Still a Profitable Servant

My primary text today comes from the prophet Isaiah. I share it, as well as each other text related to this theme – I share it in hope that everyone here will find encouragement in our old age and even in our infirmities – encouragement in God's promises to each of us who are His children through our faith in Jesus’ sacrificial atonement for our sins.

 

Here is the first text: “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, you who have been borne by Me from birth and have been carried from the womb; ⁴ Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you.” Isaiah 46:3-4

 

A few years ago, at one of the several communities where I minister each week, Larry often approached me.  And just as often, tears filled his eyes as he told me of the decades that he and men from his church met each Tuesday for prayer before they went out to canvass their neighborhoods to invite people to their church the following Sunday.

 

And each time he related his story, he added, “But I can’t do that anymore. I can’t even drive.”  Then he’d ask me the same question: “Why am I still here? Why doesn’t God take me home?”

 

And, as I stand here this afternoon, I remember my mother asking the same question: Why am I still here?” AND I also can tell you of the several others, besides Larry and my mother, who have asked me the same question: Why am I still here?

 

I’m 73 years old, and although to some of you, I’m still a young kid, I’m beginning to understand that perspective. I watch joggers glide effortlessly down the road, one foot in front of the other after the other after the other – like a well-oiled machine. And I wistfully think to myself, “I used to be like that.” And yes, I admit, sometimes I feel a bit envious of their youth and their strength.

 

Like Larry, I know many of you also were active in your church. You taught Sunday school, or VBS, or you sang in the choir, or took part in neighborhood visitation programs, or you helped with the bulletins, or were an usher, or participated in any other of the dozens of local church ministries.

 

But now those days are gone.

 

And, over the last few months, I’m getting to know that feeling, myself. And I do not like it. Most of you know of my recent health issues, and now I find myself gripped with the fear that I might not be able to continue all of the ministries I have loved for so many years.

 

I don’t mean to sound maudlin. I don’t WANT to sound maudlin. But I bring up the proverbial elephant in the room – which is our aging bodies and failing health and distant memories of service to God – and I want to make a critically important point for every child of God here listening to me.

 

It’s a point of ENCOURAGEMENT taken directly from God's timeless word. And I hope it will speak assurance, even reassurance to each of us here today.

 

God knows you. He knows your heart. He knows your weariness with the battle. But I also say this on the basis of the whole of Scripture: He has not put you out to pasture – as some might say. So, listen first to this word from the Psalmist:

 

“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. . . . And in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”

 

Yes, intellectually and academically, we know God formed us even from the moment of our conception. We also know, because He tells us – that God foreordained our days, all of our days, even before there was even one of them.

 

AND, because we have a personal relationship with Him through His Son, we know God does cause ALL things for us and for OUR good and for His glory. Most of us long ago memorized Romans 8:28-29: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.”

 

But I think sometimes we know a verse of scripture so well that we forget what the text actually MEANS. And so let me remind us that the ‘All things’ that God works together for our good INCLUDES our old age. And frailty. And loneliness. And infirmity.

 

How does He do that? Well, frankly, I haven’t a clue how He works such things for good. I only know He does – because He is God. As Jeremiah declares: ‘Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You.” (Jeremiah 32:17)

 

And, speaking of Jeremiah, here is what God tells the aged, the infirm, the lonely, the forgotten: “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

 

I hope you caught that promise. God foreordained our days TO GIVE US a future, and a hope. It’s easy to forget that, or not BELIEVE that, when we’re alone. And hurting. And frightened. And when we think the days of our usefulness to God are gone.

 

Now listen again to the psalmist who wrote: “But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord. You are my God. My times are in Your hands.” (Psalm 31:15).

 

That means our times – whether we are six years old, or twenty, or thirty-five, or seventy, or ninety-five – our TIMES are in HIS hands.

 

And so, some of you ask, “Why am I still here?”  And if you have not asked it, the day might come when you WILL ask it, the day when your loneliness catches up with you. When your chronic pain leaves you so very tired of the fight. When memories of early years whisper to you, of times when you had your children and your spouse and your grandchildren around your knees; Or when you had the well-earned respect of your professional colleagues, and when others sought your counsel.

 

Why are you still here?  Why was Larry still here? Why was my mother still here? Well, to that question, I think I have a pretty good clue as I search for answers in Scripture.

 

First, I must preface my answer to the question in this way – and this answer might irritate some – when we want God to tell us why we are still here, our Master, Lord, King, and Creator has every right to tell us – “It’s none of your business.” 

 

Listen, please. The New Testament writers repeatedly remind us of the reality of our relationship with our God, that being we are SLAVES of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Sadly, many Bible translations have watered down that truth by rendering the Greek word doulos as bond-servant – as in Romans 1:1 “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,” Or Peter in 2 Peter 1:1 “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.”

 

But the full context of the New Testament clearly identifies the apostles’ relationship to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ as willing slaves of their Creator and Savior.

 

It’s been my experience from reading Christian literature – if one can call it ‘Christian’ – and speaking with others that it seems that many in the pew like to think of God as their ‘Big Buddy.’

