Good morning. Well, we have finally come to the end of our series, The ABC’s & XYZ’s Of The Bible. One last time, here is what we have looked at so far:
A – Is For Abundance
B – If For Biblical Mothers
C – Is For Creation
X – Is For Xulon, which is Greek for the word tree
And last week, we took a look at the letter Y, and studied the word youth.
And in our time together today, we will end this series with the letter “Z,” and the word zeal. Here is what the dictionary has to say about the word zeal – “great energy or enthusiasm, in pursuit of a cause, eagerness, excitement, and passion.”
And in the Bible, the word zeal is found about 40 times in both the Old and New Testament. But more importantly than how many times zeal is found in scripture, is whether or not zeal is found in our hearts. Do we have zeal? Do we have passion for the Lord?
When he was pastor for the Methodist church in Scarborough, William Sangster had an eccentric member who tried to be a zealous Christian. Unfortunately, the man was a little bit off-center. He usually did the wrong things or said the wrong things. His profession was a barber.
And one time he had lathered up a customer for a shave, this was in the old days when you would get a shave with a strait razor. Well, anyway, the barber came at him with the poised razor, and asked, “Are you prepared to meet your God?” With that, the man was so scared that he ran out of the barbershop with the lather still on his face!
As we pursue a relationship with God, I want us all to be passionate. But I think you will agree, witnessing like that might not be the most effective way to go about it.
I was reading an article about an 86 year old man named Charlie Riggs. Twice a week, he drives his tan Buick to a local prison and he does a Bible study with some of the prisoners. One time he was asked, “Don’t you think your kind of old to be doing what you’re doing? Don’t you ever feel afraid to walk into the prison by yourself?”
And Riggs said, “I won’t lie. Sometimes I get scared right before I go into the prison. But I can’t remember a time after leaving the prison that the tears didn’t flow from my eyes. The presence of the Lord is so real whenever I step out on faith to do something for Him. I retired from my preaching 10 years ago. But I have no intention of retiring from my service to the God.”
You see, Charlie Riggs has a passion for life that many people half his age wish they
could have. And that is what I like about a man named Caleb from the Bible. In Joshua chapter 14 we read about him and some property. And then in that chapter he says something that can be encouraging to all of us.
Here is the Josh Book version of what he had to say… “I’m 85 years old and I’m still excited about life! I’m still healthy. I’m still strong. And I want to serve the Lord! God’s not through with me yet!”
So, the question is, do you have a passion for God? A good passage of scripture is II Corinthians 4:17, which says, “…though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
Last week, we talked about the youth, this week; let’s look at all of you old folks. Even though your body is getting older every day, your relationship with God doesn’t have to. Until you take your last breath, you can still have a fruitful ministry for God. I was reading about an elderly widow the other day. She used to be active in her church, but she became too frail to leave her home. However, she still wanted to do something for God.
So, she prayed, “Lord, make me a blessing.” And then God spoke to her heart and said, “You’ve got everything you need in order to be a blessing right here in this house.” And then she realized that she could play her piano. So she put an ad in the paper that said, “Pianist will play hymns by phone daily for those who are sick, the service is free.”
After a few months, her phone was ringing off the hook. And many of the people that called opened their hearts to her. And she was able to help a lot of people lift their spirits and remain close to God even though they may not be able to go to church.
Now, perhaps you are thinking, “My best years are behind me. God can’t use me anymore. We should just let the younger people take over.” But, the fact of the matter is that the church needs each and every one of you. Even if the only thing that you can do is pray for the people listed in the bulletin, then we need you to do that.
I Corinthians 12:27 says that, “You are the body of Christ, and EACH ONE OF YOU is a part of it.” There’s no such thing as a disposable Christian. You are important to God, and you are important to this church.
And when you read the Bible, it’s amazing to see how many people did great things for the Lord after they would have been considered old by our standards. Do you remember the story of Daniel in the lion’s den in Daniel chapter 6? Do you know how old he was at that time? He was at least 80 years old.
And do you remember the lady prophet Anna? The one who never left the temple and prayed night and day? When she blessed the baby Jesus in Luke chapter 2, she was about 80 years old. And they say that when John wrote the book of Revelation, he may have been in his 90’s.
