Don't Waste Today
The first thing I always do in the message is try to find some way to transition from the world we all live in, to whatever subject I’m going to be talking about. There’s our lives with all its chaos and drama, the news, day to day joys and frustrations, everything that tried to keep us from showing up here to worship God—all that’s going on as we sit down in here—and somehow we need to transition to the promises and blessings and commandments of God’s Word; theology and mercy and forgiveness and Bible stuff. So, I might tell a story, or setup the subject by describing some problem in the world that we can all relate to. Maybe a little humor. If the introduction does its job, then the basic setting for the rest of the sermon will be established, I’ll bring up some questions that I’ll be answering with the Bible—the idea is to create a little intrigue and get you thinking about where we’re going.
With this being our first youth led service, I thought it might be good to talk about how God uses people of all ages to do His most important work. I remember the first several times that I either led worship or taught the Bible—I was so eager, but I was so awful. Out of tune guitars and forgotten lyrics and confusing leadership, heavy-handed preaching that was just mean. The first time I gave a sermon on Sunday morning, I was probably 19 years old, it was at a little country church in central Illinois. I was in Bible College and a pastor asked if a student could fill in for him while he was on vacation, it was summer time. So I had this clever idea, I read from Isaiah chapter six about when Isaiah was called by God to be a prophet—it’s such an awesome and mysterious passage, it says this:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah 6:1-5
An amazing description of Isaiah being in the presence of God. So I asked the little congregation, “How many of you feel the presence of the Lord here this morning?” Most of them were like, “Yes! Amen! We feel the presence of the Lord! Hallelujah! Praise God!” It was a Charismatic church. They were nice people, they were trying to encourage me.
But I was just setting them up to knock them down. I said, “Yeah, well if you people were really in the presence of God, I don’t think you’d just be sitting there all comfortable and acting like it’s no big deal because Isaiah was undone by God’s presence. “Woe to me” He was ruined. I preached for the next 30 minutes on how it’s not cool to be so nonchalant about God’s holiness and glory and pretend like they’re in the presence of God when they’re not. It was a jerk move, I admit it.
Later that summer I got a letter from the pastor. He said, “Thank you for filling in for me on my vacation. I would like to point out something that was brought to my attention: it’s the job of the pastor to feed the sheep on Sunday morning, not shear them.”
I’d love to say that was the last time I did something like that. But...well...
Prayer: Father in heaven, thank you for so many young people in our ministry who love You and want to serve You. Please bless them and draw them ever closer to You as they grow in their faith and in wisdom into the men and women You are calling them to be. Help us, as the parents and grandparents and teachers and older brothers and sisters, to lead them gently and faithfully. In Christ’s name. AMEN.
When I write a sermon, I like to have one big idea, supported by a couple main points. I try to make the big idea something easy to remember and have a phrase or something that ties everything together and makes it stick. For me, it’s a lot like songwriting—if this was a song, we’d be starting verse one right now. Today’s big idea is that God uses people of all ages to do His most important work—which you’ll notice, I’ve now said twice. Repetition is very important if we want what we say to be remembered.
The first supporting idea to that big idea, is that we’re never too young for God to use us to do big things. Like, Jeremiah was only 17 years old when God called him to be the most important prophet of his generation.
Jeremiah 1:4-10
The Lord gave me this message:
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.
Before you were born I set you apart
and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”
“O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!”
The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
“I have spoken.” Did you think that phrase originally came from the Mandalorian? “I have spoken.”
Jeremiah was young but he had one of the hardest prophet gigs in the Bible. No one wanted to hear what he had to say, the world was falling apart, but God had given him an important job to do. Jesus’ ministry has been compared to Jeremiah in a lot of ways. He was young but he was faithful to his calling.
David was young when he stood up to Goliath. Josiah, one of the best kings Israel ever had was eight years old when he took the throne. You are never too young to be faithful and to do whatever important work God has for you to do.
