Fellowship in the Word

Jason Gebhardt: Today, on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Bill Gebhardt: That is God's promise. You still bear fruit in your old age. Don't let anyone say you are too old to do anything. That is an American idea, but it is clearly not a biblical idea. Isaiah 46:4, "Even in your old age I am He, and even to gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made and I will bear you. Even I will carry you and I will deliver you." It does not matter what color your hair is, God says.

So, don't quit. Finish your race. Stay focused. Retirement has nothing to do with spiritual service. To finish well, stay connected to your calling. Don't dwell on past successes, and stay ready for redeployment.

Jason Gebhardt: Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world.

Pastor Bill Gebhardt: God has you here for a reason. You have a reason to be here, and you have to think about that reason. So often, we really don't. So, you have to stay focused until you finish. Retirement has nothing to do with you serving the Lord. And thirdly, to finish well, you have to stay connected to your calling.

Go with me to Romans chapter 11 in the New Testament, verse 29.

Stay focused on your calling. And here is the reason, and this applies, this simple little verse applies to all of us. 11:29 says, "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."

That is about as clean as something could be. They are irrevocable. Whatever spiritual gifts God has given you, they are yours. Whether you ever use them or not, even if you deny it, he says, "irrevocable," it's your gift. And God's calling on your life, that is, what does God want you to do?

He said, "These things are irrevocable." Now, you don't have to, you don't have to, you know, work with God on this. You can work against God. You can say, "I don't care about any of them. I'm just going to do what I want to do." You can. But he said, "It does not change the gift, and it does not change the calling."

This is an important verse, and I know one I've thought about a lot. Some years ago, I read a quote by Os Guinness that affected me at that time a great deal. Os Guinness wrote this, he said, "I think it is important to realize that we can retire from our jobs, but we can never retire from our calling."

You can't retire, you don't retire from a calling. I've known guys that have, they just retired. Why? I got to be a certain age, you have to retire. From your calling? Oh, yeah.

You have to be careful thinking like that. By the way, I'm extraordinarily grateful to a lot of guys who didn't think that way. For me as a pastor, some of these men have been tremendously encouraging to me. Tony Evans in Dallas is 73 years old. David Jeremiah, 81. John MacArthur, 83. Chuck Swindoll, 87.

I just read at Dallas's website, Chuck Swindoll just took another large group of people to Israel for 10 days. He has done this his whole life. He's 87. Charles Stanley is 90.

Now, I want you to think about this, how many millions of people worldwide have benefited from these men's ministry to them? Millions upon millions of believers all over the world have benefited. They didn't say, "Well, I turned 65, I retired."

You see, it didn't work like that in any sense of the word. They continue to do what they have always done. When Velma and I first came to this church, our plan at that time was we'd spend three or four years here, and then, I'm kidding. And then the Lord would move us to do a ministry back closer to Western Pennsylvania, where all of our family and friends were. That's what we thought.

God, the Lord had other plans. He had completely different plans. And as of this Sunday, I believe it's this exact Sunday in October, I have now completed 40 years here.

Pastor Bill Gebhardt: (Applause)

Pastor Bill Gebhardt: No, wait, wait. I know you're thinking, "He's going to retire, and that's why you are applauding him."

Pastor Bill Gebhardt: (Audience laughter)

Pastor Bill Gebhardt: Okay. He did his time, and he's done. I don't want to disappoint you, but I will. I plan on keep serving the Lord as long as I have my health and I'm relevant in teaching the Word of God. But see, that's what these men have done, they have, they have encouraged me.

You see, if you're here, you need, you need, in a sense, to keep vividly serving the Lord. You have to think about it. You don't walk away from it. There's not a time to stop. So, the question comes down, what about, what about you? I think sometimes people do that. There are some people that are extraordinarily gifted with children, and then they get to a certain age and they say, "Well, I don't want to, I'm too old to work with children anymore." But if you're gifted with them, and you have your health, minister to them.

Some of you are tremendous at intercessory prayer. There are people in this church that pray for everything. Anything, anyone they know, anything that's going on, they pray for these people. Don't stop doing that. Some people are wonderful servants. They have the gift of service. And what I mean by that is ask them anything, to do anything, anywhere at any time, and they are there. Whoever has a need, I'll be glad to meet it. Just don't stop. Don't quit. You see, if that's how you're going to serve the Lord, go ahead and serve him from that way.

Fourthly, to finish well, don't dwell on your past success ever. I want you to go with me to 2 Samuel chapter 11. 2 Samuel chapter 11. To finish well, don't dwell on your past success.

