Well, I invite you to take God's Word tonight and turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 4. As we continue through the book of Ecclesiastes, we're continually stretched, we're continually drawn to ever-increasing depths. It's a very difficult book. I have found it a challenge. I'm studying right now in chapter 7. And as I've gone through chapter 7, I'm over and over saying, oh my, oh my, it's a very difficult book of the Bible. And so I trust that tonight God will teach us. and instruct us from the truth. As we go through it, it's rich in application. As you go through the Word of God, you want to know exactly what the author is saying and what the author wants to convey. And that's the great difficulty through Ecclesiastes. You scratch your head sometimes and say, oh Solomon, what in the world are you trying to convey in this? But then once you get a handle on what he's trying to convey, the richness of application begins to unfold as we apply it to our life. And you really have to be careful in application because you don't want to stray beyond and what the original intent of the author was. And so let's continue tonight. Now let me read verses five through seven, just a very short passage. Now Solomon writes, the fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh. And right away you go, oh my, oh my, Solomon, what in the world are you telling us? The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh. One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind. So then I looked again at Vanity under the sun. Well, Solomon is continuing to make observations of conditions in this world. And remember, as Solomon is going through it, his chief focus is life in the world without God. And so over and over and over, he's reminding us, look, if you go through this world without God, without a solid understanding of his sovereign dominion, then it's all vanity, it's foolishness, it's without purpose, it's without design, and you're going to continually be left confused. And so in a world without God, there's only one conclusion. And he gave that conclusion at the very beginning of the book, and I give it over and over because it's continually consistent with his conclusions. Vanity, this is verse 2 of chapter 1, vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities all is vanity. And then we enter chapter 4. And in chapter 4, Solomon immediately turned our attention upon all of the oppression that exists upon the earth. And as I pointed out last time, many people find it difficult to reconcile the existence of an all-powerful, all-good, sovereign God and to reconcile him with the presence of all the suffering upon the earth. And they struggle with this. If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-caring, all-loving, and can do whatever he pleases to do, then how do you reconcile tornadoes Hurricanes, how do you explain the existence of disease and famine? How do you understand all the evil of oppression and injustice upon the earth? And so last time we looked at oppression and injustice upon the earth. And at least from my perspective, far more troubling, if they have a problem reconciling the struggles in this life, In the presence of God, imagine living in such a world where there is no God. I find it much more troubling to live in the midst of all of these disasters and the thought that there's no design, that there's no plan, that there's no God, that there's no hand working in the background. That would be troubling indeed to consider a world without God's sovereign precision. You know, Solomon concludes, if you're in this kind of world, Verse three, better off both of them is one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that's done under the sun. Basically, it'd be better not to have ever been born, to live in such a world. Well, moving on, doesn't get any easier. Moving on, Solomon briefly again returns to the topic of the futility of our labor upon the earth. And he says in verse 4, I've seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. And this, too, is vanity and striving after wind." So he's looking at labor once again, and he says, look, it's all the result of the competition, rivalry, jealousy, envy. And so, you know, that's what moves human beings to work. Because we want to acquire, we want to gain, we want to have the stuff so that we can parade the stuff. But when we get more stuff, then our neighbor is envious of us and it creates rivalry. Solomon is saying that work in and of itself is the result of rivalry between neighbors, each one trying to outdo the other, which is how we live. We want the bigger car. We want the bigger house, and we want to impress others. But it only serves to stir up the envy of our neighbor, which then leads to robbery. Why in the world would it ever occur that you'd come out of Walmart, and you go to open your car, and someone has taken a key and scraped it along the side of your car? We have a term for that. It's called keying. Why would anyone do that? Well, out of envy and jealousy and just downright meanness that they would look upon you having something nice and that cannot be. And so why do people spray graffiti? Why do they go and burn neighborhoods? Why do they bust down, you know, break windows and throw rocks? Why oh why oh why? Well, because they cannot stand the fact that one person has more than the other. And politicians take advantage of that. We refer to a class envy, and so the very thought, tax the rich, wins votes. You hear it all the time. We want to tax the rich. We want to tax the rich. And it does win votes. And Marxism, which we know, Marxism sees a society with no classes. Because after all, it is unjust for one man to own more than another. And so we want to have a level field. We want everyone to have the same thing, because it's not right if one person has more than another. So that's what Solomon is saying here. Look, every labor and every skill is the result of rivalry. That's the very nature of Marxism. It's rivalry. And so he supplies us with a response. with a solution. If work is motivated by pride and envy, the solution, quit working. Isn't that a wonderful solution? I mean, you look at verse 5. The fool folds his hands and, you know, verse 6, one handful of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after the wind. The solution, I mean, if work is motivated