1 Timothy 4:12 echoes the call of Jeremiah when it says to a young pastor in the New Testament,
“Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.”
Young people, listen up, this is what you are challenged to do as a Christian—in your home, in your school, with your friends, with your boyfriends and girlfriends: to be an example to all believers—all believers—in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, in your faith, and in your—PURITY.
We live in crazy times—everyone has a foul mouth, everyone lives like the devil, there’s hatred and violence everywhere we look, no one believes in anything, not God, not country, no one believes in anything, and I don’t even know how our culture could get more impure and pornographic. That’s what we’re up against, but Jesus is calling our young people to stand up to it—to be an example of Christian faithfulness. In the face of all this darkness, to be the light of the Gospel. Your faithfulness is more powerful and more effective simply because you are young. Please hear this. You won’t be young forever. Don’t waste your youth.
Start Bible studies and prayer groups in your schools. You can only do these things while you’re in school, once you graduate you won’t be able to. I can’t. There may even come a day when students won’t be allowed to bring their Bibles and their faith openly into our nation’s schools—but right now you still can. Please don’t waste this opportunity. Your friends, your teachers, even the people you don’t like—they need to know what you already know about Jesus. His love, mercy, and grace.
You are never too young to be faithful. God uses people of all ages to do His most important work.
So, if the first supporting point was that you’re never too young, guess what the second supporting point is? If this was a song, we’d be starting verse two now. You’re never too old to be faithful, either. We’re not off the hook as we get older. It’s just as important in college that we stay plugged into a church and Christian organizations on campus. The universities are where some of the most important faith battles are being fought, we can’t sit this culture war out. When we start our careers and our families, it’s so vital that we keep Jesus at the center of our life, when we’re getting married and having kids—no matter what we end up doing in our lives, we have to do our work as unto the Lord. Our vocations are the most important spiritual work and ministry we will ever do. All of it must be done to the glory of God, or else it’s going to be meaningless.
But I’m especially talking to our older people. You’re never too old to be faithful and to do something meaningful for God. You might wake up some days and wonder where your life went. That it passed you by and your not any good to anyone anymore. That’s a lie. That’s a bunch of discouraging evil from the devil. God has something important for you to do still—maybe the most important thing you’ll ever do.
Abraham and Sarah waited their whole life for the child that was promised to them, the child that would give birth to the nation of Israel and would bring the promised Messiah into the world to save the nations. They were like 100 years old when it finally happened.
Moses was 80 when we led the children of Israel to their freedom from Egypt. He was the same age as my dad when he crossed the Red Sea. The Bible is full of people who did their most meaningful work in the twilight of their lives.
Today is the 5th day of Christmas, and part of the Christmas story is the birth of John the Baptist—his mom and dad were too old to have kids. They’d given up, they felt abandoned by God. Zechariah and Elizabeth were Levites, he was a priest but had probably never done anything priestly until the day it was his turn to burn incense in the Holy of Holies in the Temple—probably something he would only get to do one in his life. While he was in there, the Angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him he was going to have a son. Zechariah didn’t believe him, said he and his wife were too old. I just think it’s interesting to consider that they had lived their whole life, thought they’d seen it all, done it all, that life had passed them by—then an angel appears and they become part of the Bible, part of the story that tells us about Jesus, preparing the way for Him to save the world. They were old but it wasn’t too late for them to do the most important thing God had for them to do and it’s not too late for any of us either.
Another man, who’s name was Simeon, had been ministering in the Temple waiting for the Messiah his whole life. Luke chapter two says that when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to be dedicated to God, that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, he took Jesus in his arms and said, “Oh my Lord, I can die now!” He’s the one who came up with that phrase, “I can die now.”
Luke chapter two starting at verse 29:
“Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace,
as you have promised.
I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared for all people.