Very famous chapter. One of those chapters that everybody has read because this is all about David and Bathsheba. Everybody knows the chapter, it's kind of intriguing to us. But I think so often we don't realize what those first couple verses tell us and why this whole thing happened. And that's such an important part.

Samuel writes this, he said, "Then it happened in the spring." It, Bathsheba and Uriah, it happened in the spring. Now, watch, "It happened in the spring at the time when kings go out to battle." Okay. What is David's job description? He's a king, right? So, what do kings do in the spring? They go out to battle. By the way, has David ever been in a battle? Yes. Has he been successful? Wildly.

Most successful warrior king in the history of Israel. Never lost a battle. So, when the kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. And David stayed at Jerusalem.

What was David thinking? "I've been there, done that. I'm the king. I don't have to go. Joab, take the armies out and go do battle. I don't have to go. I've been so successful, I'm not doing it." Now, watch what happens. "Now, when evening came, David arose from his bed, walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful in appearance."

And where did that lead? When David should have been out in battle, where did it lead? To the most horrific, grievous sin of his life, and one of the most horrific, grievous sins of anybody's life. He commits adultery with Bathsheba, and he murders Uriah the Hittite.

That's what he does. When he should have been in battle. And by the way, if you remember the story, he even brought Uriah the Hittite back to the palace, and then told Uriah the Hittite after he knew Bathsheba was pregnant, he said, "Now you're going to be here in rest. Why don't you go and spend some time with your wife?"

What is he thinking? Everyone will think, including Uriah, that Uriah made her pregnant. But what did Uriah say? "Can't do it. All my comrades are in battle. I would never go be with my wife." Think of his integrity there versus David's. His integrity is amazing. He says, "I won't do it." So, we know the story. You may not know this verse though, in 1 Kings 15:5 it says this: "David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not turned aside from anything that he commanded him in all the days of his life, except the matter of Uriah the Hittite."

Wow. So full of his own success, he doesn't go to battle. And after his success, what he gets, the worst failure possible. One of the things I find, I think of Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall." 1 Corinthians 10:12, "Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest you fall." Never overestimate yourself. Ever.

Past successes are God's successes, they are not necessarily yours. You can't do that. It's an amazing thing that over the last 10 years, a larger number of pastors of mega churches in America have all forfeited their ministries because of sin. These are pastors who built a church from nothing to 20,000 attending, 10,000 attending. And they all went into sin.

How did that happen? I think probably because they thought they did it. They thought, "Look what I did. Look how gifted I am. Look what I've done." You didn't do anything. That's God. See, that's just God at work. You have to be humble and contrite before the Lord. You don't do that. And they ended up forfeiting their ministry, their gifts, everything. Simply because they let their past successes, I think, in a sense, something that they ended up thinking about.

And lastly, if you are going to finish well, you have to stay ready for redeployment. God does things in our lives. Best example I can ever think of, let me describe a guy. He should have been dead as a baby, but his mother was so concerned about him, she put him on a little floating device in the Nile River. And it just turned out that Pharaoh's daughter found it, and there is the baby. So, Pharaoh's daughter takes this little baby, Moses, and decides to raise him in Pharaoh's household.

So, just imagine how privileged he was. Imagine how well-educated he was. Unbelievable, the best education in the world. He had incredible affluence, everybody's respect. And then when he turns 40 years of age, realizing he's a Jew, he sees a Jewish slave being mistreated, and he kills an Egyptian. Now he realizes that's a capital offense, so he takes off running. And he runs all the way to the land of Midian on the other side of the Red Sea.

And guess what he gets to become? A shepherd. Now, let me tell you something, your chances of being a successful shepherd are better than Moses. Moses grew up in Pharaoh's household. He never ran sheep in his life at all. He had no understanding of any of this. And he started to be a shepherd. So, he's got to be thinking in his mind, "I wonder why God's having me do this." He might have also been thinking in his mind, "I wonder how long this will take to learn the lesson."

How long would you think? Six weeks? I could learn in six weeks. Maybe six months, six years? How about 40? 40 years, 40 years. Someone who grew up in Pharaoh's house, he's got a couple hundred sheep to watch every day, seven days a week. That's his job. That's all he has ever done. Now, after those 40 years, a bush starts talking to him, a burning bush. And Moses starts interacting with the bush, and basically the bush is saying, "Moses, I'm God, I want you to go back and deliver our people from Egypt."

Now, we see that Moses tries every excuse possible in Exodus 3. He tries every excuse. I don't speak well, I, all kinds of excuses. God answers them all. But I think in Moses's mind, here's what he's thinking: "I'm 80." What do you? "I'm 80."

