1994 Encouragement / Exhortation for the New Year

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin reflects on the brevity of life, prompted by the annual ritual of changing his desk calendar, and expresses a pastoral burden to offer encouragement and exhortation…

Martin uses biblical imagery of life as a vapor, a sigh, and a weaver's shuttle to emphasize the brevity and swift passing of human life, preparing hearts to receive God's word with sobriety.

Now let us again ask God's help upon the ministry of the word, and as we do, let us remember that some of the imagery of this hymn is not the strained imagery of poetry. It merely reflects many of the images of the word of God, the scripture tells us our life is a vapor, a little puff of smoke that appears and vanishes away. God says our years are spent as a sigh at your life and mine. Again, we are told that our days pass swifter than a weaver's shuttle. If you've ever seen an old loom, see the shuttle that is thrown from side to side as it works its way, through the threads. God says each of...

0:14 - 1:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin reflects on the brevity of life, prompted by the annual ritual of changing his desk calendar, and expresses a pastoral burden to offer encouragement and exhortation…

He recounts his annual ritual of replacing the old desk calendar with the new one, which prompts a sobering reflection on the certainty of his own death and the finite number of times he will perform this act.

Now as I sat at my desk on Saturday, I went through a very mundane but sobering annual ritual. That ritual involves reaching into my top left-hand desk drawer, where I keep my desk calendar, from which I work out my daily, weekly, monthly schedule, and sometime during the last months of the previous year, I get the calendar for the next year and place it under the current year. So, for several months, the calendar for 1994 sat under, calendar, 1993 calendar, and occasionally was referred to in elders' meetings, in long-term planning, occasionally referred to responding to requests for outside ...

3:38 - 5:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Plead with God for the fulfillment of Psalm 92:12-15 in your life, demonstrating the sustaining grace of God.

The imagery of a palm tree withstanding hurricanes and a cedar in Lebanon symbolizing strength and beauty is used to illustrate the flourishing and enduring spiritual vitality of aged saints, even amidst physical decline.

want to address to you a very simple pointed word of exhortation it has two points you aged ripened homesick saints among us hope i described you can you see yourself in the description and the first exhortation is this for the fulfillment of the promise of some ninety to twelve to fifteen in your life for whatever amount of time dog yet she for the fulfillment of the promise ninety two versus l to 15 in your life. In these verses we read, the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, palm tree that withstands the buffeting of hurricanes and typhoons, and each time it bends beneath those un...

18:19 - 19:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Plead with God for the fulfillment of Psalm 92:12-15 in your life, demonstrating the sustaining grace of God.

The biblical account of Anna, who served God with fasting and supplications night and day in the temple, is presented as a model for aged saints to devote themselves to an intensified ministry of prayer.

rather than on the most graphical. of prayer. One of the great problems of the generation that is growing old and fears its old age is the sense of uselessness. There are some people who have higher ambitions than retiring in Florida and playing tennis until they can no longer play tennis and then play shuffleboard, and when they can no longer play shuffleboard, play pinochle and bridge until they can, and then lie down and die. And when you come to that stage in your life where you have relatively few responsibilities in terms of what your previous epochs of life knew, I am convinced that the...

24:25 - 25:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Plead with God for the fulfillment of Psalm 92:12-15 in your life, demonstrating the sustaining grace of God.

An anecdote about a dying saint telling a nervous young preacher that she is 'just crossing over the river, and my father owns the land on both sides' illustrates the peace and intimacy with God that comes from a life of deep devotion and prayer.

And of prayer, my pastoral word to you is not only to plead that in your life there would be an increasing evidence of the fulfillment of the promise of Psalm 92, but that in the use of your time, it would be evident that you are taking this chapter of your life to give yourself to an intensified ministry of prayer that will have the twin benefit of not only being instrumental in your life, but also being instrumental in your life. It is a blessing to pray down blessing from heaven upon those who, in fulfilling the revealed will of God according to Scripture, simply cannot spend the same amoun...

28:02 - 29:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't grow careless and seek to coast on past disciplines, reputation, and attainments in grace; continue to grow in grace and knowledge.

David's greatest sins, committed in his middle age when he began to 'coast,' serve as a stark warning to mature, stable, middle-aged saints against spiritual carelessness and relying on past attainments.

A danger for those of us who fit into the category that I have just described, those of us who could rightly be described as mature, stable, middle-aged saints, the greatest, and to think that the benefit of past discipline, meditation, grace, will somehow be astonished, and to think that the benefit of past discipline, meditation, grace, will somehow be astonished, I remind you that David's greatest and most shameful sins were committed at this period in his life. Not when he was a teenager, not when he was in his twenties, not when he was being chased around the wilderness of Judea, but it c...

35:42 - 36:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He was saying. Christian there are many things. This side of the world to come. That you must touch. And handle. And take to yourself. If you are to live in this world. But don't let it get within you.

He quotes Evangelist's advice to Christian in Pilgrim's Progress: 'This side of the world to come, get within you,' to warn younger saints against letting the cares and riches of this world choke the word within them.

He would keep you from those influences. You remember when Evangelist. Met Christian along the way. And gave him godly counsel.

50:04 - 50:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He said the genius of the gospel is. Encapsulated in these. Three simple realities. Every man needs Christ. Christ is suited. To every man's need. And Christ is accessible. To every man in his need.

He shares Rabbi Duncan's encapsulation of the gospel's genius: 'Every man needs Christ. Christ is suited to every man's need. And Christ is accessible to every man in his need,' to present the core message of salvation to the unconverted.

In reading the biography of Rabbi Duncan. This past week. Or the week before. He said the genius of the gospel is.

65:49 - 65:58 Read in full sermon