Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: In the years of declining responsibilities, it means that we have time. And we have time now to invest in other people’s lives. That’s why, listen, the world is not throwing us a curveball. God is giving us opportunity.

David J: Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.

Hey, everybody, have you ever thought about what's after life? Do you know that the Bible teaches life is after life? If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, my good friend Philip De Courcy has written a great book, and that’s the title: *Life After Life: Exploring the Bible’s Wonderful Promises About Heaven and Eternity*, published by Harvest House Publishers. Get a copy for yourself.

*Life After Life* by Philip De Courcy is available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com.

On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series called *Disciplines of Life* with a message titled "Disciplines of Declining Days." In times when culture and morality seem to decline, we need to strengthen our habits like prayer and Bible study, and especially our trust in God. Spiritual disciplines help us keep our faith grounded and purposeful.

Rather than being discouraged by social decline, we find confidence and direction by focusing on Christ's authority and by obeying God's word. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that the days of declining responsibilities are to be met with increased delegation. Handing over the baton unlocks the next door to new ministries.

The wisdom we've gained and the legacy we leave behind really matter. Now, with his message called "Disciplines of Declining Days," here's Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Are you in a sense tonight saying, "Well, Jack, I've been around ministry a long time, been a Christian a long time. And what? What are you doing? You’re hanging up your Bible? Are you retiring?" No. More than ever. If you find yourself tonight, as we’ll read in a moment, having gray hair, that doesn’t mean you’re supposed to retire from ministry.

It may be that you retire from DuPont or Ford Motor Company, but it doesn’t mean that you retire from ministry as a Christian. There’s a lot of awesome stuff the Bible talks about regarding the Lord using old guys. It’s encouraging. I just marked down a few of them: Noah, Abraham, Joseph. When Pharaoh saw Joseph, he said first, "How old are you?"

Moses. God didn't even start using Moses for realsies until he was about 80. It's amazing. And then what about Daniel? Daniel's pretty cool because God starts using Daniel from the earliest ages all the way through to the end of his old life. Daniel got old throughout the Bible following God.

Acts chapter 2, verse 17 says, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says the Lord, that I will pour out my Holy Spirit on all flesh." And he goes on to say, "And your young men shall see visions." Listen, "And your old men"—and I'm sure that applies to ladies too—"shall dream." And the word in Greek means divinely inspired dreams.

Isn't that a great word? Divinely inspired dreams. Old men shall dream divinely inspired dreams. Why? For what reason? For ministry, my friend. Listen, I challenge you tonight. Are you 50 and above? Maybe God's just getting ready to use you. "Oh, I can hardly move." You can pray. Samuel prayed in his old age.

In fact, it's argued that Samuel got more done in his old age in retirement than he did in his ministry years. But there's a stillness that comes with years. There's a sweetness to it. And I want you to join with me in praying this prayer. I pray it every day: Lord, please keep me usable. That's a prayer. That's the most profound prayer that I've ever prayed.

In my opinion, that wraps it all up. Lord, keep me usable. That means he's going to keep me pure, that means he's going to keep me in prayer, that means he's going to keep me in the word, that means he's going to keep me in fellowship with you. Lord, keep me usable. Think about what that means. Keep me usable, keep me discerning, keep me on track, keep me, Lord.

It's comforting. In Luke chapter 2, verse 25, the Bible tells us there, "And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon." Remember him in the Christmas story? And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. That means waiting for the Messiah. And the Holy Spirit was upon him.

For it had been revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And so he came by the Spirit into the temple. I love that. This old man is being led by God and he goes into the temple and he's waiting. He's got a sense of expectation. He's waiting and he sees Jesus being brought to the temple.

On the eighth day, he's going to be circumcised, and Joseph and Mary bring him. And that man goes on to say, "Lord, let your servant now depart in peace. Time for me to go. I'm coming home, sweet Jesus. I just saw the Messiah." What a tremendous thing. God uses old people. If you're an old person tonight and you're not being used by God, I'm going to ask you why not?