You see, he's given, he's given the greatest single job of spiritual leadership of all time. He's 80. He's going to have to first go to Pharaoh and get Pharaoh to release two and a half million people who are the property of the Egyptians to just leave the country freely. What are the odds?

Secondly, though, after he gets delivered, he gets the miracle at the Red Sea. He crosses into the land, and he has to think, "As soon as he gets on the other side of the Red Sea, we're six weeks from the Promised Land. In six weeks I'll have all two and a half million people in the Promised Land." How did that go? 40 years, 40 years. Oh, by the way, all those people hated him. So, he has two and a half million people that he freed from Egypt, and they all hate Moses. All they did is whine and complain and whine and complain and whine and complain.

40 years he had to do this. What a job he did, what a phenomenal thing he is, how famous he is to all of us, what Moses had done. He would have never thought at 80 years old, "This is my job description? You are going to ask me to do all of this?" And he did. It's an amazing thing when you think about it from that point of view.

It also tells you something. Like a lot of people say, "Well, living then was a lot different. Lots of people lived to be 120 then." No, they didn't. In fact, in scripture you can find only Moses at that time. How, why did he live so long? Because God had something for him to do. See how this works? God had something for him to do.

Compare that to Stephen, the first martyr. Young man just gets saved in Acts, right? He just gets saved. He gives one of the greatest testimonials for the Lord you will ever read in the book of Acts. And he's just saved, and what happens? They stone him to death. And his race is over. This race had to go for a long period of time. But he also is encouraging you, you're never too old to be really useful to God or anyone else. Never.

I don't know about you, but, you know, I saw on TV some time ago Tony Bennett singing. He was singing with Lady Gaga. He's in his 90s. He's sang great. I mean, he was great. You see, he's in his 90s because of what, after you're 65, you just sit down and you just wait. You don't quit.

Pearl Buck, the famous author, I don't know if a lot of you realize, but Pearl Buck is the daughter of missionaries to China, who wrote The Good Earth. And she said this, "I've reached an honorable position in life because I'm old and no longer young. I feel so honored. I am far more useful a person now than I was 50 years ago, or 40 years ago, or 30 years ago, or 20 years ago, or even 10." She said, "Since I've learned so much now, since I've turned 70."

She was useful. You can be too. You never give up on yourselves too early. Let me encourage you with a couple neat verses. Psalm 92. "The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord will flourish in the courts of God. And they shall still bear fruit in their old age." They shall be, he says, "fresh and flourishing." That's God's promise. You still bear fruit in your old age. Don't let anyone say you're too old to do anything. That's an American idea, but it is clearly not a biblical idea.

Isaiah 46:4, "Even in your old age I am He, and even to gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made and I will bear you. Even I will carry you and I will deliver you." It doesn't matter what color your hair is, God says. So, don't quit. Finish your race. Stay focused. Retirement has nothing to do with spiritual service. To finish well, stay connected to your calling. Don't dwell on past successes, and stay ready for redeployment.

Another life I thought of was Jesus and his race. John 17, the night before he was crucified, which means the night before his race ends. Here's what Jesus said, "God, I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work that You have given me to do." Wow. What a neat thing. I love what David Jeremiah then writes about this. David says this, "Read this verse carefully. Jesus didn't finish all the work there was to do. He finished the work that He was given to do." What a great way to look at it. There was a lot of work to do. He didn't finish that. He finished the work He was given to do. "And that should be our prayer. Lord, help me finish the work that You have given me to do." And then Jeremiah goes on and says, "Here's a special prayer that I claim for my life." Psalm 71:18, quote, "Now also when I am old and gray, oh God, do not forsake me until I declare Your strength to this generation and Your power to everyone who is to come." Yes, God uses us all the way through, he says, "If we would just make ourselves available and useful to God." Whatever you do, don't quit. Let's pray.

Father, I think so often we think too little of ourselves. We think we have nothing to contribute. We think that callings are for other people, but this is not true. You have asked us to be salt and light wherever we are. There's no accident. We live in the place that you knew we'd live. We work in the place where you knew we'd work. We have neighbors and family and friends and spouses and children. This is all part of your calling on our lives. But Father, we need to embrace this calling. We need to know that we are here for a reason, and it's not just to satisfy ourselves, but we're here to bring glory to You. To bring glory to the name of the Almighty God who loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for our sins. It's a privilege, Father. It's a wonderful privilege that we have to be able to serve You. And as long as we live, Father, I pray each of us understand that every single day. We ask ourselves the question, "How can I serve You today?" I pray this for Your glory and for our good. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Jason Gebhardt: You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called onepress.com. That's onepress.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station, by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 70,006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website fbc Nola.org. That's fbc Nola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbc Nola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.