Turning 40 with Spurgeon
I turned 40 on October 23.
Physically, it feels exactly like 39—so far. Mentally, it tells me I’m not super young anymore. And I like that. Emotionally, it’s stabilizing. Spiritually, there is so much to rejoice in because God is faithful.
To help me reflect on turning 40, I turned to Charles Spurgeon. Big surprise, right? On the week Spurgeon turned 40, he gave a sermon titled “Forty Years” and preached on the end of Israel’s 40 years of wilderness wanderings with connections to our lives. His text:
For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this immense wilderness. The LORD your God has been with you these past forty years, and you have lacked nothing.” (Deut. 2:7)
Spurgeon, per usual, brought some edifying and fortifying observations from the text.
Spurgeon: Forty years of mercy suggest many thoughts concerning the past, teach much that will be of use to us for the present, and I think also should influence us aright as to the future.
This is a classic and helpful outline for the occasion. His sermon followed these three points, but I’ll add some organization of themes and my own commentary along the way.
Remember God’s Faithfulness
Look back, believer, and note that to you the existence of God has not been a theory, but a fact observed, and verified by actual experience. Can you not recall many occasions in which the Lord hath as certainly manifested himself to you as ever he appeared to Moses at the burning bush, or to Joshua outside the walls of Jericho, or to Solomon by night, or to the three holy children in the fiery furnace? Do you not remember that marvellous revelation of himself to you when you were converted?
We are all tempted to obsess about the future—the next thing, the outcomes, and the possibilities. It’s good to recall God's power and love at work in our lives and say, “God is good.”
We all have our moments of memory-searing mercies of God. From being born again to today, I can recall so many moments of God providing for me, lifting me from the pit, infusing joy into my life, and overwhelming me with his love. The Lord sees, knows, cares, and acts. I can look back on great pain, trials, losses, and bewilderment and see the risen Jesus carrying me through them all. Can you see how he's carried you?
These forty years we look back upon with sacred delight…Our Shepherd has not left us to wander alone; our heavenly Friend has been better to us than a brother, and has manifested himself unto us as he doth not unto the world. In this we will glory; even as Paul gloried in the revelation which he had received, so also will we rejoice in the displays of the divine favour which we have beheld.
Remember God’s Blessings
40 years is 40 years of God’s unmerited favor. Life, family, friends, great food, laughter—all of which I’ve enjoyed to the max this week. Last night, Natalie and I had dinner with friends, and I had a steak flight—NY Strip, Filet, and Wagyu. (I’m confident my cardiologist isn’t reading.) The Wagyu would have won the night if it weren’t for laughing so hard that I nearly had an accident. Gifts upon gifts. Blessings upon blessings. And the lasting spiritual blessings are the sweetest, most delectable. Forgiveness of sin, justification, sanctification, indwelling of the Spirit, fruits of the Spirit, and eternal home.
As with Israel so with us; in our life the most remarkable fact has been the blessing of God. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, blessed us all ways and blessed us always; blessed us beyond conception, blessed us exceeding abundantly above what we asked or even thought, and beyond what we can now remember…He has treated me infinitely better than ever I expected or deserved. He is a good God. I feel it to be a good thing to live, since he has accepted me in Christ; and a blessed thing to be on earth, because the Holy Spirit enables me to serve Jesus.
Keep Trusting God
All of these remembrances are meant to lead to a more solid and speedier trust in God. Look back over 40 years of God working all things together for good, providing blessings we don’t see coming, and let it solidify our trust in him.
Experience is a noble teacher, but we are dull scholars; yet at any rate we ought to have learned to continue trusting in God. After forty years of the goodness of your covenant God, do you mean to look to an arm of flesh, my brother? You have been so kindly treated by your Master and Saviour, would you now leave him for earthly friendship? Do you want a better God? Do you desire a better confidence?…When Noah was in the ark the Lord shut him in; may he shut you in so fast that you may never leave your confidence in Jesus. ‘Trust ye in the Lord for ever.’”
God has never been unfaithful. He is incapable of forgetting us, overlooking us, or dialing down his care. Reflection ought to resolve us to trust God in the fogginess of life.
Forty years of divine faithfulness should teach us also a surer, quicker, calmer, and more joyous expectation of immediate aid in all times of strait and trial: we should learn not to be flurried and worried because the herds are cut off from the stall, and the harvest is withered, for we know from abundant proofs that “The Lord will provide.”
I can look back over forty years and see moments in life and ministry when I had no clue how it would shake out. I know you do, too. So did Spurgeon. He loved these moments.
I am often glad when I feel that none but my Lord can carry me through, for I am certain of his help…My brethren, watch and wait for the Lord, and expect him as confidently as you look for light at the hour of dawn.
Keep Serving the Lord
Spurgeon exhorts us not to cling to youth or act immature. This probably applies to language, dress, calendars, and the way we carry ourselves.
