August 26, 2024
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If you've ever spent a lot of time in the city, you may have had the experience of waiting for a bus. You've got a couple of packages, it's cold, some weird people are starting to cruise by for the second time, and suddenly you see the dim outline of a bus on the horizon. Biblically "your heart leapeth within you" as you see the bus approaching. Finally it gets close enough for you to read the sign in the window, and there are three words "Out of Service." Oh! Three very discouraging words.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Such Thing As Retire."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Timothy 4:6-7, a very interesting valedictory on Paul's life. Now, if you've ever tried to ride a bus, you may know how it feels to need a vehicle and find out that it's out of service. You know, not available for you to use? Well, God knows that feeling too.
And that takes us to Paul here at the end of his lifetime run. He has every right to rest. I mean, he has served the Lord with all his heart. He has every right to retire; move to Florida. He has every right to leave the battles to someone else; to hang out his sign that says, "Out of Service." Well, listen to what he says. "I am being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." Wow!
Paul's picture at the end of his life, after 30 years of giving all he had to give, he said, "I still am. I'm still being poured out like a drink offering." I picture here an Olympic runner with veins bulging and every sweat gland pumping, fully extended, nothing left. He says, "When I cross the finish line into Jesus' arms, I want to collapse into His arms with nothing left in my pockets, nothing left in my energy. I will give it all to the finish line." Man!
Paul simply will not retire spiritually until he gets retired by his Lord to heaven. Well, that's the attitude we all should share, but we don't sometimes. Right? Oh, maybe you've worked hard for the Lord, you've done a lot of the jobs there are to do, and you're kind of tired. Now you're saying, "I think I've earned a little time out; I think I've earned a rest. Let's pass it on to others. I served my time."
Whoa! We don't have enough time to serve. Maybe 70 or 80 years is all we've got to make our mark for eternity. Please! There's too much to do; there's too few to do it. Time is too short. We need seasoned leaders. Yeah, they're tired, but you've got experience. You are needed. Don't hang out an "Out of Service" sign. Not now. Not with so much to give.
Maybe you're just really busy surviving. You say, "I don't have any time to serve the Lord. Maybe later, but, you know, right now someone else." Are you out of service? This life; this brief 70 years or whatever is all we have to do God's work on earth; to build something that we'll have for 100 million years - to make a difference.
We're here, like Paul, to live poured out lives, holding nothing back. We might retire to a different location, we might have some physical limitations that change what we can do, but will never retire from being on call for God to use us to tell people about our Jesus. To share our hope story. We don't retire until God calls us home. The Bible says "all the days ordained for me were written in God's book before one of them came to be." That means, you know when you go home? When your work is done. If you're still here, then you've still got work to do! You retire by putting on new tires so you can keep going. You get re-tired.
God is looking for human vehicles that He can use for heaven's sake. Don't pull up in front of Jesus with a sign that says "I'm out of Service."