It Ain't Over Until . . .

 

Sermon

August 8, 2021

It Ain’t Over until it’s Over.

 

It always grieves me to hear men and women of God who have served the Master -- some for decades -- say that they feel God has put them out to pasture. That God is no longer able to use them as fruitfully as He has in the past. They’re too old, too feeble, too ignorant of Scripture, too inarticulate, too poor, too – fill in the blank.

And I am here to tell you today that that idea is a satanic lie intended and designed by the devil himself to discourage you from being all you can STILL be for Christ.

 

Still be!

 

Listen, what we are saying to God when we say such things of ourselves is that God is now unable to use a willing servant for His kingdom work. Really, is THAT what we want to say?

 

May I remind you of Hebrews 11:4 “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain . . . and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.”

 

The point? God tells us He is STILL using Abel, though he has been dead a very long time. Do you really think God cannot fruitfully use YOU, being still alive?

One of my favorite passages in the gospels is of the poor widow who shuffled up to the Temple treasury to deposit what amounted to a few pennies. You probably remember the story yourself from Mark’s gospel: “And He sat down opposite the treasury and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.” (Mark 12:41-44)

That impoverished widow had absolutely no idea that God would use her simple act of sacrificial faith as an example for as long as this earth continues – He would use her act as an example of fruitfulness for the kingdom.

How was her act fruitful for the Kingdom? We’re still reading about it 2000 years later, aren’t we?  And doesn’t her gift give us a glimpse into the mind of God who is more interested in our heart than in our wallet? Or in our gifts, or in our health, or in our mobility. Or in ANYTHING we consider important to being able to work for God. But if God has our HEART, then what can He not do with the rest of us?

Charles Stanley, in his booklet, We Shall Be Like Him, writes this: Do you know what God has called you to do? There’s much emphasis today on accomplishing something great for the Lord, and that can lead some of us to think that our ordinary life doesn’t amount to much. However, not everyone is called to preach to thousands or serve in distant lands. Being a mother, a student, or a hard-working employee is a tremendous calling, if that’s the task God has given you.

I will never forget my friend, Bill Santee. He was no one special, as the world might consider him. A blue-collar worker. No special skills that would warrant him any attraction by others. He’s gone on now to be with the Lord, but God used that humble servant to get my attention when I was succumbing to the satanic lie that I was not very useful to God’s kingdom.

One day as he and I chatted over coffee, our discussion turned as it always did to the Lord. As we finished our drinks and donuts and got up to leave, I mentioned how useless I sometimes felt because I thought what I was doing for Christ was only a small thing, compared to what others were doing.

 

When we stepped outside and headed for our cars, Bill stopped me. I’ll never forget what he said. He pointed his finger at my chest and said: “Don’t ever call what God has given you to do a small thing.”

 

I knew immediately that the Holy Spirit Himself had rebuked me. And I needed that rebuke. And maybe you also need that kind of rebuke.

Well, you might be wondering what my Scripture text is for today. It’s taken me a while to get to it – much longer than I usually take – but I purposely waited until this point in my message because I wanted to lay some Biblical and some personal underpinning to make my point as clearly as I can.

Last week we left of at verse 2 of Romans 12. Here, Paul continues in verses 4-13: “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly . . . if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness . . . persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.”

Listen! If you and I want to be fruitful for Christ – in big things or in small things – then it is essential that we understand why the Lord told us of that poor widow. And it is essential that we learn to practice what the Lord tells us in John 15: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

 

We must ever be reminded: It’s all about Jesus’ supernatural power to take what is natural and of the flesh and use whatever we give Him for His glory. I mean, we’re talking about God here. So, stop thinking such foolishness that God is done with you, that He has put you out to pasture. Remember what St Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth – some plant seeds, some water those seeds, but God causes the growth. And it remains a satanic lie that God can no longer use you to plant or water. Even in your old age and in your infirmities and in your loneliness, and for some of you, your financial difficulties – keep giving yourself to God and He absolutely and most assuredly will use you for His Kingdom, and He will multiply the few fish and pieces of bread that you offer Him.

Let me give you another example from my life that I hope will illustrate that point again. To this day, I only know his last name. Funk. Navy Radioman First Class Funk. He was one of my instructors in the Navy Radioman school I attended in San Diego at the beginning of my enlistment in 1972.

 

I was 22, and in those years I swung like a pendulum between atheism and agnosticism – mostly atheism.  I thought I was too intelligent to believe such nonsense as the existence of God. And as for what I knew of Jesus, I was born and raised Jewish, so I knew virtually nothing about Him.

Radioman Funk was only a few years older than I, so we developed a sort of friendship. When we weren’t talking about the classes he was teaching, he often turned our discussion to religion. One day, he told me of a book he’d been reading. Much of the content covered the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. It was titled, The Late Great Planet Earth, written by Hal Lindsey.

A few weeks later, in December 1972, I graduated and went on to my next duty station. One evening, after I’d checked into the barracks and my new job, I met Jerry. His room was across the hall from mine. As we talked, I noticed a book on his shelf: The Late Great Planet Earth. I asked if I could borrow it.

Those of you who have heard my story know that as I read the first several chapters devoted to the Old Testament prophecies of the promised Jewish Messiah, I could hardly believe what I was reading. What little I knew of Jesus, I DID know the stories of His virgin birth, His crucifixion and His resurrection.

And there it was. All of it. In MY Jewish Bible.

Radioman First Class Funk put shoe-leather to gifts Paul cites in Romans 12. And as Paul talked of to the Corinthians, he planted the seed of faith in my heart. Hal Lindsey watered it. Afterward the Holy Spirit brought other men and women of God into my life to nurture what God had caused to grow.

St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582) recognized this critical point: Christ has no body but yours; No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which He looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body. Christ has no body now but yours.

The 25^th chapter of Matthew’s gospel should help put to rest such foolish ideas about our so-called uselessness to God. “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ (Matthew 25:34-40)

I hope you noticed how those standing before the Lord at the judgment were surprised to learn they’d been fruitful for Christ. All they’d done was fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick, helped the helpless, spoken kindly to the depressed, cut the food of those who can’t cut it themselves, retrieved the wheelchair or walker for those who needed help getting up from the dining room table, read the scriptures to those who can no longer see well enough to read, prayed with and for those who feel all alone . . . simple things.

Do we really think God pays no attention to what we do for others? As St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said: “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

At no time in the whole of Scripture did God ever put His child out to pasture because he was too old to do anything useful anymore.  You and I are in different pastures than we were when we were younger, but our different roles simply give us different opportunities to serve as His hands and feet. Listen, we are in different fields, but these fields are still white unto harvest.

My brothers and sisters – be encouraged. God is still using you. He has not shuffled you off to some corner of His Kingdom

I will close it with a final word of encouragement from the Scriptures. It’s a word about our labor for Christ, our planting and watering for Christ, our sacrificial giving and our moving forward toward ever-increasing maturity in Christ. It’s about being kind and thoughtful and prayerful and humble because you belong to Christ:

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)