Never Be Lacking in Zeal

How do we maintain zeal as we get older?

Intro: In this class we are exploring how to maintain our spiritual zeal – especially as we get older.

To do that we are going to explore the story of Moses at 2 different points in his life – Moses of Exodus 3 and Moses of Numbers 20

3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:1-4)

Think about Moses at this stage of his life in Exodus 3 – Perhaps we can relate to this Moses.

• Moses is no longer young or idealistic. He’s moved on from his dreams he had as a younger man of being the one to free his people from Egypt.
• He accepts the reality of the roles he has to play at this point of his life – I am a husband, a father, a man who is no longer a prince of Egypt. I am a shepherd – a man hired to work with someone else’s sheep.
• He’s had to accept what he’s lost and what he’s gained and where his life is at. Thankfully, he’s not the Moses of Exodus 2:22 “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land” – this is my home now, this is my family, this is my life.
• God could have called Moses at any point, but he waits until this time to do so. Knowing that God doesn’t do random things, calling Moses at this point in his life must be deliberate.

I don’t know why God waited to call him. What I see is that having to run for his life and let go of his dreams was devastating for Moses. During the time Moses fled from Egypt and this moment, he had time (40 years) to process what happened to him; accept his new life and make peace with his past. (in Ex. 7 – Moses is 80 years old)

• Think for a moment: Would we describe Moses as zealous at this point of his life?
• We would probably need to define the term, but I don’t know if any of us would compare 40-year-old Moses and 80-year-old Moses and say that 80-year-old Moses was more zealous.

It can help to look at what Moses was like at 40

• Ready to rescue his people from Egypt on the strength of people rallying around him.

Acts 7:25 – Moses thought his people would realize God was using him to rescue them but they did not.

• He didn’t have a plan beyond that – I will kill this Egyptian and my people will rally and follow me to glory. He had passion, a dream, and thought it would just work out.
• Acts 7:22 – Moses – educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; powerful in speech and action.

Moses at 40 has power, ambition, vision, education, wisdom, skills, conviction and purpose.

Moses at 80 has a job that he never thought he would have –  (but it pays the bills), a wife, 2 kids, and stories of his past that start with “I really thought that God would…”

• When you read further in chapter 3, Moses no longer believes he is powerful in speech or action, and he has even convinced himself that he never was (Exodus 4:10)

What 80-year-old Moses has been able to maintain or restore is his curiosity. He sees that bush. He knows that the bush should be burned up but it’s not – even though it keeps on burning.

He’s curious enough to still care about something amazing. Moses draws near to that bush and is called by God. He could have walked by.

What is the point?

• If we had to decide from the description whether 40-year-old Moses or 80-year-old Moses was more zealous, we would have said 40-year-old Moses.
• BUT – If we had to say which one had more impact, we would say 80-year-old Moses because it was that Moses who God is able to use to deliver his people from Egypt.

Wait – are we saying something negative about 40-year-old Moses’ fire? NOPE. 80-year-old Moses needed to approach being zealous differently.

Sometimes we want to keep going back to something that we can’t reach because we are different. We find ourselves longing for something that we have romanticized in our minds. God didn’t call 80-year-old Moses to be 40-year-old Moses. They were essentially 2 different people.

40-year-old Moses

• Didn’t have to process feeling like his hopes and dreams were over.
• Didn’t have to wonder whether God was with him.
• Didn’t have to carry the shame of running away.
• Didn’t have to make decisions that included his wife and 2 children.
• Didn’t have to figure out who he was going to be now that life didn’t end up the way he planned.

80-Year-Old Moses had to do all those things and more. Was 80-Year-Old Moses zealous? Not initially, but I believe that “Spiritual curiosity is the pilot light of being zealous for God”

• When you read on in chapter 3, 80-year-old Moses draws close to God and listens to him.
• He is honest about his self-doubts. He is open about his concerns and admits how he views himself at this point in his life.
• In chapter 4, he voices the honest questions about what if things don’t work out this time.
• He’s brutally honest that he wants someone else to go do what God is calling him to do.