Oh, don't sit around and wait for the young people to do it. They're sitting around waiting for somebody else to do it. Everybody's looking at one another. When we take—we need 200 people to sign up for this thing to tear down or set up. Come on, be honest. Doesn't everybody in the room think that the person next to them is going to sign up? And nobody signs up because they think the other guy's going to sign up.

Hey, man, listen. And I'm very, very vested in this. As we get older in this church, we need to show the younger people how to do it. We need to lead the way. We need to be more like Caleb. You ever read about Caleb in the Bible? Caleb's out there, he's got his old gray beard. And can you see—I kind of grew this for tonight. Did you see this? Canyon? No? Nothing?

Caleb comes out there and, "Hey, come on! Where are those Philistines? Give them to me. I'll take them on!" Amazing. We don't have to give up. The disciplines of declining days, yes, our physical strength will wane. But the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:16, "Therefore we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is renewed day by day."

Listen, those of you who are growing older in Jesus, you are absolute gems and we need you. And the younger people need you. So many of our children are growing up today without parents, without grandparents, and they need grandmas and grandpas in the faith. You want to start a ministry that has a tremendous need? It’s getting spiritual grandmas and grandpas to talk to their spiritual granddaughters and grandsons in this church.

Too many kids have no parents and no grandparents in their lives. That’s a tremendous loss. I know what I’m talking about. I had no grandparents in my life. And then I see people who do, what an amazing thing. You know what’s cool about that? Grandma and Grandpa, they’re like God to that little kid. And it should be that way, as long as Grandma and Grandpa are pointing them to the Lord.

Because Grandma and Grandpa have huge power and influence. "Oh, don't listen to your dad. This is what he is. Just come with me. Let’s go get an ice cream cone. Come on, let’s go." All right? I mean, that’s what happens. It’s cool and all that kind of stuff. Very much so.

Number two, listen. The disciplines of declining days, it's not only physical strength and we don't need to think that God's given up on us because we are not as physically strong. No, no. Second thing is, it's the days of declining responsibilities. And don't think that that's necessarily a bad thing. Those days are to be met with the hands of increased delegation to delegate things out.

Listen, this is very, very important. Wisdom and experience cannot be gotten with a PhD. Only PhDs are fooled by that. I'm not making fun of your education. Go get smart, just get wise. And here's what happens. Wisdom and experience is how you stay alive. And you can have a PhD or a Masters or a Doctorate or whatever it is, but it doesn't matter until you lived it out.

You've got to live it out. A planned systematic handing of the baton is what's needed today in the church and in family and in life. And as responsibilities decline in your life as you get older, don't panic. A lot of people freak, you know this. As people get older, listen, the phone doesn't ring as much. They're not in demand anymore. They're not getting as many emails.

Maybe people are not visiting or coming by anymore. People without Jesus absolutely have a meltdown over this. They come into the retirement age and they begin to absolutely panic because all of a sudden life seems to be over. I just saw, maybe you saw it too, a couple weeks ago, an interview that was done by some channel with former First Lady Laura Bush.

And they were talking to her about that and they asked her, "How is Mr. President handling no longer being President?" And she said it was very hard for him. Listen to this. Can you imagine? She said on one day he's receiving phone calls from world leaders, and that's how it was for eight years. Every day there was a new crisis, there was a new issue, there was some head of state, there was some king, there was some queen on the phone waiting to talk to the President.

And then she said, "One day after the election," she said, "Our phone didn't ring once." And she went on to say that she's doing fine with it, but George had to go out and cut some wood and take the dogs on a walk and he drove around the property in his pickup truck trying to cope with it.

Christian, listen, as responsibilities wane spiritually, it begins to open up in a very powerful way. All it takes is a careful eye to watch and to learn. If you're in your 40s or your 50s, start now to develop an exit strategy for your life. For business, if you're in business, then develop now an exit strategy for your life.

Whatever that thing may be, I don't care how difficult financial times are. I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about your heart and your head, vitally important. For business, ministry, sure, your family, sons, daughters, for your husband, for your wife, develop an exit strategy. See, what do you mean by that? Begin to live your life in such a way that you're not going to be here forever, so what you want to leave behind is really going to matter.