 

Well, here’s a public service announcement: God is not a Big Buddy. He’s Lord, King, Master, and Savior. We are His servants. More accurately, we are his slaves. His WILLING slaves if we have committed to Him every nock and cranny of our lives. And so he has every right, as our master, to say to us when we ask him, “Why?” – He has every right to say to us what He said to His beloved Peter.

 

Do you remember that conversation He had with Peter as recorded in the last chapter of John’s gospel? Peter asked the Lord what He planned to do with the apostle John. And Jesus answered, in essence, “Peter, it’s none of your business.”  And then the Lord said to him what He also says to us when we do not get the answer we want: Jesus told him, “Follow Me.”

 

So, no, God is not our Big Buddy. He is our Master. But – and this is also important – He is our Father – loving, gracious, kind, merciful Father.

 

So, when we want to know “Why we are still here,” our Father does not have to tell us the reason – BUT scripture DOES give us sufficient clues as to WHY we remain in these bodies. And it is these texts that I want to share with you as a means of encouragement. Christian, LISTEN: God STILL has a wonderful plan for your life.

 

Why are you still here? Do you remember when Jesus told the crowds: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. (Matthew 6:19-20)?

 

Listen, every day of our lives, as we grow closer to Christ, as we seek to stay in the center of His will, as we strive to trust and obey Him – every day, every moment of our lives lived in that fashion, we are laying up treasures in heaven. What ‘treasures’ count in heaven? The souls of men and women and children won to Christ and ENCOURAGED in Christ along their own journeys.

 

Here is St Paul to the Christians at Colossae: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23–24).

Jesus tells us, “You are the salt of the earth.”  (Matthew 5:13)  Even if you are 90-years-old, if you are following Christ, You are STILL the salt of the earth. What does salt do?  We looked at that nearly a year ago when I preached from the Sermon on the Mount. Salt preserves food, especially meat, which quickly spoils in hot environments. Salt also enhances the flavor of foods. In Jesus’ day salt was used on wounds as a curative agent.

 

So, why are you still here? To lay up treasures in heaven by helping preserve souls from the satanic lies of our culture. To enhance the understanding of others regarding God's love. And to apply to balm of Scripture as a curative to the effects of guilt and remorse of past sins.

 

Jesus also said, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). Then He added, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (verse 16)

 

So, Christian, why are you still here? To lay up treasures in heaven by acting like the light of Christ to all who are still living in the darkness of sin and the hopelessness of their future.

 

As I said a moment ago, it doesn’t matter if you are in your 90s, or your 50s. The PROMISE God gives us in Scripture is true for ALL God's children, despite their age or the health or their strength, or resources. It is the promise that definitively answers the question, “Why am I still here?”

 

Listen to what God tells us through 2 Peter: “[I]n your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, ⁶ and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, ⁷ and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (2 Peter 1:5-8)

 

Did you catch that?  So long as you WANT to grow in Christian maturity you will WANT to add to your faith moral virtue and knowledge of God, and self-control in your emotions and perseverance in your service for Christ an your godliness and kindness and love for others.

 

AND IN SO DOING, the Holy Spirit PROMISES that day by day, and month by month, for as long as He lets you remain in this life – He promises that you are laying up treasures in heaven. Day by day, as you serve Christ to the best of your abilities, you are adding wealth to your eternal bank account.

 

Listen, we are co-laborers with God (see 1 Corinthians 3:9). That means our omnipotent, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent Creator and Father grants vessels of clay as we are – to work TOGETHER with Him for the salvation and the maturity of souls; We work together with Him to lay up for ourselves (to say it one more time) treasures in heaven.

 

Here also is Hebrews 6: “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.” (Hebrews 6:10)

 

Why are you still here? It could very well be that the longer you remain on this side of the grave, the more honor and the more bounty you can bring to your Savior, King, and Lord.

 

What better reason can we have to live as long as we can for the Master, doing His work among those whom He has called and will yet call to Himself? And all the while we are laying up treasure in heaven.

 

I close with the lyrics of a song that, I hope, makes the point again: “Thank You for Giving to the Lord.”

I dreamed I went to heaven, and you were there with me. We walked upon the streets of gold beside the crystal sea. We heard the angels singing, then someone called your name. You turned and saw this young man, and he was smiling as he came.

And he said friend you may not know me now, and then he said but wait, you used to teach my Sunday School, when I was only eight. And every week you would say a prayer before the class would start, and one day when you said that prayer, I asked Jesus in my heart.

Thank you for giving to the Lord, I am a life that was changed. Thank you for giving to the Lord. I am so glad you gave.

Then another man stood before you and said “Remember the time a missionary came to your church and his pictures made you cry. You didn't have much money, but you gave it anyway. Jesus took the gift you gave, and that's why I'm here today” . . . .

One by one they came, far as the eyes could see. Each life somehow touched by your generosity. Little things that you had done, sacrifices made, unnoticed on the earth, in heaven now proclaimed.

And I know that up in heaven, you're not supposed to cry, but I am almost sure there were tears in your eyes as Jesus took your hand, and as you stood before the Lord, He said, “My child look around you for great is your reward.”

 

Thank you for giving to the Lord, I am a life that was changed. Thank you for giving to the Lord. I am so glad you gave.