to prepare your body and manage your body for every occasion. That's a great benefit. Number four, you will be forgiven for leaving events early. Now, you can't get away with this in your 20s and 30s, but when you're 55 plus, you can just get up in the middle of the sermon and walk out and nobody will see it as problematic. You can just get up in the middle of the greatest song, the choir is singing, you can just get up and start walking out and it'll be fine. It's fine with everybody. Nobody will bother you. Number five, if you forget things, instead of being accused of being irresponsible or disorganized, people will just leave you alone. They just won't bother you. Number six, you can break rules and people will either feel sorry for you.

7:12 I think you know something they don't. So you'll break the rules and people will kind of look at you and they'll end up thinking, OK, obviously, Robert knows something that I don't know and they'll just leave you alone. So you have a free rule to just go and break the rules. Don't overdo it Number one Okay, this should be number Well, here you go You can mess up the numbering on your PowerPoint slides And people would just let it slide Did you all just Were you all just going to let me Like make no corrections Just let him go He's 60 Let him go He's doing well enough At 60 to get this far in a PowerPoint Number four If you don't want to talk with someone, you can exaggerate hearing problems. Keep asking, what? Huh?

8:11 And they will give up and leave you alone. You should try sometimes. Somebody comes up and you don't want to talk to them. Just like, huh? What? And they'll leave you alone and you don't have to say anything rude to them. Try it. Number nine. We went from number four to number nine. Napping becomes socially acceptable. You can fall asleep. If you're still working, you can fall asleep in business meetings now and nobody will bother you. They'll think you're cool, as a matter of fact. They'll think you're so secure on the job that you feel comfortable enough to just fall asleep. Nobody will bother you. And then number 45, you can choose comfort over fashion with no backlash. You can just wear whatever you want. You're past the needing to be cool stage. You're passing the stage, you've passed the stage of needing to be in vogue.

9:07 And you can just wear whatever you want. And whatever shoes you want, your only concern needs to be comfort. And so you can wear whatever you want to wear and you'll get a pass. So those are just a few random amazing benefits of aging. I think we should celebrate those and be happy about them. All right. I hope you left a little, just a little. I hope you found some humor in some of that. But let me go on now. I do want to go on now and talk about some serious, more serious, surprising and significant benefits of aging. All right. So let's go. Number one, decades of life have made you a profit. You see deeply into people and situations and you see farther into the future, further into the future in ways that young people simply cannot. Right. So part of aging is that you've been through so much.

10:11 We've been through so much. We've seen so much. We've experienced so much. So it's really hard to catch us off guard when we see situations, we see people because we've seen it so many times. We kind of can see through the filters and we can see through the surface stuff and kind of see things for what they really are. And I think that's an amazing benefit because we get to share our insights with people who will listen. Not all the time with our kids. We love to share them with our kids and our grandkids. But as you know, our kids and grandkids do not want to listen to us a lot of the time. But whenever you're around people, particularly young people, that gift, that prophetic gift. And when I say prophet, I am being a little playful with it because a lot of people think of a prophet as someone who can see the future. But in the biblical sense, the Old Testament prophets, the Hebrew prophets were not foretelling the future.

11:10 What they were able to do is to see deeply into things as they really are. So they were able to see to the heart of situations and into the hearts of people. And so in that sense, that's what I mean by profit is that time and experience has made profits of us all. And so we're able to see into people and see into situations and see into the future to some degree that we can watch behavior. And we can kind of know that if that behavior continues, kind of where it's going to end up. We may not know all the details, but we can give people a general idea of what certain behaviors lead to, what certain situations lead to. And then we can take that wisdom and share it with the people around us so that they don't have to make the same mistakes we have. So you have permission from Pastor Robert to call yourself a prophet. As a matter of fact, whenever you're around your charismatic and Pentecostal friends, just tell them that you're a prophet.

12:07 If they say, when did you become a prophet? Say that as of the age of 55, I became a prophet. And then give them a demonstration, like show them how you can see into situations and into people and into the future based upon seeing deeply into things as they are right now. So that's a benefit. And I think that's a great tool and resource for us as we continue to age. Number two, now that you know that you will not live a perfect life, you are free to live a good life. Do you remember when you were 25? I do. When I was 25, I thought I knew it all. I thought I was never going to make mistakes. I thought my generation was going to be the generation that was going to change the world. I was irritated with anybody older than 35 because I just thought it was time for them to get out of the way. I can't believe I thought that and now I'm 60 because I can't imagine what 30 year olds think of me now.