He is a light to reveal God to the nations,
and he is the glory of your people Israel!” Luke 2:29–32
Lived his whole life, and right there at the end is when he does the most important thing he’ll ever do. It wasn’t too late for him and it’s not too late for any of us either. Simeon and Zechariah were at the house of God, praying and worshiping. Can you show up to the house of God? Can you pray? Can you worship? Then you have extremely important work to do. Don’t waste your final years. Finish strong.
You are never too old or too young to be faithful. God uses people of all ages to do His most important work.
So, I’ve talked about how we’re never too young to be faithful and do God’s work, and we’re never too old to be faithful and do what God has for us to do. I’ve repeated the big idea of the message a few times to try and make it stick. We’ve looked at a few verses. Then we come to the most important part of the sermon—it’s not the funniest part or most interesting part, but it’s the most important part. I would argue that any sermon without this part isn’t really a sermon at all.
It’s the Gospel. The part of the sermon when the promises of Jesus are directly applied to you. Because unless you realize that what Jesus came into this world to do, He didn’t just do for some abstract concept of “all people” or “the world” or whatever—but this salvation and free gift of God’s grace is FOR YOU, unless you hear the Word and believe it applies to you, then none of the rest of this matters much.
The Bible says that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” The power of the Gospel happens when it is spoken, when it’s proclaimed, and when it’s heard by the people who need to hear it. Faith comes by hearing about Christ. What Jesus has done for you.
So, if you’re young and your whole life is ahead of you, you feel like you’ve got plenty of time to take all this Jesus stuff seriously—you’ll study the Bible in the future, you’ll pray later, you’ll get serious about your faith later. No. That’s lame. Hear His Word today, today is the day. Now is the hour of your salvation. Jesus forgives you for all that lazy procrastination. Hear the Gospel today and let faith grow in you, let it become faithfulness and thankfulness.
And if you’re not so young, and you feel like all your best years are behind you. You might be tempted to think about your aches and pains and wonder how many more good days you still have ahead of you. But this is what your faith is for. You have a great hope because of Jesus. There is life after death, but I want you to hear this—there’s still life before death, too. God gives us example after example of men and women who do their most important work at the end of their life. He tells us over and over to run the race with endurance. To finish strong. Jesus forgives you for your failures, for your lack of motivation, even for your complaining—He loves you and He has great things for you. Even now. Your promised salvation is available today. Hear this Gospel and promise of hope. Be encouraged. Let your faith grown and let it become faithfulness and thankfulness. Show all them youngsters what it looks like to finish strong.
You are never too old or too young to be faithful. God uses people of all ages to do His most important work. His work doesn’t depend on us, He’s the one who makes the miracles happen, our job is just to be faithful.
Sometimes at the end of the message, I’ll tell a little story to wrap things up, or give some practical application for how to respond to the Scripture that we’ve been looking at. Usually go back to some question I hinted at in the introduction. We have to be able to transition from all this Bible and theological stuff back to the real world. This isn’t just theoretical—it’s important—the things we talk about in church matter the rest of the week, too.
When I was an over excited teen growing up in a small mid-western town, I started going to this church and all the young people kinda got fired up about Jesus. We got really involved in Bible study and worship—we sat together and prayed together, we sang and praised God. And it spread. The older people, who had probably been praying for us for years, they got really excited seeing all the teenagers so geeked up about Jesus. It was really something. A bunch of us went on to be pastors and church leaders and pastor’s wives and missionaries and church workers.
That’s the church. Young and old together serving God and loving each other. A picture of the whole life of faith. All the generations together as one people.
We all have important work to do, no matter how old we are, or young. God has offered us His Salvation and His promise of abundant life. He makes us all new—in all the seasons of our lives. Let’s pay attention to the opportunities that He gives us every day to talk about the hope we have in Jesus with whoever might be listening. We need to encourage our friends, lift each other up with kindness, be gentle to our family members—we need to love each other. We never outgrow our need to love and be loved. That’s the work of the people of God. You’re never too old or too young to love each other—that’s always our most important job. God uses people of all ages to do His most important work. Thanks be to God. AMEN