For the ignorant, old age is winter; for the learned, it is the harvest.

Anonymous

 Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, To declare that the LORD is upright; [He is] my rock, and [there is] no unrighteousness in Him.

Psalm 92:13-15

If we aren’t carful we will put a limit on God. We will give him our “yes” but only to a degree. We often think too little of the young and the old. I once was writing to a bunch of youth pastors asking, “How old do you have to be to obey the great commission?” My challenge was to get them to charge their middle schoolers to share the gospel. Then God surprised me when my 6-year-old knocked on the door and told me how he shared bible stories with his friends at recess.

Likewise, we’ll look at the other end of the spectrum and imagine that the crop of spiritual fruit stops coming in at a certain point. The aches and pains of age, both physical and emotional often lead to sour attitudes and bitterness. It seems like our season is winding down and we aren’t as interested in the remaining fruit on the vine as we once were. 

I like this short passage because we see two ends of the spectrum. On one end, some are planted in the courts of the Lord, and on the other end, some are still bearing fruit in old age. (This is what I pray for all our children who profess faith in Christ, that they would trust Jesus at a young age and follow him all the days of their life). 

When we age our edges are often exposed. We tend to whither. The seasons of life that we have been through show up on our skin as it gets thinner. Sometimes our patience has diminished. We are more prone to speak our minds. Our bones and muscles wear out leaving us full of aches and pains. Sometimes we are prone to think our best years are in the rearview mirror (and I’m just speaking of being in your 40’s). Aging gracefully isn’t an easy enterprise. It takes lots of grace!

Regardless of your age, for the Christian, your growing isn’t done. There is still an abundant harvest of fruit in your life. It blesses every generation when the most senior among us still produces Godly character and points to Jesus. It is a blessing when the oldest and most weathered among us recount how God never fails. We are never done growing in Christ. 

Father, Your word is true and good. You are worthy of our praise from the cradle through eternity. Help us to age in a way that allows us to still bear fruit in our old age. As temptations take on different forms help us to recount the ways that you are faithful. May your church be blessed with many who are newly planted and many who are still bearing fruit in their old age. You are worthy. In Jesus Name, Amen.

The change which our Lord has made in the Sabbath is indicative of the change which he has made in our life. The law says, “Work six days and then observe the seventh as the Sabbath.” But under the gospel the arrangement is, “Rest on the first day before you have done a stroke of work. Just as the week begins, take your rest, and after that, in the strength derived from it, and from the grateful motives which arise out of that one blessed day of rest, give to the Lord the six days of the week.” There is a change from law to gospel indicated in that very change. So let it be with you.—49.243

Charles Spurgeon

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the LORD your God. [In it] you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who [is] within your gates. For [in] six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that [is] in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. – Exodus 20:8-11

I sat in a nursing home with an aging man who was dying. He had millions of dollars in his bank accounts but none of it could help him. His body had begun to betray him years ago as he suffered from one physical ailment after another that slowly stripped him of all the little pleasures he had left in life. His mind recently had begun slipping. We were told there wasn’t anything else that could be done. In a rare and blessed moment of lucidity, we got to talk about eternal life. I shared the gospel. He affirmed that he believed on Christ. Then he began to weep and he said, “I wasted it! I wasted it! I wasted it!” I tried to console him and encouraged him with several verses about the grace of God. But then he looked me in the eyes and shared, “I know I put my faith in Jesus and I am saved by his work alone, but I should have prepared better for this. I should have spent time getting to know God. I should have stopped everything I thought was important to see God. I am about to step into eternity and I feel like God is a stranger! I should have taken more time to get to know him! I should have gone to church! I should have read my bible. I should have done a lot of things and now I can’t because I’m out of time.” We talked and prayed together in what would be the last lucid conversation he had on this earth. 

His words still ring in my ears. As much as anything, that near-death bed confession has haunted me and caused me to call people to take time from their labors and look up and see God! I don’t want to hammer on this topic of a sabbath day, but I think there are many need to hear it in our culture. I don’t want you or I to get to a moment like this man and feel like we have wasted our lives. 