Now, the point I’m trying to make is that age doesn’t mean anything. “God doesn’t look at the outward appearance. He looks at the heart.” And if your heart is in the right place, then God has something He can work with.
And that’s why Caleb is such a neat guy. His heart was totally devoted to the Lord. And his love for God put a spring in his step and joy in his life. And if you want that same zeal for life that he had, then you have to do a couple of things.
First off, you need to get God in your life. Each one of us has an emptiness deep inside that only God can fill. One of the most interesting parts of the Bible is Ecclesiastes 2:4-11. And that’s where Solomon says “I tried a lot of things. I built houses for myself. I piled up silver and gold. I had lots of women. I became the greatest man in the history of Jerusalem. But at the end of the day, none of it made me happy! Nothing was gained under the sun! It was all a chasing after the wind!”
And it’s not until you get to the end of the book when Solomon finally realizes that the only thing that can make you happy is a personal relationship with God. Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, “This is the end of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments!”
It’s never too late to get right with the Lord. Have you ever heard of the baseball player Ty Cobb? Except for Pete Rose, he’s got more hits than anyone in the history of baseball. But he also had a reputation for being a jerk. Just about everyone hated him.
But in 1961, near the end of his life, he responded to the gospel. And he accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. And this is what he had to say: “This is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. But I’m sorry I waited until the last half of the 9th to come to Christ. I wish it had taken place in the top half of the 1st.”
It’s wonderful that Ty Cobb accepted Christ. But it’s a bummer that he waited so long to do it. One of the things that made Caleb such a joyful person is that he knew the Lord all his life. In Joshua 14:8, he says, “I followed the Lord wholeheartedly! It’s because of my relationship with Him that I can be here today. God is good.”
Some of you are thinking, “I’ve got my whole life in front of me. Why can’t I just party down and enjoy myself until I’m older? Then I’ll come to Christ.” But there are 2 flaws in that way of thinking. First of all, you don’t know how much older you’re going to get. Your life could end or take a turn for the worst just like that.
Secondly, if knowing God is the only way to fill the vacuum inside each of us, then why would you want to put it off? If you have an opportunity to be as happy as you can possibly be, then why would you wait until you’re lying in some nursing home to experience it? That doesn’t make any sense, does it? To fill that void in our lives, we need to put God into our lives, and we need to do it now while we still have a life.
So, you need God in your life.
And secondly, you need to serve God with your life. The most fulfilling thing in the whole world is when you are doing what God created you to do. And that is making a difference in the lives of others.
In Joshua 14, Caleb says, “I might be 85 years old. But I still want to help any way I can. And if you give me the land the Lord promised to me, then I will do everything in my power to drive out the enemy, and make this land the Lord’s land.”
Have you ever heard of Corrie Ten Boom? Well, if not, she was the little Dutch woman who lived for 10 months in a Nazi concentration camp, under the most horrible conditions. But she made a promise to God. She said, “God, if I ever make it out of this place alive, I will tell as many people as possible about the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.”
And when she got out, she kept her promise. Even though she was already 53 years old, she spent the next 37 years of her life traveling around the world. She went to more than 60 different countries talking about her holocaust experience and sharing the gospel of Christ with them.
Right before she died, she said this, “My whole life has been a training ground for the work I’ve been doing for the last 37 years. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart, as if you were working for the Lord, not men, because you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.”
Now, as we begin to wrap things up, no matter what your age is, Paul’s words in Romans 12:11-12 can encourage you. Following along, listen to these words, Romans 12:11-12 says, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.”
First of all, Paul said, “Never be lacking in Zeal…” Obviously zeal is something that can come and go. Sometimes we can be more zealous than at other times in our lives. Some of you know that I have attempted to diet. I wanted to lose 10-15 pounds for summer vacation. Well, as some of YOU may have experienced, dieting isn’t always an easy task.
Usually, when a person starts out on a diet, they usually start out being passionate, zealously keeping to the structure of their diet. But as time goes on, they find that their zeal begins to come and go. The key isn’t just being zealous for the first few days of the diet. No, the real key is to KEEP that zeal for the long haul.
