If you are at least fifty years of age, what do think are major spiritual issues people need to deal with?
I don't see how these are issues just for people fifty and older, but they're important for all Christians.
As for the four you listed, it's a good start, again, for people of any age.
1.) People fail to love the Lord with all their hearts, minds, and souls, as commanded by Jesus (Matthew 22:37-38).
I totally agree with you. Jesus said we must love God so much that we hate our father and mother. Obviously, he doesn't mean that literally, but he means that if there's room left in our heart for anyone else, we're not giving our WHOLE heard to God.
I love my son so much I can hardly stand it. My challenge is to remember, every time I look at him, hold him, or think about him, how blessed I am that God gave me a son, and that God also gave us HIS Son. And that's way bigger than anything in my life, even the love I have for my son, which is pretty darn huge. It is a daily struggle to keep God first in my mind, over all the (comparable) petty things.
2.) People fail to wait till they get married to have sex. This is a sin (Mark 7:20-23, Matthew 5:28)
I'm not convinced this deserves "top four" status. First of all, there's the issue of the definition of marriage. People should not have sex until they have made a commitment of life-long fidelity to each other before God and their friends and family. If this is how you define "marriage," then we're good. But these days, "marriage" just means a piece of paper, and that may or may not include the religious vows. Further more, there are a few good reasons for a couple not to get legally married (financial reasons -- if one or both will lose some kind of benefit, for example). But they should still make that religious commitment.
But further than that: yes, sex outside of the religious commitment is a sin. But is it a worse sin than, say, lying? Or gossip? I don't see anything in Scripture to indicate that it is. So I'm not sure why anyone should make pre-marital sex such a "hot-point" issue, unless they are not also making lying and gossiping equally big issues.
3.) People abuse substances such as alcohol.
Yup. This is sad. I think it does rightly deserve its own category, because people who are abusing substances -- which include illegal drugs, but also includes people who over-eat (gluttony) -- are missing an important part of Jesus' message, too. We need to love God enough, that we love ourselves. God created us, as temples to Him. We would not graffiti a church building. But in a way, that's what we do when we abuse our bodies.
4.) People allow themselves to be motivated by pride rather than love. Pride is a sin (Mark 7:20-23).
Yup. That is another big one. And another major problem in our society. And one which I know I need to work on, as well.
I'm not quite 50, and not your "target audience," but I have been a Christian for 44 years today. (Happy Christmas and Baptismal Anniversary to ME!) What I've found is that no 2 people have the same struggles. We each struggle with different sins.
And one of the biggest is judging others. I am not responsible for your sins, and you are not responsible for mine. As soon as I go to someone and say, "you're doing X, Y, Z, and that's a sin," I am sinning by judging them. That is not my job, it's God's, and trying to usurp God's power is The Original Sin, the one that got us kicked out of the garden.
So the whole thing of listing sins, seems a little voyeuristic to me. I mean, certainly you're not suggesting that these are sins that other people have to deal with, because that would be a sin in and of itself. I'm assuming you're listing what you personally feel are your toughest sins.
Sure, as sisters and brothers, we should all be accountable to one another, and if we're struggling with something, we should absolutely be able to go to another Christian and say, "Hey, I'm really struggling with this, can you help me?"
I'm not sure if that's what you're doing here?