13:07 But I was arrogant and it was hard to tell me anything. And I thought I was going to live a perfect life. And I would look at older adults who had made mistakes. Maybe they had been through a divorce. Maybe they had experienced issues in their marriage. Maybe they had made mistakes with their children. Maybe they had made bad career decisions. And I was like, how could you ever make such a horrible decision? I'm never going to make that decision. And so I was caught up in trying to be perfect, thinking I was perfect. And here's the deal. It's so imprisoning because you're not perfect at that age. But because you want to give off that front of being perfect, then you hide a lot of stuff. and you feel a need to protect an image rather than developing who you are as a real person. So now at the age of 55 or older, we know that we're not going to have perfect lives.

14:04 We have made so many mistakes. We've had so many errors. We've experienced so much challenge and so much adversity as a result of our decisions and our behavior. We know we are not perfect. So now we're free from trying to pretend that we're perfect and we can go on now and be good people. And what I mean by that is simply taking the focus off ourselves, not being so self-focused, not being so tuned in to ourselves and worrying about what people think about us or trying to keep up an image, our reputation. And we can just be free to go and do things that we know are good and that we know will benefit others and that we deeply believe in. So I want you to receive today. This is your permission slip. This is your permission slip to go and forget about images. Forget about trying to be perfect. Forget about trying to keep up an image of perfection and just go live a good life. Be kind. Be gentle. Be patient. Forgive people. Go the extra mile for people. Reach out and welcome strangers. Forgive enemies. Do the things that Jesus calls us to do. you're free to do that now. And you're free to do that without having to be perfect in it because you know you are not perfect. You will not be perfect. You know that life can still be amazing even in the midst of imperfections. Number three, you have clearer priorities now, which can help you make better decisions. And so when I was 25, my priority list was about 50 items. As a matter of fact, I still had on my priority list at the age of 25, I still had law school, med school, NFL, all of that with question marks. These are still possibilities.

16:03 And then around the age of 35, the list had been cut in half, but I still had a long list because watching NFL football games was still a priority. Watching NBA games was still a priority. watching certain movies still a priority and so I had to kind of weed through all these things all the time especially as a person who was who wanted to be a high achieving person and then married and by the age of 35 I had two daughters and so and then I was a part of fraternities was had multiple friends going back to childhood and it just got overbearing trying to do all keep all these things going and so I spent many days being frustrated or feeling like I was missing out on something or trying to do a bunch of things and never really being good at anything and so now part of aging is that you just your priority list just gets shorter you realize what's important and what's not important and I still love watching NBA basketball games but it's not a priority for me I get to do it if I have time. I still love watching NFL games on Sunday evening, but I'm not going to rearrange my schedule of watching an NFL football game because there are other things that are more important. And because I know I don't have as much time as I used to have when I was 25, I'm in the third quarter of my life, fourth, third, third and a half quarter of my life.

17:31 And so I've got to make the most of the time that I have. So my list has gotten really short and I know it's important. And because I know it's important, it helps me to make better decisions about how I want to use my time, how I want to use my time on Sundays, how I want to use my time, even in the work that I do, even as a part of the resurrection staff and team that I'm clear about what my priorities are, what my assignments are. And I know that there are things that I'm responsible for and I stay in my lane and I accomplish those things. And I worry less about what other people are doing. I worry less about trying to, I don't try to control what other people are doing. I focus on my priorities and I want to achieve and accomplish as much as possible. So part of aging is that your priority list gets shorter. And because your list gets shorter, it helps you to make better decisions, even in terms of things like how you manage your money, how much time you spend on vacation and where you spend your vacation, how you plan for your death.

18:34 things like how you plan for your grandchildren, things like how much time you're going to spend with friends beyond your job and beyond your church. All those things, you get a clear picture of what's important. You get a clear guideline for how you make decisions about how you're going to use your resources and your time. Number four, you have had at least 55 years of practicing being you. So you know how to manage yourself to be at your best in almost any situation. So I'll take you back. So at the age of 25, I was going to seminary and had started preaching. I was preaching sermons occasionally in churches that I was a part of. And so the process of preparing to preach was terrorizing that it was just, I spent so much time just like worrying and trying to be perfect and trying to get it right and not knowing, not prioritizing. I didn't know, like I'd have 20 pages of stuff written and didn't know what out of the 20 pages, what to cut out because my priorities were bad, even in my preaching. So all those previous things that I mentioned, they were adding up into the practice of being me, doing the things that I had been assigned to do.