by pride and envy, The solution to it all, quit working, which is the nature of Marxism. It's the nature of socialism. Just level the field, but there's no more motivation. There's no more impetus to bring us to work harder. Because after all, it doesn't matter how hard you work, everyone has exactly the same thing. Which, by the way, homeless people, many, have taken this outlook. Jump off the treadmill! Give it up. Quit working. Just sit back and relax. But that causes greater problems, because the man who is lazy and slothful brings nothing but grief upon himself. He has nothing to eat but his own flesh. Thus Solomon says, the fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh. So it's a horrible outlook on life Solomon leaves us with, it really is. Solomon concludes that labor must include contentment or there's no value whatsoever. So on one hand we look at verse 6 and he says, one hand full of rest, in other words contentment, one handful of rest is better than two fists full of labor." In other words, filling your fist, wanting more and more, but never satisfied. Of course, there's other ways to look at this verse as well, and I'll bring that out in a moment. But in other words, How blessed is the man who labors quietly and enjoys the fruit of his labors. And Paul wrote of this principle in 2 Thessalonians when he says in chapter 3, for even when we were with you, we used to give you this order, if anyone is not willing to work, then he's not to eat either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort, and here you go, exhort in the Lord Jesus to work in a quiet fashion and eat their own bread. In other words, to be diligent, hard worker, and to be content to labor because labor in itself is good. So on one hand, the two hands in verse six, one hand full of rest is better than two hands full of labor. Those two hands can describe greed and gluttony and striving after the wind. And the one hand can also be the promoting of the sin of idleness. One hand, the fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh, and one hand full of rest. Full of rest, no labor, just sit back and do nothing, which is the sin that Paul is speaking of in 2 Thessalonians. Solomon is contrasting hard work versus idleness. Now, hard work is honorable, and over and over we're told, blessed is the man who finds rest and contentment in his labors. However, it's driving after wind to fill your fist full and still not be satisfied. If your goods are only a means of satisfying your lust, then vanity of vanity, all is vanity. And the lazy man will only find his hand empty and his life in need. Paul says, if a man will not work, neither shall he eat. And, you know, the Bible has much to say about the sin of idleness. Over and over, the sin of idleness. And Solomon's message is clear. The lazy man will be in great want. The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh. It's a gory picture of self-cannibalism. The man will not work, does not have food, he folds his hands and then eats and gnaws at his own knuckles. because he has nothing else to eat. Isn't it gory? I mean the fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh. Matthew Henry says idleness is a sin that is its own punishment. In other words, if you will not work, you will not eat, so idleness is a sin, but it carries its own punishment in its midst. Douglas O'Donnell says, the grotesque imagery of self-cannibalism of a foolish man sitting with his hands clasped together and gnawing on his knuckles illustrates that one who refuses to work will only destroy himself. His sloth is slow suicide. It's not a pretty picture, is it? Slothfulness is a great sin, and it carries forth into the New Testament to the degree that Paul says, okay, if you will not work, don't expect the church to feed you. You will not eat. You will suffer greatly because of your own sloth. So as always, we must strive to maintain a biblical worldview. And this is always the case. You know, there's a There is a biblical theology that tells us there is a theology that runs through the entirety of scripture. And we must make sure that our teaching is always consistent with the whole. And from that, we gain what we call our biblical worldview. This worldview, however, will almost always be contrary to the prevailing mindset of our culture. Almost always. A biblical worldview will almost always be contrary to the prevailing culture. Thus, you run into conflict. You run head, you know, butting heads with the culture because a biblical worldview is often contrary to what the world is teaching. Thus, we must continually say, But we will obey God rather than men. They say this, and we say, no, but God says, and then they say that, and then we say, but God says, and it leads to conflict. But we never compromise and we never turn from the teaching of the truth. But we need to be very careful that what we're teaching is indeed the truth. And in this I pray diligently, especially when what I am teaching is so contrary to the prevailing culture, and this is where it really gets troubling, and it is contrary to much of the teaching of the modern church. That's really troubling, because if your teaching is contrary to the majority report, now just because the majority report is the majority, which, if that's true, then dispensationalism is the right eschatology. And, I'll dare say, and Roman Catholicism is the right theology. Because there are more Roman Catholics than Protestants, I believe. The point is, the majority is not always right. So we don't fear being in the minority, but it does mean that we have to step back and say, oh God, am I in the minority because I'm wrong? Or am I in the minority because your word is clear but not often popular? And so there's the struggle. And so we want to make sure that our teaching is absolutely solid. So I want to cover First of all, the very simple issue of idleness as it applies to our welfare state, and I'm just going to touch on that very briefly. And then I want to spend the majority of the sermon tonight touching on the subject of retirement. And right away, we know what the worldview is. And we know what the prevailing culture is, and it's a no-brainer. It's just assumed. It's what we do. And people give very little thought to it. But we do not want to just simply go with the prevailing view of the culture if we have not taken