Satan’s Lie: You’re too old to start a ministry for God! OR You’re too old to do anything for God!
Counter Action: ASK
yourself, just as God asked Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the LORD? (Genesis 18:14) And
the LORD said unto Moses, “Is the LORD'S hand waxed short? (Numbers 11:23) BELIEVE
as Jeremiah, “Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by
thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee.
(Jeremiah 32:17) REPEAT God’s Word back to satan. TELL satan, “You
are a liar! My God has created all that we see and don’t see in 6 days! He
flung the sun, the moon, and the stars into their places? Heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool. (Isaiah
66:1) What is too hard for my God? Even if I am one hundred and ten…I CAN BE
USED for God’s purpose!!
______________________________________________________________ When I was in my mid 40’s and at a time that I was not involved in a ministry I strongly felt the Lord urging me to do something I had never done before. It was one of the scariest ministries ever. He wanted me to work with *gulp* teenagers! Now, I had parented teenagers, which is a highly dangerous job mind you, but I had never taught the Word of God to that age group, unless you want to count twice in Vacation Bible School. Nah!
I wrestled with this for about a week. Now, I know a week isn’t very long, but I knew from past experience that if God is keeping you awake at night, you better sit up and take notice…AND obey. I knew there was urgency to the Lord’s request because there was no youth ministry at our church at the time and we had just gained a few more teenagers along with their families through a tent revival. But, these weren’t your ordinary teenagers who had been in church all their lives. Most of them came from homes filled with drugs, alcohol, etc., but that was okay…so did I.
After I got tired of sleepless nights I went to my pastor and told him what God had laid on my heart…and my heart sank…he was thrilled. Uh oh, it’s on now! And really, it was on…or should I say, he was on….my back. From the very moment the words, “Yes, I’ll do it Lord” came out of my mouth, satan was stuck to me like a tick on a bloodhound with his lies, “What are you thinking? You’re too old to teach those teens. They need someone younger. Someone with stamina to keep up with them. Someone who is “relevant”. Someone who is “hip” (wait, do they even use that word anymore?…that one was mine). You can’t possibly relate to them. What can YOU offer them?”
Oh my, what have I done? Is it too late to go tell my pastor that I must have been mistaken about God’s direction? Surely he’ll understand. Did I do that? Well, no, but I wanted to; especially that first Wednesday night. I can tell you…I was afraid of their faces. Those blank, expressionless faces. I couldn’t read them. I didn’t know what they were thinking. I came up with several thoughts…“I came to church for this?” “I wonder what’s for supper when I get home?” “When is this gonna be over?” “Woman, shut up, already!” Praise the Lord; I made it out alive!
In the weeks ahead I still had satan trying to get in my head, but I was determined I was not going to let the Lord down. I had let Him down one too many times before. This may be my last opportunity to do anything for God; after all, I was already over 40 for goodness sake! (I laugh now.)
This time, there was one good thing about satan’s lies…they caused me to dig in my heels and set my face like a flint to learn what I needed to learn to be an effective youth leader. I scoured the internet for information. I checked out library books and went to the local Christian Supply store to see more current offerings on the topic of youth ministry. When my son and I met for lunch I would pick his brain on what the current slang, video games, music, and other teen topics were because he wasn’t that far removed from the teenage years himself.
I got so caught up in this that the Lord had to bonk me over the head to give me an epiphany. It happened one night while I was outside looking up at the stars and praying. While talking to God, I suddenly became so overwhelmed with emotion. I was looking at all the stars in the sky and I thought about Who had made them. I knew there were even more than my eye could see and I suddenly felt so small and my God seemed so big. I asked Him, “Why did you ask me…me of all people to teach these young souls? I’m too old and I don’t feel there is anything I can offer them.” He said to my heart, “I thought you would never ask. I knew you would have compassion for them. I knew you would be patient with them. I knew you would teach them as if they were your own. I knew you would love them.”
You see, I had been brought up around drugs, alcohol, and violence. I had seen things and experienced things that a child should never see, feel, and know. My oldest brother, my hero and the only man who cared for me, was killed when I was 6. I was tormented and bullied at school because my family was so poor. I was raped when I was 19 and it was so traumatic that there are parts I still do not remember. My own teenage daughter, who I have no doubt is lost, was ripped out of my home when she was 14 and all communication cut off for over 3 years because her father who lived in another state whispered lies in her ear and made promises that he did not keep. God said, “You’ve been in training for years! No one here can be as passionate about showing them a better way and as careful with their souls as you. I want you to use every painful experience to show them compassion and give them understanding and direction. And, my dear daughter, you may have lost a teenager, for now, but I’m giving you back 12! That night, I broke down and told the Lord, “I will do this as long as you allow. You take care of my teenager and I’ll take care of yours.”
So, in the days ahead, I came to know those teenagers and I came to love them. I was reminded that many issues are the same for young people no matter what generation they come from and that the truth I was teaching them was timeless and had wisdom for any age and any circumstance.
I attended their school programs. I talked and laughed with them and I felt proud of them as they went from door to door to invite the surrounding community to our church and even witness to them when they had the opportunity. And there in the beginning, when I didn’t know whether they even cared about being in the newly formed youth group they caught me by surprise. I was running late because of work. I rushed in the main door to find then huddled over near another door because they said they didn’t want to go into the main church…they wanted to go with me. My heart leaped with joy…we were gonna be okay.