Craig Barnes, in a book entitled, “Body and Soul,” shares a small story on how a Sabbath day celebration keeps us from succumbing to the dark side of suffering and even offers hope and redemption in challenging circumstances: 

“In 1964 the French philosopher Jean Vanier established a community for people with intellectual disabilities. He called this community “L’Arche,” which means “the Ark.” Vanier quickly discovered that people with intellectual disabilities, robbed of all pretense, demonstrate the most essential traits of the human condition common to all of us. For example, he said, humans need to give praise in order to stay healthy. One of the most important things people in the L’Arche community do is celebrate. They celebrate holidays, birthdays, accomplishments, anniversaries, and anything else they can think of. If a week goes by without a celebratory event, they make one up. Why? Because suffering does not have the final word. (Bold added for effect)

In Worship we choose to enjoy and celebrate the goodness of God in the life we have (Barnes, Body and Soul, 123).

Part of the reason we need a Sabbath day is to shake us out of the thought that this life is all that there is. Many have put off this day to their own despair. They let work and other projects encroach on this day week after week and instead of putting off their projects for the sake of the eternal, they put off eternity for things that won’t ultimately matter. They have had no time to ponder. No time to think it through their faith. 

We need to remember this day! Remember you are only here for a short while! Remember you have a home! You are just passing through! Remember that suffering doesn’t get the last word and so you can face all the aches and pains of a worn-out body with the joy of the Lord. As stated so eloquently above, “Suffering doesn’t get the last word.” Remember! Remember! Remember! 

Father, Your word is true and good. We are grateful that suffering doesn’t get the last word. We are grateful for Sabbath days that help us reflect on Your word and learn more about trusting You for our salvation by trusting You with all of the urgencies of life. Give us peace from resting in you. Let us be those who worship you in our Work and in our Rhythms of rest. In Jesus Name, Amen.

If you want to kill Christianity you must abolish Sunday.

Voltaire

 Then, the same day at evening, being the first [day] of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace [be] with you.” – Revelation 20:19, NKJV

 Now on the first [day] of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. – Acts 20:7, NKJV

On the first [day] of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. – I Corinthians 16:2, NKJV

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, – Revelation 1:10, NKJV

One of my friends sent me a random text a few years ago. He said, “If the Sabbath is on Saturday are we disobeying God by going to church and worshipping him on a Sunday?” He didn’t have to say anything else, I knew he had someone from a cult in his apartment. This is one of the tricks they pull and most people don’t know how to answer. We just take it for granted that we worship on Sunday. 

The reason we worship on Sunday is because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday! The resurrection is a pretty big deal in Christianity! The early church began meeting on Sunday in effect moving the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. On the Sabbath day, God rested from his work of creation, and on Resurrection Sunday Jesus rested from his work of salvation. 

Apparently, the issue of worshipping on Saturday or Sunday and perhaps a question of celebrating other Jewish Sabbaths like the Passover came up in the early church. Some New Testament believers came from a gentile background and wondered if they were to keep the Sabbath day (at least as fully as their Jewish-Christian brothers and sisters).  Paul clarifies in his letters to the Romans and the Colossians that we are not to judge one another in the days we do or do not set aside for worship. 

 One person esteems [one] day above another; another esteems every day [alike]. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. – Romans 14:5, NKJV

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. – Colossians 2:!6-17, NKJV

I don’t think that Paul is doing away with Sabbaths here in this passage. Since he uses the plural, “Sabbaths” in Colossians I think he is probably referring to Sabbaths outside the weekly Sabbath (other Jewish holidays). Either way, we know that Paul isn’t encouraging anyone to do away with the Sabbath day, only don’t let the difference in days of worship or celebration bother you about those who are otherwise biblically orthodox. 

Father, Your word is true and good. We are grateful that the days we worship and celebrate are not as important as the One we gather to worship and celebrate. We ask that you give purpose and meaning to all of our days. Let us be those who worship you in our Work and in our Rhythms of rest. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Where sabbaths are neglected all religion sensibly goes to decay.

Matthew Henry

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 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.  And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. – Genesis 2:1-3, NKJV

The word Sabbath simply means “Stop.” Dr. Matthew Sleeth in his book “24/6″ writes:

The word Sabbath means “cease from working.” The concept is holy. The ancient Hebrews did not have names for the days of the week; They had numbers one day, two day, three day, four day, five day, six day, and stop day. But the name is not important; It’s what happens that day that matters. Resting one day a week by any name is holy- the point is to stop on that day and look for God” (Sleeth, 24).

Rest is to remember and make the day holy. If we rest for rest sake we will miss the point! We do not rest for recreation. We do not rest for relaxation even. We rest in reverence. 