the work to step aside and say, but is this God's view? And so that's what I want to try to bring before you tonight. But what is God's view regarding this very important topic? And so, first of all, the welfare issue, because we're talking about idleness. And idleness is so severe that Solomon says, man, it's like a man folding his hands together and then eating them. In other words, idleness will lead to absolute misery and destruction. So we know idleness is a bad thing. Let me just say this, the welfare state, and that's the terminology given to our present welfare system, the welfare state promotes idleness. It's not a pretty picture and it's not a popular thing to say, but any suggestion in our current welfare system, any suggestion of a work requirement is almost immediately shot down. And that would seem to be the most reasonable thing. In the past, you know, we've had some very difficult times as a nation. We went through a depression. We went through a depression where there were long lines, people waiting in line just to receive a little soup. There were projects that were brought into being so that men could work on these projects and earn a few dollars so that their families could be fed. You know the lakes down by the Capitol? Those lakes were dug as a part of the, what do they call the program? Anyway, during the Depression, so that healthy, able-bodied men could work. That's not what we would do today. It's not what we did during COVID. We spent $6 trillion encouraging, and long after the stay-at-home order was lifted, it was hard to get people to go back to work. It still is, by the way. It's hard for restaurants to find workers today. because people were paid not to work. Systemic idleness is what it was, and unbiblical. It involves taking from those who are engaged in productive work and giving to those who will not work, which is injustice, and it promotes idleness. And our mercy should never ever promote idleness. So enough said about that. I think you can fill in the blanks on the rest of it. Mercy is a good thing. Helping is a good thing. Giving is a good thing. But it should never promote sin. And idleness is a sin. And if an individual is able to work, they need to work. Is that simple? And that's what Paul says. And if a man will not work, he's not talking about someone that can't work. He's not talking about someone disabled. But he says, look, a healthy, able-bodied man, I hear that there are some among you who will not work. Well, I tell you, they need to work. They need to work with their own hands. They need to live a quiet and simple life. And they should not expect others to support them. All right. Enough said on that. But what about the other? People long for retirement. You hear it all the time. The earlier, the better. They long for retirement. What we mean by retirement is a cessation of working so that we can spend the rest of our life in idleness. But that's to be preferred, and that's what we long for. Modern retirement is systemic idleness. Doesn't that sound harsh? So I'm already saying idleness is sin. The idle man folds his hands and gnaws at his own flesh because if a man will not work, he will not eat. But retirement promotes this very thing. Idleness and idleness in and of itself is sin. To suggest this today is shocking. I mean, I can't put it in any other way. It's shocking that I would dare say such a thing. And right away you want to say, oh my goodness, this has to be false doctrine. It must be wrong. It cannot be right because no one believes it. The reason no one believes it is because we have adopted a worldview that's inconsistent with the biblical model. And if we just step back for a moment and look at the biblical model, it doesn't take long before we come to the conclusion, wait a minute, this isn't biblical, and we are embracing something that's contrary to what God commands. Now, let me take it one further step, and I hate to say this, Even pastors have embraced this unbiblical retirement pattern. Pastors tend to work until they're 65 years old and then that's it. Now, it's not so much now as perhaps 20 years ago. Pastors are working longer now. And did you know there's a pastor shortage right now? There is. There are fewer men, young men, entering pastoral ministry so that right now the average age of pastors is 54 years old. That's an old pastoral ministry. because there are not a lot of young people coming, which tells us then that pastors are laboring longer, and I think so many of them are coming to the conclusion Maybe I should not enter into 20 or 30 years of idleness. Maybe I should give myself faithfully to God's calling upon my life until I die, as long as I'm able to be able to say with the Apostle Paul, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. And so to be able to press on faithfully until the end. But I'm afraid that if individuals will look at it honestly, pastors, because there are pastors that are embracing retirement and teaching their members to embrace retirement, although most don't teach on it. It's just assumed. But they do retire. I think if they're honest, they have to admit, that it's based more upon opinion and upon modern practice than upon a solid biblical exegesis. And that's harsh. What I'm saying is harsh. It's based more upon modern culture than upon any solid biblical exegesis. Much of our thinking about retirement today has been influenced by two major changes in our culture. Let me tell you what the two major changes in our culture. the Industrial Revolution. Because the Industrial Revolution took people off the farm and put them into the factory. Now on the farm, you labored the land, you brought in your crop, you ate from your crop, you used surplus in order to buy other things from your family, and it was just assumed. Every year, you plant the crop, you harvest the crop, and you do this as Adam did all the days of your life. until the end. But with the Industrial Revolution, laws were eventually passed governing the number of hours worked each week, and pensions were established to allow retirement from work, and the pattern began to take root. Until finally, 1935, under the administration of Roosevelt, who was a liberal. Under his administration, 1935, the Social Security Act codified the age of retirement. The idea was to provide relief for those who could not support themselves in their old age. And so workers became eligible for benefits at age, the magic age, 65. And we hear that all the time. That's the age. You retire at age 65. You don't work any longer than 65 because that's the command. That is the age, 65. Where do we get that from? Uncle Sam. It's not from the Bible. It's not from God's teaching. It's not from any solid biblical evidence. It's simply because Uncle Sam says 65. But here's the thing. Workers became eligible for retirement at age 65, which at the time was older than the life expectancy, meaning most people didn't retire anyway. Let me give you some statistics. 