I once asked an older woman if she would teach a children’s Bible class.  She seemed to be the perfect candidate for the position; she was well-versed in the scriptures, and had an abundance of time on her hands.  But she responded with those all too familiar words – “Don’t bother me, I’m retired!”

Brethren, we may retire from secular work, but we mustn’t ever retire from the Lord’s work.  There is a rest to come (Hebrews 4:8-11) but we are not there yet.  1 Corinthians 15:58 says we are to, “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”  Paul considered himself, “A debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise” (Romans 1:14) and such also should be our disposition.  Titus 2:3-5 says, “The older women … that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderous, not given to much wine, teachers of good things– that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.”

Folks, let us not waste our talent (Matthew 25:14-30).  Jesus says of those who do so, that they  are “wicked and lazy servant(s)” (Matthew 25:26).  Let us wisely “redeem the time” (Ephesians 5:16; Colossians 4:5).  Let us never retire from the Lord’s work, for as Paul once said, so should we, “Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8). May we sincerely sing “I want to be a worker for the Lord; I want to love and trust His holy word; I want to sing and pray and be busy every day in the vineyard of the Lord. I want to be a worker ev`ry day; I want to lead the erring in the way that leads to heav`n above, where all is peace and love , in the kingdom of the Lord…I will work, I will pray in the vineyard, in the vineyard of the Lord; I will work, I will pray, I will labor ev’ry day, in the vineyard of the Lord” (Song: I Want to Be a Worker by I. Baltzell). May we also sincerely sing “We’ll work till Jesus comes, we’ll work till Jesus comes, we’ll work till Jesus comes and we’ll be gathered home” (Song: We’ll Work Till Jesus Comes by Elizabeth Mills).

We thank God for those who are exert themselves to “work the works of Him… while it is day” (John 9:4).  One day they will hear those precious words, “Well done good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of the Lord” (Matthew 25:23).  “Come you blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).