This rest is for everyone, even the animals (See Exodus 20)! The idea is that you rest, but that you also allow others to rest. This was a great equalizer in Israelite society. The wealthy were to take this day or rest as well as those who were poor. The Ox didn’t pull the cart, the mule wasn’t hooked up to a plow. 

Resting on the Lord’s Day is a big deal. It is an exercise in our trust in the Lord. If I rest and cease work, I am trusting God to provide and meet my needs. This may not seem like a big deal when lots of folks get weekends off from work nowadays, but many received this and they didn’t live paycheck to paycheck, they lived day to day, meal to meal. It was a big thing to trust God that they would be able to take a day off. 

We see companies such as Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A taking a stand to offer this day to all of their employees by being closed on Sundays. It’s a big risk to let your competition have a full 52 extra days a year to compete with you and steal their section of the market share. But it seems like they are doing ok.

If you spend the Lord’s day chasing after something other than the Lord you are missing the point. Why would you take the one day each week that God has said in effect, “Use this to draw closer to me” and use it to push yourself further from God? Fathers, this day is important! The direction you would lead your family begins with how you would spend this day each week. 

 

Father, Your word is true and good. Thank you for the blessing of a “stop” day that helps us to pause and see you at work in our lives. This day of rest causes us to reflect on our need for you and your grace. It blesses us by bringing purpose and meaning to our work on the other six days of the week. Help us to honor you in our going and in our stopping.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

You show me a nation that has given up the sabbath and I will show you a nation that has got the seed of decay.

Dwight L. Moody

Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: “how he went into the house of God [in the days] of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?” And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. “Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

Mark 2:23-28

There are two errors that people make with the Sabbath day. One is that they do not take a sabbath rest at all. Usually, when people do this, they end up breaking themselves or hitting the point where their work yields ever-diminishing returns. John Mark Comer notes in his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry:

“The last time a society tried to abandon the seven-day work week was during the revolution in France. They switched to a ten-day work week to up productivity. The rise of the proletariat! And? Disaster- the economy crashed, the suicide rate skyrocketed, and productivity?  It went down. It’s been proven by study after study: there is zero correlation between hurry and productivity. In fact, once you work a certain number of hours a week, your productivity plummets. Wanna know what the number is? Fifty hours. Ironic: That’s about a six-day workweek. One study found that there was zero difference in productivity between workers who logged seventy and those who logged fifty-five. Could God be speaking to us even through our own bodies (Comer, 154)? 

I think this is where a lot of us break ourselves on this commandment. We try and cram too much stuff into our week and it spills into the weekend. We say yes to all the wrong things and no to all the right things and then we end up burnt out!

The other error that people fall into with the sabbath is that they obsess over it! People in Jesus’ day had created so many rules about keeping the sabbath that they needed professionals to keep up with them. They had become “gotcha police” about tertiary matters. They accused Jesus and his disciples of breaking the Sabbath! 

So did Jesus break that Sabbath? NO! Jesus never broke the Old Testament law, which includes the Sabbath. He fulfilled it (including the Sabbath)! Note Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:

 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches [them], he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:17-19, NKJV

The Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the law in Mark, but Jesus did not break the law. What he was doing was in keeping with the Sabbath law but it went against the “traditions” and code that had been established by men around the Law. What the lawyers and religious leaders of the day had established as their tradition obscured the freedom found in the law and so Jesus reminded them that the Sabbath day was instituted after man was created. 

Jesus declared that he was the LORD of the Sabbath! Just as the Sabbath was originally instituted to give people rest from their work so they could turn to God, Jesus came to provide us rest from attempting to achieve salvation through our work and rest in Him. His sacrifice on the cross made the way for the law to be fulfilled and for righteousness and rest to come to all who trust in His finished work!

Stick around. We’ll be discussing the Sabbath day a little more this week since this seems to be a place of contention in our current culture. We’ll be asking, “What does the word “sabbath” mean? If the Sabbath was Saturday, why do we worship on Sundays? And more. 

Father, Your word is true and good. I am grateful that you have given us the opportunity for Sabbath rest. I pray that as people across the world gather for worship services you will bless us all as we seek after you. Help us to know you better through your word. Fill our pastors with a bold proclamation of the truth. Give us understanding. Correct anything in us that leads us away from you. Draw us near. We ask for your grace and goodness to be on full display today. In Jesus Name, Amen.