19:57 And so what has happened as I've gotten older is that I know what it takes to get ready to preach a sermon. Or I know what it takes to get ready to go on a date with my wife. I know what it takes to get ready to spend time with my mother. I know what it takes to get ready to go on a mission trip because I've done these things so many times. I've got tons of experience at doing these things. And so I've managed myself. I know who I am. I know what my weaknesses are and I don't run from them. I don't deny them. I embrace who I am and love myself because I know God created me to be who I am. And if God created me to live in glory and in splendor on the earth, then I have permission to love myself.

20:48 and so I don't have to pretend that I don't have any weaknesses. I don't have to hide my weaknesses. I don't have to be untrue to myself or be dishonest with myself about things that I don't do well. I can embrace who I am. I can know myself very well. And then knowing myself very well, I know how to prepare to excel in almost any situation. Now, that doesn't mean that I always do because there are other factors that come in play. Sometimes I know what to do, but I don't physically, I just don't feel like doing them. Sometimes I know what to do, but emotionally or spiritually, I'm in a place that I just can't function at my best. So I am not saying that now that we're 55 plus that we're going to be perfect. What I am saying is that we have this amazing reservoir resource of experience of knowing who we are, of living our lives. And we know how we function. We know when we're going to be hungry.

21:46 We know when we're going to be irritated. We know about what time of day every day that we're going to rush short on energy. We know whether we're morning people or evening people. We know whether we like to drive in heavy traffic, whether heavy traffic bothers us or we're OK with it. We know the temperature we need our houses to be to sleep well. We know what temperature we want our houses to be when we wake up in the morning. Like we know these things. We know how to organize our lives in a way that we know how to be at our best in almost any situation. And that is an amazing benefit to aging. And I hope that we'll live into it. Number five, you have a greater sense of the kinds of people you need with you for different situations. You know how to create great partnerships, great friendships and productive enemy ships. Did you hear that word? Enemy ships.

22:38 So let me go through that again, that we have a greater sense of the kinds of people we need. So I know the kind of people that I do very well with. I know the kind of people who are going to be irritated with me, like maybe today. I know the kinds of people who are going to be delighted by my presence, by my way of being and showing up in the world. And so I know the kinds of people that I do well with. And I want to be very careful because I'm not saying that we should only hang out with people with whom we do well, because we've got to learn how to love all people, especially people who are different, people who are strangers and people we may consider enemies. But it does mean that when I want to be at my best, when I want to function at my best, that I know the kinds of people that I need to have around me, that I need to be in partnership with. So now I know how to create better partnerships. When I want to, if I got an idea and I want to pursue it, if I've got a wild dream that I want to pursue, I know the kinds of people that I need around me to help me pursue that dream.

23:40 When it comes to friendships, I know the kind of people that I'm going, that are going to make me feel insecure. I know the kinds of people that are going to make me, that are going to irritate me. I know the kinds of people that I'm going to irritate them. And so I know how to build better friendships and I can build stronger friendships. And I even know better how to build productive enemy ships. And what I mean by that, there are some people that we just will not get along with, that we're just going to be at odds. We can still love those people, but we can also, here's another level to that, we can also build relationships with those people so that our dislike of each other can really be turned into a resource for creative tension that can push both of us to a high level of functioning and productivity. And so knowing like, OK, this person, I know this person, we're not going to get along, but we can still be on the same team because she's going to push me or he's going to push me and I'm going to push him or her. And so you create what I call productive enemy ships.

24:43 Number six, you aren't as quick to panic because you have faced difficult situations before and you don't immediately assume the worst. So while others are panicking, you can use that time to assess the situation, make a plan and get to work. So you see this every day. Something will happen and you see your children, grandkids, they'll panic. You'll see your co-workers, they'll panic. But you've seen it so many times before. It's not that you don't take it seriously, but you have seen it enough times to know that most of the time it's going to be OK. We just got to get through it. And so while everyone else is panicking, you can start planning and you can start assessing the situation and then you can get to work and then you become a benefit to your kids and grandkids and you become a great benefit and a great blessing to your coworkers because they've learned, they will learn to trust you and to rely on you in difficult and challenging situations. They will know, man, this is going to turn me upside down.

25:47 But I know Robert, he's seen this before. And as long as he's calm, he's working his way through it. So more than likely, this is going to be OK. And it's a great way to lead, as a matter of fact, to lead even when you're not the official leader. Number seven, you know how to survive and you know how to be resilient. You've been through so much. If we think back to 19, I think I was 1940s to 1971, all the things that have happened since that time. World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, the civil rights movement, all the things that have happened in the 70s, all the way up to now, the mega movement, Christian nationalism, all the things that have happened in our lifetime, the tech boom, the creation of the internet, the cell phones, all of these are things that have changed the world, all these things that have happened. And here we are, we have survived somehow. Now, a lot of our, most of our survival happened because of the grace of God.