1900. In 1900, the average age of retirement was 76 years old. But the life expectancy was 50 years old, which means most people never retired. Now, when you're figuring life expectancy, you also calculate in a high infant mortality, which brings the age way down. So it doesn't mean that everyone was dying at the age of 50. But the average life expectancy was 50. And most people never reached that retirement, the average retirement age of 76 years old. And so in 1900, retirees accounted for about 1% of the population, 1%. In 2000, the average retirement age was 62 years old, from 76 down to 62. And the retirement population, this is 2000, that's 23 years ago. The retirement population had climbed to 15% of the population, and now it's exploding because the baby boomers are coming up. Americans are living longer today than ever before. We enjoy better health, even in our latter years, which means these people who are retiring, they're not retiring because they're too old to work. They're healthy. They're strong. They're able. And so we're living longer, yet we still think we should retire in our 50s and 60s. A person born in 1995 can expect to live 35 years or more longer than a person born in 1900. In 2016, this is a neat figure, especially as we consider a couple weeks ago there was a celebration of a birthday of 100 In 2016, there were 82,000 Americans over the age of 100. That's a lot, 82,000 people. And by 2025, it's projected to reach 120,000. people in the United States over the age of 100. We are living a long time. If someone retires at age 65 and lives to be 100, do the math, 35 years. Not working. Not working. Today we still think that a person has the right to retire at age 65, even though he or she can easily live another 20 years in good health. And some are planning retirement much earlier than this. It's a badge of honor. I want to retire in my 40s. You hear it. It's a badge of honor. So what I'm saying is this. And it's highly offensive. because we've been so thoroughly indoctrinated, and few people teach this, and most modern Christians are more than willing to follow the status quo and follow the teaching they want to hear. I often say, here's the saying that you've heard a million times, it's quite familiar, what is it? People always do what they want, do. And the other saying that I don't say as often and people always hear what they want is to hear. And Paul says, look, the time will come when men will not receive sound doctrine, but heaping up to themselves, teachers having itching ears and turn their way, their ears from the truth. We hear what we want to hear. And so to have teachers and pastors that say, no, retirement is right. It's what we do. Everyone does it. You know, it's fine. That's what we want to hear. We don't want to hear what I'm saying. This is not preaching to the choir, and I admit it. These are, you know, R.C. Sproul has a book, Hard Sayings. Well, this would be a hard saying, you know, something that's difficult to preach and teach and difficult to receive. And, you know, I'm saying that modern retirement is not a biblical principle. Now, let me add this. Because I've brought a charge against my fellow pastors, some, because I'm saying what they're holding is an understanding that's based more upon our culture and the prevailing view rather than upon a solid biblical exegesis. And right away, because I've had some of my faithful brethren, some of which I sound like John the Baptist, whose shoes I am not worthy to untie, far and above myself. And what they would say, inevitably, they will bring up the Levitical priesthood, every time. In fact, if someone is listening to this, from the beginning, they'd be saying, no, no, wrong, wrong, what about the Levitical priesthood? No, no, what about the Levitical priesthood? the Levitical priesthood, Numbers 8.23. Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, This is what applies to the Levites. From twenty-five years old and upward they shall enter to perform service in the work of the tent of meeting. But At age 50, they shall retire from service in the work and not work anymore. So they say, well, there you go. The Levites were actually commanded to retire at the age of 50, which would really be popular today. No more 65 stuff. It's 50. And by the way, you stay at home and don't work at all until you're 25. And so, you know, mom and dad are supporting you until you're 25, and then you work till you're 50, and then, I don't know who's going to support you then, but you don't work anymore. That's not what this is teaching at all. Yes, they did cease from, because, because temple worship or, or tabernacle service was hard. You know, during the during the wandering years when the temple was a portable structure, they had to set it up at a moment's notice. And then when God gave the command, they took it down. And we're talking about beams, we're talking about curtains, we're talking about tons of stuff that had to be folded and put away and then carried until they got to the next place, and then they set it back up again, Not only that, the sacrificial system in and of itself was hard work. Can you imagine butchering cows, bulls, whole bulls? Butchering is hard work. These things weigh, what, six, seven, 800 pounds? And this is not old man work. This is young man work. And so they were to retire from that work from the hauling, from the carrying, from the butchering at age 50. But it really doesn't teach retirement as we know it today. Retirement as we know it today is ceasing from all labor and living the rest of our life in leisure, in a perpetual vacation the rest of our life. Rather, This is recognizing the aging of our bodies and the changing of our labors. And the Levites transitioned from the labor