And I got news for you. It's not going to be some palace or some gold bullion bricks that you bought from one of these constant commercials. Your kids are going to care less. Your husband or your wife will care less. It will be the legacy that you leave behind. It's not the stuff. It's the love. It's the relationship. It's the interaction.

That song, "Cats in the Cradle" and the silver spoon, and that's about all I know of the song. What a huge depressing song of regret. The man didn't have any time for his son. Dad's trying to make a living. Dad gets old in the waning years, declining responsibilities. And the son now, who's developed his own life, has no time for his father. It's a horrible cycle unless it's broken, and Jesus breaks it by the way.

But listen, the more a man or a woman achieves in this life, the more difficulty they have in letting go. There's a human tendency to hang on to things longer than what the Lord would have us to hold on them to. We need to let things go. We can get lost in what we've accomplished in life, and here's a dangerous thing. We can begin to see our identity—men are very, very prone to this, it's dangerous.

You begin to see that the things that you've either acquired or achieved becomes your personality and your identity. "That's me." That is not you. Oh, look what I—like Nebuchadnezzar, "Look at this kingdom I built." Hey, God gave it to you, man. "I did it myself." You did nothing yourself. God gave you the ability to have a brain and to think and to do what you do. All glory belongs to him, and remember, mind you, he can take it away in one second.

David J: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: The days when responsibilities begin to decline and maybe we're not so much in demand anymore. What do we do? We begin to delegate things to people and handing that baton. And it may not be a good feeling to realize that your face is either not on the letterhead or on the desk any longer, or maybe there's somebody in your family's lives that's more prominent than you.

That's normal life. You need to cope with that, you need to deal with that, but understand this. You have got a lot to give away. You can sit them down, you can talk to them. And boy, listen, this needs to be said. I don't see this very often, but once is enough. When you see somebody grow older in their life as a Christian, instead of handling their life biblically, they come to the end of days in their lives and they've been bitter, critical, sarcastic, and rude.

And nobody wants to be around them, and that's a tragedy because God has invested so much in your life. And he wants to do so much with you, but your grandkids don't want anything to do with you, your kids don't want anything to do with you. It’s a sad thing. That doesn't have to be that way. And if that's you tonight, you change that now while you have time. You change that now.

Because listen, in the years of declining responsibilities, it means that we have time. And we have time now to invest in other people’s lives. That’s why, listen, the world is not throwing us a curveball. God is giving us opportunity.

I hope I don't embarrass them, but I have them right here in my notes. On Wednesdays, one of the ushers that serve here on Wednesdays, at last count, I think he's 83, World War II veteran Bob Baker serves. Always praying, always encouraging me, prays for you, doesn't even know you by name, prays for you, and serves as an usher, 83 years of age or more.

And then I think of a woman who's been with us since this church started 20 years, since the home Bible study, Catherine Hazelrigg. She's in her mid-80s. She serves all over this church. You can't hold her back. She came to my house recently with a little note thing to encourage me. What kind of a price tag do you put on encouragement? You can't buy that.

Number three, the disciplines of declining days: opportunities. The days of declining opportunities, yeah, I guess so. Sure. Looks that way, seems that way in one chapter of your life, but those days are to be met with the joy of passing on the mantle to other people. Eventually, as I said, the phone stops ringing, the emails drop off, fewer visitors stop by the house.

What's the danger to that? Temptation of loneliness could set in. My wife went—she grew up at Anaheim First Baptist Church. And I remember her telling me that they used to have a bus or van or something that used to go around to people's house and pick up what's called the shut-ins and bring them to church.

How cool would that be? Do you know anybody who is a shut-in? They don't get out. Hey, what if you target them? I mean that lovingly. And you say, "Hey, you know what? How are you doing? I live a couple doors down and, I don't know, you may think I'm crazy, but I go to church every Sunday and then, we go get a bite to eat afterward. Do you want to come next week?"