If we pretend to be more juvenile than we are, uncharitable persons may possibly attribute it to vanity; it is a pity to give them such an opportunity. At the same time, ripe years are not to be trifled with. We have known some who have treated the fact that they are advancing in life with unbecoming levity; their grey hairs show that they are nearing the bounds of life, but they are as thoughtless as if they were yet in their minority, and so they are an incongruous mixture of the weakness of age, and the frivolity of youth. It is well to keep a cheerful heart to the last hour, and no man has so much reason for doing so as a believer in Jesus; but at the same time it is surely time to be solemnly earnest when one has passed the prime of life…Every year should increase our sense of the certainty, value, and nearness of eternal things. “’Tis time to live if I grow old.” Works for God among our fellow-men will soon be impossible to us; let us be diligent in them while as yet our sun is above the horizon. Now, if ever, we should redeem the time, because the days are evil. In the very middle of life, when strength is in our bones, and we have the grandest possibilities of vigorous service, it is well for us to be fully alive to the highest interests and purposes, and not to be spending a dreamy existence, as if we were mere lotus eaters, born into a garden of poppies to sleep the livelong day.
I’m not “young” Jeff anymore. This is good. I’m not the young guy who replanted a church at 25 and signed his first book contract at 29. I’m now 40, close to having a PhD, more books on the way—and take fish oil pills. These 40 years of God’s goodness, the symbolism and reality of advancing in age, and the dawn of eternity tell me: Don’t slow down; keep serving Jesus!
Men of forty, it is time for us to be fully at work! Moses was forty years old when he went down to visit his brethren in Egypt; then he tried to turn to practical use the former forty years of education in Pharaoh’s court; and though he had to wait forty years more, it was no fault of his. Joshua said, “Forty years was I when Moses sent me to spy out the land.” You cannot hope to live as long as these men did, and therefore it is quite time to begin earnest work, for you are in your prime, and will never be more fit for usefulness. If you have not begun before, let your consecration be at its full today. The Lord has blessed what you have done with a right motive, will it not be well to do more? Men in trade when they find they make gains increase their business, and when we find God blesses us in what we do, let us do more for him. We must not slacken our zeal; it is a dreadful thing when men begin to do less while their natural force is unabated, it looks as if their hearts were growing cold…Man alive! stick to your work as long as you are alive. Surely work for Jesus deserves our maturest and best instructed years, and it ought not to be left to the mere boys and girls. The young people deserve great credit for taking to the work so heartily, but surely men and women in their prime are none too good to be enlisted, and the fulness of their strength is not too much to expect for Jesus.
This past week, many men told me that I’m now entering my prime. Good to know. I want to use this time for Jesus.
Keep Walking with Jesus
Serve him, yes! Communion with him, yesssss! Mid-life is not the time to dial back our spiritual formation. Lean forward into Christ. More fellowship with him. More Bible reading, more prayer, more meditation, more church, more Christian fellowship, more walking with Jesus.
Beloved, there is another thing which forty years suggest to me. You will have observed that the text mentions twice “The Lord thy God.” All through the chapter it is always that—“Jehovah thy God.” Here we have mention of his covenant relationship, in which he is ever most dear to us. Shall we not at this time renew our own personal covenant, and take our God to be ours afresh? We read that Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebecca. Let us have a new wedding-day ourselves, and give ourselves over again to the Husband of our souls, even Jesus the Wellbeloved…May we offer ourselves anew to Jehovah this day, and take Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be our God for ever and ever.
We are all tempted to live for man's approval. I can be tempted to want certain accolades and accomplishments for sinful reasons. If we crumble to these temptations, it compromises the power and potential of our ministries. People-pleasing and fear will zap your vitality. Serve the Lord and follow his word.
The minister who cares for any man’s opinion when he is doing his duty is unworthy of his office. The servant of God must not be the servant of men. The only man whom God will bless is he who fears no man’s face, and resolves that whether he offends or pleases he will clear his soul from the blood of all men.
Conclusion: Confidence in God
Spurgeon ended his sermon with a summary: More confidence in God. There are dozens of things in our lives that can unsettle our hearts and minds. Resolve to have confidence in God. Who knows what the next decade will hold? Big decisions will come around the corner for all of us. We should pray, seek the Lord, seek wise counsel, and do what’s right. The Lord will see us through today, tomorrow, and through eternity.
Lastly, we ought for the future to show more confidence in God if we have had forty years of his love: we should have more confidence in working for him that he will bless us, more confidence as to our personal weakness that he will strengthen us, more confidence as to the unknown future that through the great and terrible wilderness he will be with us, and that through the last cold stream he will still be our companion; more confidence that we shall behold the light of his countenance, and more confidence as to the supply of all our needs, for as we have lacked nothing, so all things shall be freely supplied till we cross the river and eat the old corn of the land.
Like Deut. 2:7 says, the Lord is with us, blessing the work of our hands, we depend on him, and he will continue to watch over us.
Selah.
Amen.