to assisting the younger ones. They did not sit in the doorway of their tent with a smoothie and spend the rest of their days in idleness. No. Numbers 826, they may, however, assist their brothers in the tent of meeting to keep an obligation, but they themselves will not do the work. Thus you shall deal with the Levites concerning their obligations. So our labors do change. Now, let me add to this. I've got to be very careful here. I'm not saying that the same work you did when you were 20, you do when you're 80. You operate a jackhammer, you know, and here's an 80 year old with their jackhammer, you know, 80 years old doing the same work he did when he was in his 20s. No, no, that's ridiculous. You know, I cannot maintain the level of work that I did 30 years ago. I just can't. Thirty years ago, when I was in seminary, I pastored a small church for a year and a half, and we were in Walker. There was a parsonage next door. I would stay in my office until well after 11 o'clock at night. walk back over to the house, to the parsonage and go to bed. Alarm clock would go off at 4 o'clock in the morning. I'd shower and eat breakfast and get on the road to arrive on the seminary campus at 6 o'clock. I would take my, I was part-time, I'd take my two classes at 10 o'clock. I'd get back in the car again, come and do my visits, do my study, prepare two sermons a week, all at the same time, caring for a young family. Look, there is no way I could do that today. And I say that. There's no way I could do that today. Now, I still get to the church around 545 in the morning, but I can tell you I have slowed down considerably. I cannot maintain the pace that I did 30 years ago. I just, I can't. So yes, I've slowed down, but I have no plans to retire because I cannot see the biblical support for it. So I have no plans to retire unless God says otherwise. And sometimes he does. But unless God says otherwise, I have full plans. Now, again, it changes. I've been, especially since we're in this transition and my office has changed, you know all the details of that. And I come here at 5.45, go to the office and work here till about noon. And instead of eating my oatmeal here, I go home. I eat my oatmeal and then I go into the study. But my granddaughter came in the other afternoon and I was awakened at her giggles because she's saying, is grandpa asleep? Because I dozed off at the computer. Look, we get older. And there are times in the afternoon after I've had my carb lunch of oatmeal, I sit there at the computer, and the next thing I know, I've got 16 rows of X's. My finger fell asleep on the keyboard. I'm thankful for the back key so that I can remove them all with a single stroke. You get the idea, though. We do age. and we get older and so the activity level changes. But understand this, work is God's appointed purpose for man. It is a creation ordinance, and we need to take creation ordinances very serious. It is a creation ordinance. God created man, put him in the garden to till it, to tend it, to care for it, and after the fall Work is not a curse after the fall. God is simply reiterating his creation ordinance and tells Adam, by the sweat of your brow, you will labor until you're 65 years old. No, he doesn't say that. All the days of your life. Work is God's appointed purpose for man. It is, in other words, work is a source of human identity. For a man to lack purposeful work is by implication dehumanizing. And that's what we're promoting. We are promoting the dehumanization of humanity. If work is an integral part of our humanity, how can we say that older people can do without it? Could this be one of the reasons we see so much depression and unhappiness and unhealthiness among the elderly who have ceased to be productive? I said it's an unbiblical model. Let me give you some biblical examples. Just a few. They're kind of fun. Biblical examples. Noah. I'm mentioning Noah. Noah's pre-flood, so pre-flood, people lived longer. So I understand that. But it doesn't matter how long you lived. You worked the entirety of your life. So Noah lived a long time, but he worked. So he was 600 years old when he completed the ark. But even after the flood, he became a farmer. Isn't that cool? He became a farmer. Genesis 9 20. Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He continued laboring. Jacob We read of Jacob and how Jacob labored for Laban, his father-in-law, because he loved Rachel so much. Jacob was 70 years old when he began to labor for Laban, and he worked for him until he was past 90. laboring, working and doing so gladly because that's what we do. Moses, Moses was 80 years old when he began to live, to lead the children of Israel, 80 years old. And that was a 40 year affair. He led the children of Israel through the wilderness for 40 years until he died at the ripe age of 120. Caleb, now you remember Moses sent some spies to spy out the land. A couple of the spies were spot on. Yeah, let's go. We're ready, Joshua and Caleb. And the rest, well, they discouraged the people and God was angry with them. But now they have conquered the land and Caleb is 85 years old. And let me read just a brief passage with Caleb. Joshua chapter 14. Caleb is 85 years old. And you say, well, people live longer. No, not at this time. He's 85 years old. 85-year-old men are 85-year-old men. He's old. You're old at 85. One thing about age during this period of time, you tended to lose your eyesight. Which is why Jacob was able to fool daddy because daddy couldn't see. They didn't have spectacles and so often their eyes would become dim and they would be no longer able to see. Which is testimony. It doesn't mean we continue to do all the things we did when we were young. It just means we continue to be productive all the days of our life. So Caleb, 85 years old, and in Joshua chapter 14, The land is being divided. They're receiving their inheritance. And there were different lands. There are some areas that they had been well conquered. There were no longer enemies. It was smooth territory. They could go in. And there were cities already built. And they could go into these established cities with established vineyards. And that's a good deal. But here's Caleb, chapter 14, and beginning with verse, let's see. Let's go with verse 7. This is Caleb speaking. And he says, I was 40 years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. And