At the end of the day, he goes. This zeal doesn’t quite look the same as what 40-year-old Moses had. This is the zeal that resulted from 80-year-old Moses working through life in order to connect with the plans God still had for him after feeling defeated, frustrated, passed by and discouraged.

Everything Moses wrestles over, sorts through and deals with inside himself allows him to maintain zeal as an older person. The pain, disappointments, discouragements and hurts that we don’t process tend to become stumbling blocks that make maintaining zeal difficult, if not impossible as we get older.

How good are we at processing the pain, disappointment, discouragement and hurts in our lives?

• Again, this zeal doesn’t look quite the same as it did in 40-year-old Moses, but it’s filtered through a heart that has been refined by everything that Moses has learned in the 40 years since Egypt.
• 80-year-old Moses can’t go back to 40-year-old Moses, and he doesn’t need to. 80-year-old Moses is willing to rely on God in a way that 40-year-old Moses didn’t realize that he had to.

Let’s close with some practical applications in Jude 1:17-24

17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Jude is written to Christians who are facing intense challenges from false teachers who are trying to influence them with their negative messages. They are threatening to divide them. There is doubt, confusion and as a result, some people are stumbling.

Jude calls them to contend for the faith that was entrusted to them (vs. 3)

Called to remember – verse 17

What we remember can affect how we think, feel and act whether we consciously decide for it to or not.

What do we most naturally remember about an event? Is it positive, negative? Do we typically remember what we did, what was done to us, or do we tend to remember what God did?

Is what we tend to remember helping us or harming us? (We all remember things) Is what we are remembering strengthening our resolve, or chipping away at our faith?

• Have to deliberately remember what God has said so we can think, feel and act in a way that allows us to keep from getting weary, discouraged, cynical or bitter. These things destroy zeal.
• Sometimes we have a really difficult time of doing that. “Dear Friends” – repeated over and over in this letter. Dear friends are crucial in memory. Jude is being a dear friend in this letter.
• Dear friends help others remember what God said so they can keep going and stand firm.

In the last month, who have you reminded what God said? Who have you allowed to be close enough to you to remind you? May need to be direct with our friends– “I’m having a hard time remembering”

Called to build ourselves up (vs. 20-21)

• “You must make your most sacred faith the foundation of your lives.” (Revised English Bible)
• We risk losing our zeal when we are somehow compromised in our own faith. “Building ourselves up” is a critical priority.
  • We can’t handle the pressure, stress, difficulty without continuing to build ourselves up. Fire needs fuel to burn. Curiosity is the pilot light, but faith is the fuel of zeal.
  • When the difficulties mount up, our foundation is what is most under attack – but it’s not usually through doctrine, but emotion.

For many of us, the issue isn’t false teaching but the discouragement that attacks our faith. Frustration, fear, anger may affect our faith much more than false teaching.

Our faith is one of our most precious possessions – how closely and carefully are we guarding it?

• Easy to not realize it until we feel absolutely depleted, until we no longer feel motivated; until we recognize we are looking at life with cynicism.
• Faith is like driving – needs constant attention and adjusting.

Here is a good gauge. (Jude verses 22-23)

²² Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³ save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.^[f]

These are all acts of spiritual fervor. They all take faith to do.

• Being merciful to those who doubt – spiritual act that Jesus did over an over again.
• Save others by snatching them from the fire – both the lost and the saved who are drifting.
• Hating even the clothing – having the right fear of what sin can do.

When I am depleted, I have a hard time doing these things. I get numb, weary, cynical and stop caring.

Close: (Jude 1:24-25)

²⁴ To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

God is amazing. Whatever stage of life we are in, he is able to do great things with our lives. Ultimately, being fired up is living with the concepts of these two verses as the reality of our lives. 1. We need God to keep us from stumbling. 2. Its about making it to heaven to live in God’s presence for eternity. 3. It’s accepting and proclaiming the glory, majesty, power and authority of Jesus until he returns.

Don’t forget: Maintaining zeal as an older person is about staying curious, and keeping the faith that was entrusted to us – even if we have to fight for it.

We can’t maintain zeal without processing hurt, pain, disappointment and loss so that we have the capacity to stay curious about how God will use us, and faithful that the scriptures we are obeying will make a difference.