When we get discouraged and struggle, are we just going to throw up our arms and give up, or are we going to stick with it? That is the point that many of us come to when dieting. We do good to begin, but then we hit what seems to be a dead end. We begin to struggle and there is the temptation to just quit. But do we really want to lose what we have gained?
Well, the same is true when it comes to our zeal for the Lord. In the beginning, it comes easy. We are passionate about it. But then life throws us a curveball, and we begin to struggle, and there is the temptation to just give up. It is at that moment we need to realize that we will lose everything that we have already gained.
It’s one thing to lose passion for a diet, but it’s another thing altogether to lose passion for the Lord. We don’t want our zeal for the Lord to come and go. We don’t want to be lacking in our zeal for God.
Someone once wrote, “I was impressed several years ago when I read that Eugene Ormandy dislocated a shoulder while directing the Philadelphia Orchestra. I don’t know what they were playing, but he was giving all of himself to it! And I have asked myself sadly, “Did I ever dislocate anything, even a necktie?””
So, Paul says, “Never be lacking in zeal…”
Next, Paul says to, “…keep your spiritual fervor…” But how do we do that? How can we keep our spiritual fervor? Allow me to give you another Weight Watchers example. For people who are in Weight Watchers, when they attend the meetings each week it helps them get excited about sticking with their diet for another week. In most cases, when they miss a meeting they are not as diligent as they should be. They need that motivation.
Well, for motivation to maintain our spiritual “diet” we need to attend the meetings. We need to come to church and allow ourselves to be encouraged by one another. We need to come and hear the word of God shared on a weekly basis. But not only do we need to attend the meetings, but we also need to have a personal prayer life and Bible study as well. Doing those things can help us keep excited about our relationship with God.
So, we need to keep our spiritual fervor.
Then Paul goes on to say, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor ... serving the Lord!”
Serving the Lord helps us to maintain our zeal. As a minister, I am sure that I get much more out of my sermons than the people that listen to them. All the study time and preparation that goes into a sermon causes me to get more out of it than you do. The same is true for a Sunday School teacher or a Kids Church teacher. Chances are, if they are putting forth the proper effort, they get more out of the lesson than their students.
The point is that as we DO something in serving the Lord, we naturally get blessed by it. When we put feet to our faith and we are actively involved in serving the Lord, it helps us maintain our zeal.
If you find that your zeal isn’t what it should be, perhaps you need to become more active in serving the Lord. In Romans 12:12, Paul offers some real practical advice on keeping the spiritual fervor.
He writes, “Be joyful in hope…” As Christians, we have this hope in Heaven. We have the realization that this life is not the end, that there is something more than what this life has for us, something much better. So, if you sense that your relationship with the Lord is cooling off, perhaps you need to re-read some of the scriptures about hope and Heaven.
Paul says, “…be patient in affliction…” This is a tough one. Often, when we begin to struggle, when our health begins to falter, or the health of someone we love, or our home is in chaos, our spiritual fervor can be affected. We can lose our zeal for the Lord. But, if we can find strength in God’s word it can help us through those temporary difficulties.
By remembering that the problems in life are temporary we can move on in life. Psalm 30:5 says, “weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” And in II Corinthians 4:17 it says, “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
When we remember that our troubles are “…light and momentary…” and when we realize that if we remain faithful during times of difficulty we will be blessed, then our problems will seem small. And while that realization doesn’t take our problems away, hopefully, that realization will help us to be patient in the face of our difficulties.
And finally, Paul says, “…be faithful in prayer.” Prayer is the way that we access God. If you have found that your zeal is not what it should be, perhaps you need to take another look at your prayer life. Are you spending time each day in prayer and communication with God? That time spent with God each day has a way of reinvigorating us.
Now, maybe your life is filled with activity and busyness. But something is missing. And like Solomon, you’re beginning to realize that what you’re missing is a personal relationship with God. Maybe you’ve believed in Christ your whole life. Maybe this is something new to you. Whatever the case is, I invite you to start or deepen that relationship today. And experience a new zeal and joy for life like you’ve never had before.
Let’s Pray!
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