26:44 And we give thanks to God for that, because we know people who were handling things far better than we were. But they, for some reason, maybe they died or they just maybe had a misfortunate, unfortunate incident happen that maybe turned them into people who were houseless or turned them into people who were struggling financially. But we've been able to survive. So we know that about ourselves and with God's help, with God's strength, that no matter what's on the horizon, we know we are resilient to people and that we know how to be determined. We know how to stay the course. We know how to fight through tough times and we know how to be hopeful in our situations. All right. Number eight. Now we have more time to spend on our ultimate values. So we don't, many of us have retired, many of you have retired. And if you retire, you don't have that eight hour job you've got to go to. You're not a salesman salesperson.

27:38 You're not traveling the world trying to make sales anymore or trying to sell technology or whatever you were doing in your career. So now you have more time to spend on the things that really matter. That is an amazing blessing and amazing benefits that we should we should all take advantage of so that if you love your grandkids, you got more time to spend with them. If you want to spend more time with your kids and help them get through tough times, you have time to do that. If you want to get involved in your local church and your your Christian community, you have time to do that. And that is an amazing blessing. It is a gift that we have now that we didn't have at an earlier part of our part of our lives. And so we have more time to spend on ultimate value. Number nine, you probably have several good communities of people with whom you share life. And I want to encourage you to live into your communities. Be grateful for them. Don't take them for granted. participate, be a good community member, whether we're talking about a fraternity, a civic club, your small group in your church, the choir, whatever small groups you are a part of, every small group is a blessing to you. And every small group you are a part of expands your life quantumly in ways that you can't even imagine. Every time you add, you participate in a new group, you expand your life in amazing ways. And so live into that.

28:53 I will say this, that as I've watched people who are older than I am, people who are maybe, I'm 60, people who are in their 70s and 80s. And what I see is that the aging process is can be very scary if you do it alone. The best way to do this process of aging is to do it in community with others. Cherish and treasure your friendships. Cherish and treasure your small group communities. participate in them with intentionality, and they'll help us get through these golden years. Number 10, you probably have financial resources that allow you to put your hand on the will of destiny for your family and for the world. I know that sounds really big, destiny, and I don't mean to sound overwhelming, but it's true. I mean, you can think that way, that in things that are happening in our world, things that you care about, things that you're passionate about, you probably have more financial resources than at any other time in your life.

29:48 And if you care enough about them, you can take some of your resources and apply them to those problems. And that's a tremendous benefit. When you were 35, you couldn't do that because you were trying to save money. Maybe you were trying to buy a home. Maybe you were trying to plan for college. Maybe you had young kids and maybe the cost of daycare or the cost of private school. All your financial resources were going in all these other directions. Maybe you had aging parents and you had to care for them. Maybe you had a sibling who was disabled. You had to care for them. But now you have more of your financial resources that have been freed up. And so if there are things that you care about that you want to make a difference, as you've always made a difference, if you still want to make a difference in the world, you can do that now by taking your financial resources and applying them to the things that you are passionate about. And then this is my final one. Here's a bonus. There were 10, but I want to give you a bonus. The bonus is number 11 is you probably have a rich reservoir of spiritual resources that you can use to bless your family and help change the world.

30:51 If you are a believer, if you're a follower of Christ, first of all, if you're not a follower of Christ, we're still glad you're here. And I still hope that you've been able to laugh a little with us and also gain a little wisdom about the aging process. and we want to welcome you and invite you to join us at any one of our nine locations in the Kansas City area Church of the Resurrection and be a part of our life. Even if you don't join, you are always welcome to participate in small group communities and other activities. But for those of us who are believers, those of us who have had some kind of relationship with the Lord, And particularly if you've been believing and praying and engaging in faith activities for maybe several years or maybe decades now, you probably have a large reservoir of spiritual resources, strength, amazing courage. You're probably more patient than ever before.

31:46 You probably have the capacity to suffer a little more, a little longer than you ever have in your life. You know how to practice kindness. You know how to not be so irritated with people. You know how to discipline yourself and to manage your life. You've got these amazing resources that have been built up. And you probably have done some practice at the love ethic of Jesus, learning to love people, even not just those in your family and those in your circle of influence, but even people that you don't understand or that who are different, who disagree with you, even people that you may deem as enemies. You've been practicing that. And so with all of these spiritual resources, you can now take those resources and pour them into your kids, pour them into your grandkids, pour them into your small group, pour them into your church. and even at the age of 55 plus, as we have changed the world over the previous 55 years for the next 40, maybe 50 for some of us, we can still change the world and I want to invite us to do that.

32:50 I pray that you've enjoyed this presentation.