I brought back word to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear. But I followed the Lord my God fully. So Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot is trodden will be an inheritance to you and your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God fully. Now behold, the Lord has let me live just as he spoke these 45 years from the time the Lord spoke this word to Moses when Israel walked in the wilderness, and now I am 85 years old." So you would expect Kayla to say, Moses, I've been faithful, but I'm 85 years old, I'm tired. Give me something that's not real hard. And you hear, you hear Christians. I've heard, I've heard Sunday school teachers saying, you know, I've taught the Sunday school class for 20 years. Let's give it to a younger person. I've heard that. Well, here's Caleb. I am still as strong today as I was in the day when Moses sent me. As my strength was then, so my strength is now. For war and going out and coming in, now then give me this hill country, not the smooth area, give me the hill country, which the Lord spoke on the day which you heard on that day that Anakim were there. What are the Anakim? Well, take a picture of Goliath. These are the giants. And these are the ones that when they spot out the land, they said, they're going to consume us. We're a bit grasshoppers. Well, Caleb says, yeah, there's Anakim. We're there with great fortified cities. Perhaps the Lord will be with me and I will drive them out as the Lord has spoken. So Joshua blessed him and gave him Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, for an inheritance. He was old, but he didn't retire. One more, Joshua labored until his death at the age of 110. So some quick biblical principles for your life. Number one, resolve in your heart that you will work the rest of your life. Hard pill, isn't it? Resolve in your heart that you will work for the rest of your life, which many find to be a shocking statement. But it's really God's plan for your life. Now, if you've already retired, get productive. Be productive. You know, really, the point is, because most companies now have an expectation that you're going to end around 65 or so. That's the magic age. So have a plan. What are you going to do afterwards? Oh, well, I'm going to sit back. Man, I'm going to be the best golfer in the world. And I'm going to be the best fisherman you could ever imagine. And I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that because now I'm on vacation. And this vacation will last 35 years, which is presumptuous because we don't know that we have another year. But no, make a plan. What are you going to do after? When people tell me, I retired last year. I almost always say, what are you doing now? What are you doing now? What's your plan? You always have to have a plan and a backup. Plan A, plan B. What's your plan? What are you doing? What's your goal? You want to be productive? You want to labor? You want to give yourself to labor all the days of your life? What's your plan? What are you doing now? So it doesn't mean that you continue in the same career or work at the same company. Again, even the biblical patriarchs faced limitations, but they remained productive all the days of their life. So what about the leisure of retirement? I'll just simply say this, it's unbiblical. It's just simply unbiblical. I cannot find a biblical model to support it. A biblical model that says you can spend 40 years of your life in leisure. I cannot find that model. I can find much against perpetual leisure that we call idleness. I cannot find a model that says you can go on vacation and that vacation is going to last 20 years. I cannot find that model. A permanent vacation. No! The biblical model, we labor all the days of our life, but we have a rest coming. It's called eternity. It's called our eternal rest. It's called our eternal Sabbath. Then, and only then, Do we enter into our rest, which is the way it's described? Enter into your rest, but we're not there yet. And only this generation of Christians pretend that we have entered our rest now, long before we enter eternity. So God has planned leisure and work. We have to have a good model of both. Is it wrong to take a vacation? Absolutely not. You need to program times of leisure in your life. God has automatically given us one day in seven. That's a day of rest. And it's good to give ourselves, Jesus would go apart into the wilderness and pray. He would go apart, he would leave the busyness so that he could be alone to pray. Times of sabbatical, if you will. And then he'd get back on it again. There's nothing wrong with times of leisure and times of rest. If you come to me and say, we're going on vacation next week, you'll sense a sense of excitement. Where are you going? What are you doing? Tell me more about it. Because it's a good thing. You need to have times where you can unwind, that you can rest. We're going to the beach. Fantastic. Where are you going? What beach? Are you staying in a condo? That's a good thing. Well, no, we're going on a 30-year rest. We're going on the beach for 30 years. We're giving up all productivity. We're entering into a perpetual state of idols, of which I would say, you need to rethink. You need to replan. You need to reexamine, because there's no biblical model for it. God calls sloth sin. Is that hard? Proverbs 20 verse four, the sluggard, how would you like to be called a sluggard? It just sounds bad, a slug. Doesn't that sound horrible? That's what you pour salt in and watch them melt into the pavement. A sluggard does not plow after the autumn, so he begs during the harvest and has nothing. And again, Paul's words in 2 Thessalonians, if anyone is not willing to work, Then he's not to eat either. And that's unusual to come from the mouth of a Christian. You don't expect that to be Christian teaching. He won't work. He won't eat. For we hear that some among you are leading undisciplined lives, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. So Paul described the sinfulness of our pleasure-seeking world when he says, but realize this, in the last days difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, and it goes on and on and on until it finally says lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. We know Sodom was destroyed, right? Any of you don't know what happened to Sodom? Yeah, I know you do. And why was Sodom destroyed? And right away, what are you going to say? You don't know? Why was Sodom destroyed? Come on! Homosexuality, right? Yeah, I mean, Lot brings the angels into his house and the men are beating at the door saying, bring them out that we may know them. Yeah, wickedness and homosexuality. What do we call homosexuality? The terminology that has long been given, we call them sodomites. Why would we call them sodomites? Because of the sin of Sodom. But that wasn't the only reason they were destroyed. Oh, you know, we want to focus on that because we think homosexuality is the worst sin that ever happened. It's not. Here's what the scripture says, Ezekiel 16, 49. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease. idleness, careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy, thus they were haughty and they committed abominations to me, the homosexuality, they committed abominations, therefore I removed them when I saw it. So we must repent of any notions that we might have that there's somehow something wrong with work. People think that somehow there's something wrong with work. We don't want to work. Work is a bad word. It's a four-letter word. We don't want to work. We want the weekend. A four-day week, that's even better. We don't want to work. And we want to end work forever, as soon as we can, because it's a bad thing. No, we need to understand work is good. I ought to have you repeat it after me, work is good and is honoring to God. And Solomon knew this, by the way. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 2, there is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that is from the hand of God." So make plans to labor. You're probably going to be cut loose at age 65 or thereabouts, just because this is the prevailing plan. If you're in the military, about 20 years, which means if you enter the military at age 18, you're going to be done at age 38. Does that mean at age 38 I'm retired? Pat's an uncle. Hallelujah for Uncle Bob. He was in the military, retired, full benefits in his 30s, and he went to work for another company, and then for another company, and spent his life laboring, although he was technically retired from the military in his 30s. But there are individuals that they retire in their 30s, and they say, well, I'm retired. I've put in my 20. I'm done. And they spend the rest of their life with their pension in ease and retirement. So, make plans to be productive all the days of your life means you got to make adjustments because you cannot keep up the same pace and I'm not suggesting that neither does the Bible. Second of all, make wise plans for the unexpected. because you don't know what the future holds. So we need to lay up resources for the future in the event that our health declines in our latter years, prohibiting us from working. That's not the same thing as a 65-year-old that's as healthy as an ox, able to do amazing things. I don't know how to go into details. So make plans for the unexpected. Take advantage of your harvest years to guard against becoming a burden to your children. Use the ant as an example. Solomon says, go to the ant, oh, sluggard. Observe her ways and be wise, which having no chief officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest. Take advantage of your harvest days, the days when you can labor, the days when you can work, and put aside, look to the aunt, and be wise stewards in order to leave your children an inheritance. That's a good thing. Modern retirement is the systematic spending of your children's inheritance. That's what it is. It is the systematic spending of your children's inheritance. It is a good principle to strengthen the family by passing resources from generation to generation. That's why the inheritance tax was so wrong. because they were taking from families. They were taking wealth from families that individuals had labored, they had given themselves diligently so they can leave an inheritance for their children, and then the federal government at one point was taking as much as half. That's wrong, robbing from the rich to give to the poor. That's just simply unjust. And the Apostle Paul, by the way, affirmed the principle of inheritance. He says this, 2 Corinthians 12, 14, here for this third time, I am ready to come to you and I will not be a burden to you for I seek not what is yours, but you. For children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. That's the principle, that parents save up, parents are willing to be frugal, parents are able to live without spending everything they make so that they can lay up and store for their children. And then we've taught our children resourcefulness and responsibility so the children receive the nest egg and they were able to wisely manage it as good stewards so that they can then pass it on to their children and who knows that some great catastrophe will happen and that nest egg will be there to provide strength and resources for the family during the hard times. You see the wisdom in that? Two more quick, I know this is going long, two more quick issues with retirement. What if you plan on giving yourself to Christian ministry? Because I've heard that too. Well, you know, I'm going to retire so I can give myself to Christian ministry. Oh, just wait till I retire. I've heard that a lot. Oh, just wait till I retire. When I retire, I will Well, no, you need to be doing that anyway. You need to be doing it anyway. You know, God knows that you have your vocation and your responsibilities, and there are different seasons in life. There are seasons with young families. There are seasons when, you know, God knows all this, and in whatever season you're in, you're laboring for the glory of the kingdom. So don't use your work as an excuse not to labor for the kingdom or somehow put it in the sweet by and by that somehow, someway, sometime I will finally give myself to Christian service. I know one individual that made these boasts and the individual perished about the same time they retired. All the vain promises and the vain presumptions when we don't even know what tomorrow will bring. So we need to make it our heart's desire, I'm going to serve him today. Well, what about, well, I'm going to quit so that I can give myself to full-time Christian service. Well, that's fine, but you need to be very