So, back to the question that we each must answer, “Is anything too hard for God?” Have we gotten to the age where God no longer has the ability to help us do His will? Even if we squandered our past, we know we cannot go back and change it, but we can do something about the here and now. Where there’s a will, there is a way. Whether we are young or old, God just needs a willing spirit and an obedient heart. Have faith in God and He can do wondrous things in our lives. Call unto Him and He will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you cannot even imagine. (Jeremiah 33:3)
I don’t know at what age satan started lying to you or even if you have reached that point in life yet, but I hope you will remember the Word of God and the story of my experience that I have shared with you today. Satan’s lie can start at different ages for different people and different circumstances, but in all reality, it does not matter. God is still God…and NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR OUR GOD!!
Don’t give up now my friend! It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings! But, to be scriptural, we can be confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6) Now, I don’t know how you interpret that, but it sounds to me like God is gonna use us until the day we leave this world…either through the grave or in that meeting in the air!
Now, I’m going to leave you with some other examples of people who were used by God when they were “old”. I hope this blesses you as much as it did me:
People I know
Me again. I will be fifty this year and started an online ministry last year. Well glory!
My daddy was saved at the age of 70 and started using his talent of playing the guitar and singing until he died 2 years later.
My husband started a retirement center ministry when he was 60 and is still doing it at the age of 62.
My brother became a deacon in his church for the very first time when he was in his late 50’s.
A friend of mine who used to sing with me and my husband in a quartet just started his first church. He’s in his early 60’s.
People in the Bible
Abraham was called by God at the age of 75 to go into the land of Canaan which God promised to give him and his descendants.
Abraham was 100 when Sarah bore a son at the age of 90…an heir for Abraham…the one who would continue the bloodline through which the Son of God would be born. (I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be birthin’ no babies at 90! Lol!)
Moses was 80 when he was called by God to lead His people out of bondage.
Noah was middle-aged when he built the ark.
Samson did more for God in the last half of his life than he did in the first.
Others
“You’re
too old,” the mission board told a rejected candidate. God, who’s a little
older than most of us, must have thought she was too young. He waited two more
years before sending her to the field.
Perhaps
you have heard it calculated that John Wesley preached over 40,000 sermons and
traveled 225,000 miles (his horse had never heard of kilometers). Did you
realize these figures belong only to the latter part of his life, from age 36
to 88? I was impressed; until reading George Muller’s figures. He is said to
have traveled 200,000 miles, using his linguistic ability to preach in several
languages to an estimated three million people. Now admittedly, Muller traveled
extensively overseas. If I had a choice between traveling a thousand miles on
horseback or a thousand miles by sailing ship, I’d go by plane. But here’s the
spice: Muller’s statistics only began after his seventieth birthday and
continued for the next 17 years. Dr.
Robert Lowry, renowned for many accomplishments as a Christian musician, first
undertook the serious study of music after turning 40. Fanny Crosby was
forty-three when she found her life’s work – she wrote her first Gospel song.
So many songs followed, under so many different pen-names, that no one could
keep track of them. Informed estimates range to beyond 8,000 (some say 9,000),
with more than a hundred pseudonyms.
Francis
Schaeffer was little known until he was in his fifties.
Child
Evangelism Fellowship was founded by a sixty-year-old, who remained at its helm
for the next 15 years.
At 63,
Clara Mcbride Hale began caring for addict babies. The number she has helped
now runs into the hundreds.
Peggy
Smith, 84 and blind, and her sister Christine, 82 and crippled, were key people
in the world-famous revival in the Scottish Hebrides.
Elizabeth
Wilson felt the tug of China when she was 20. She arrived thirty years later.
Conditions were harsh and dangerous, yet her age proved a treasured asset. The
Lord had called her to the Orient, where – as in most societies outside our own
- age is honored.
Paul
Kuo presented the administrators of Hong Kong Theological College with a
headache. He was already 60 and he wanted to enroll. By the time he graduated
he would be too old for any church to want him. He was reluctantly admitted and
although he learned, he failed to obtain a degree. In 1975 he left for
Thailand’s ‘Golden Triangle’ to labor for Christ amongst mercenaries, bandits
and opium farmers. His past military training earned him respect and his age
made him a celebrity. He dived so deeply into ministry that he soon had to
recruit other missionaries. Before long, Paul was heading up a large missionary
venture.
In
1968, two middle-aged tourists, florists for over 30 years, were so moved by
what they saw in Kenya that they decided to return as missionaries. Denny and
Jeanne Grindall, with no engineering skills or even formal Bible training and
very little money, instigated the building of a dam almost 80 foot high and
piped the clean water nearly three miles to tribes people. The Maasai gradually
became so responsive to the Grindall’s message that twenty churches were opened
and hundreds came to Christ.
An e-mail from Gordon Ogden: Please
pray for my ministry in marriage and family counseling. (I am 70.) Today I will
work with child sexual abuse, teenage depression, adult depression, and marital
discord. My weeks are filled with such.
Then
just as he was about to be elevated to megastar status he spoiled it
with his next e-mail: Tomorrow
I go to Monterey to see my friend Phillip, a Marriage, Family, Child Counselor
like myself. He is currently running two recovery groups, plus his individual
counseling, plus working out at the gym three days a week, plus attending
conferences and driving all over the place. Phillip will be 90 in June. What a
role model for a guy 20 years his junior.
Black
American missionary to Liberia, Eliza George, was forced by her mission to
retire at age 65. Undeterred, she raised her own support and continued
independently for the best part of three more decades.
“I want
to go to the mission field as soon as I can,” announced an enthusiastic
teenager on the day of her baptism. She made it – as a seventy-one-year-old
widow. In Papua New Guinea, Guatemala, Thailand, Burma and Communist Russia,
Margaret Cole squeezed more excitement into a few years than most people ever
see.
Inspiring!
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