You could wind up leading a soul to Christ. You could wind up rescuing someone from depression or more. Body ministry's an amazing thing. When the days of declining opportunities seem to come upon you, you can pass on the mantle to other people. I would like to see all the old guys get together with the young guys, and the old guys can teach the young guys how to pray.

How about the old ladies getting together with the young ladies and teaching them how to be women at home or cooking this or that? Did you know this is a crisis? A lot of young girls today do not know how to cook. You say, "What's with you?" I hear about it. Say, "Well, can't a man cook?" Do you want a man to cook your meal? Lisa gets nervous when I get into the kitchen.

I'm a freak. I put a bunch of eggs in there and I get every bit of spice I can find. Boom! And I don't know, man, I love it. People are running out of the house. You do not want a man to cook your meal. But think about that. There's so much that you can hand off by the way of the mantle. Samuel did that. Samuel raised up the school of the prophets that you read about in 1 Kings.

The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel, listen to this, a life dedicated to God. You know, God called Samuel from his youth and he used his mama. Remember Hannah? Great story, awesome thing. And just from a little guy, God begins to speak to him. All of his life, all of his life, God was using him in chapters of his life throughout his age.

In 1 Samuel 3:19, it says, "So Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground." Wow. "And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba"—those of you who just got back with us from Israel, Dan is way up by the Golan Heights. Way up there, right where the temple of Pan is at and the headwaters of the Jordan River.

All the way down to Beersheba, which is way heading down toward Egypt way. Wow. Everybody came from all of that region to experience Samuel's wisdom and leadership as a prophet, says the Bible. Then 1 Samuel 7:15 says, "And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year on a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places."

Tremendous. I mean, this guy was the most famous man other than the king in all of Israel, and yet his days were declining. He was getting older, but he never gave up. A discipline of life is to never give up. Yeah, it hurts sometimes to get out of bed, or yes, you didn't have sleep or your body's not working all that good. Just know this, those are growing pains.

Those are growing pains. The inward man who is designed after Jesus Christ that's being renewed day by day, the inward man is coming out. This old carcass, this old body's got to give up someday. It's not made for heaven. It can't go there, not until the resurrection comes. The Bible says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Did you know that?

"Oh, I thought I was going to take my body with me." Yeah, you're young now, that's great. You keep that attitude going there. We're all for you. Just know this, there's big hope. Because when your leg falls off because you pivoted on the basketball court or something and you were like, "What is going on?" just know your body's just getting ready for heaven.

Number four, the days of declining resources. How do we meet those days? We’re to meet them with the spirit of deeper things. In an age and a time of life when you're not pulling down the money that you once did, you don't have the income or you don't have this or you don't have that. And not only monetarily, but you just don't have the wherewithal to get from point A to point B for whatever reasons.

Maybe it's vision, maybe your eyes are fading, or maybe you're just not so confident driving any longer. Move to Italy, we just found out. If you're losing your eyesight, go get your driver's license in Italy because nobody seems to care. The driver of the bus told us—I said, "Man, that guy almost killed us!"

And he said, "In Italy, the lines on the street are artwork, nothing to be obeyed. Everything is art. Even the lines on the street." So everyone, they don't care. Maybe your driving and you're losing confidence and you feel—hey, listen, don't think for a moment God is done with you. Meet that with the spirit of deeper things.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio with his message called "Disciplines of Declining Days." We're glad you spent some time with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called *The Disciplines of Life*.

It's a series that highlights the disciplines of a Christ-follower and the high cost of sharing our faith with others in a lost and broken world. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Daniel Cohen: Daniel Cohen here from Israel. If you love Pastor Jack Hibbs' fearless approach to teaching God's word, you'll love the Real Life Network. It's built for warriors who want the truth, God's truth. On *The Daniel Cohen Show*, we bring you stories the mainstream media downplays. It's time to start getting your news from people you trust, and it's totally free. Sign up now at reallifenetwork.com.

David J: Hey, thanks again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person.

It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com, that's jackhibbs.com.

Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.