careful. God has led you into full-time vocational Christian service. This is now my vocation, and I'm giving myself to it. That's not what people mean, though, when they say, I'm retiring. And on the side, when the opportunity is there, I'll do good things for the kingdom, too. So make sure we're honest as we consider these things. And the other thing is, what about ladies who don't work outside the home? What about them? Well, you're involved in labor that doesn't have retirement either. the labor of caring for the home. And it's also sinful for you to be idle." Which is exactly, I mean, listen about these young widows whose husbands had died, and it says at the same time, they learn to be idle. That's not a good thing. They learn to be idle as they go around from house to house, and not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies talking about things not proper to mention. It's not a good thing. No, the model is the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31. She rises up also while it's still night, before the sun comes up, and gives food to her household and portions to her maid, and she makes sure her household is well cared for. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her lamp does not go out by night. She wakes up before the sun comes up, and in the evening she is still laboring. She examines a piece of property and she buys it. She's giving herself to the well-being of the home, and there's no retirement from that. We give ourselves in productivity all the days of our life. Well, these are biblical principles. It's not a popular principle. And so, like most biblical principles, they're out of favor today. But our duty is to live according to God's word rather than the teaching of society. Our mind needs to be that of Joshua. As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. I don't care what the culture is teaching. I don't care what the prevailing view is. As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Or the words of Peter, we must obey God rather than men. So, may all of us labor into our old age as an example of the virtue of hard work, and it is a virtue, so that those coming after us will observe our life and, you know, may they look upon the hoary head, hoary head is the King James terminology, the gray hair, that they can look upon our gray head as an object of respect. You know, the man that spends his days fishing or playing golf will really not draw much respect from young men. It's the man who labors, who gives himself to the work of the kingdom. I want to be like him. I want to be like Grandpa. I want my life to model the life of Grandpa. May we live that kind of life before them. The woman who spends her last days in idleness will not be the woman of Titus 2, worthy of reverence and the esteem of younger women. Let me close with one more example. Acts chapter 9, and we know this very well too. There's a woman by the name of Tabitha. And she had another name, too. Her other name was Dorcas. But I would rather be called Tabitha than Dorcas. But Tabitha dies. And all the ladies, young and old, are weeping and crying for this dear saint. And here's what it says. In Acts chapter 9, beginning with verse 36, Now in Joppa, there was a disciple named Tabitha, which translated in Greek is called Dorcas. This woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity, which she continually did. She wasn't given to leisure and idleness. No, all the time. She was known for deeds of kindness and charity. And it happened at the time that she fell sick and she died. And when they had washed her body, they laid it in the upper room. since litter was near a job of the disciples having heard that Peter was there sent two men to him imploring him do not delay in coming to us so Peter arose and went with him and when he arrived they brought him into the upper room and all the widows stood beside him weeping and listen weeping and showing all the tunics and garments you know you you couldn't go to to Old Navy, is Old Navy still a thing? You couldn't go to the clothing store and buy garments. You couldn't shop for fashions. No, they had to be made and made by hand. And this was a woman who was old, a widow, and how did she spend her time? She blessed all these other ladies, and it said, They were weeping and showing the tunics and the garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them. And, of course, Peter healed her and raised her up. There's the model. When you die, may all the widows gather around and say, she was a dear saint. She was so involved in my life. She gave herself diligently to the labor of the kingdom rather than She sat all day eating bonbons by the, you get the idea, idle, going from house to house, continually on Facebook. Or this is a woman that gave herself diligently all the days of her life. Or this is a man who did not give himself to idleness, but he continued in virtue all the days of his life, laboring for the good of the kingdom. Maybe not with a jackhammer anymore, but productive and laboring with all the strength and might that is within him. That is the plan. What next? If you retire tomorrow, then what? What is your plan? What is phase two of your life? And phase two of your life better not be, well, I'm going on vacation. Hallelujah, I'm going on vacation. I've put in my work, I've done my time, done your time as if it's a prison, done your time as if it's a punishment. I've done my time and now I'm ready to enter the good life. Well, you have no control over what tomorrow will hold, and perhaps the good life is the short path to the grave. Let's pray. Father, these are hard sayings. They're hard because they don't fit the modern lingo. They don't fit the modern way. But Father, help us to be careful to follow your word and your way. It's never a good thing to be idle. It's always a good thing to be productive all the days of our life. So would you continue to equip us? Keep us strong, like Caleb was strong. 85 years old, he says, I'm as strong now as I was when I was 40. Would you keep us strong? Would you keep us healthy? May this be our prayer, oh God. God, would you keep us healthy to the end of our days? Not so that we can consume our life in idleness, that we might be spent and well spent for the good of your kingdom all the days of our life. May it be so, O God, in Jesus' name, amen. You're dismissed.