He that takes care of our times, will take care of our eternity. (“My Times Are In Your Hand”, Volume 37, Sermon #2205 – Psalm 31:15)

Charles Spurgeon

But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You [are] my God.”  My times [are] in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, And from those who persecute me.  Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me for Your mercies’ sake.

Psalm 31:14-16, NKJV

Several years ago I watched an interview with a man who was ministering in a dangerous area.  Somewhere in the interview I heard him say, “I am immortal until the work God has called me too is done.” The thought struck me as profound. God has a plan and a purpose for our lives. We may get through some scrapes “by the skin of our teeth” but in those instances we can look back and see God’s hand was holding us.

I’ve since heard similar phrases attributed to many different individuals such as Henry Martin, George Whitfield, and even David Jeremiah. (I think they all probably picked it from King David in the Psalms.) David was God’s anointed and he knew that he would ascend to the throne in God’s timing. He couldn’t die yet, God’s promises weren’t fulfilled. David wasn’t playing by his own rules, making it up as he went along, he was playing a role in God’s kingdom. 

I really like David in the 31st Psalm. His back is against the wall. His enemies are after him. They are plotting his demise. He has some serious problems and so he goes to God in serious prayer.  Through his praying, David comes to rest in God’s sovereignty.  While David’s circumstance are our of his hands, they are never out of God’s hands. So through the prayer over his problems, David comes to a place of praise. 

While his enemies surround him and stare at him in the eye like a predator looks at it’s prey. David doesn’t look back. He looks beyond his enemies to God. He knows that God sees and that God will act to save him. He belongs to God and His time is in God’s hands. 

Now I know we’re not David, but I think some of those principals still apply. We can be content in whatever circumstances we face because God is in control. Like David we don’t need to look too long at our circumstances, we need to look to Christ!

Father, Your word is true and good. Today we are reminded that you have a plan and a purpose for our lives. Let us live seeking your will. Your kingdom come, your will be done in our lives, in families, in our jobs, in our living. Let us look to you and may we have the pleasure of feeling your face shine on us. In Jesus Name, Amen.

While graveyards may remind one of the brevity of life, the resurrection ensures the brevity of death.

–David E. Garland

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what [will happen] tomorrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

James 4:13-14, NKJV

I was running down the basketball court full speed attempting to retrieve a basketball before it went out of bounds! We were losing in church league basketball and my competitive nature was fired up. I knew I could get to the ball in time and toss it to a teammate, but then the unexpected happened. I slipped on the floor… My head hit the cinder block wall with full force and I was knocked unconscious. I woke up the next day with no recollection of the events that evidently took place after I hit the wall. I had a pretty bad concussion and lost my short-term memory for several hours. When I was told what had happened I was scared. I had never felt so out of control of my life.

At that time my wife and I had been married for less than two years. We had just welcomed a baby girl into the world. The illusion of control was stripped from my hands and I saw just how fragile life really is. For the first time in my life I contemplated my own mortality. It would have been a great time for a life insurance agent to knock on my door, they wouldn’t have had to try and convince me to “prepare for the unexpected” because the unexpected had almost just happened! 

Moments like that have a way of helping you see the brevity of life. No matter how long you live, it’s nothing compared to eternity and while we like to think we have control over things, there is a lot that we can’t control.  I spent several nights after that event filled with anxiety over what “might” happen. 

Finally, somewhere in it all I came to peace with the idea that I wasn’t in control. In this passage, James reminds us that while we may make plans, we have no ability for foresight to accomplish our plans apart from the pleasure of God. Our lives may be required of us at any moment. We weren’t meant to live forever in a world filled with sin. There are all sorts of variables that could change the future, “right under our feet.” But there is Someone in charge of the future and we should submit our plans to Him. 

Having a sense of the brevity of life should help us seek the meaning of our lives. It humbles us enough to seek God’s will and direction for us. As the often quoted lines penned by C.T. Studd go, “Only one life and ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” 

Father, Your word is true and good. We are tempted to think we will always have time or that we will get to some things later, yet we are reminded in your word today that we have no control over later. Let us live today in such a way as we trust in your providence. Let our hearts rest in your grace and goodness. Let us walk in humility, simply trusting you. Give us direction for our lives so that they may be filled with purpose.   In Jesus Name, Amen.