Episode S0708: Replay of our First Podcast - What is Finishing Well Ministries?

0:01Narrator Anna, today on the Finishing Well podcast,

0:06Dr Hal Habecker I would give anything in my life for older people to be the best encouragers of younger people. I would give everything in my life for older parents, grandparents to be pouring their lives into their adult kids, their grandkids, and even their great-grandkids.

0:27Narrator Welcome to the Finishing Well Podcast, where we encourage believers of every age to find meaningful ways to impact their world for the Kingdom of God. Our mission is to prepare and encourage every person to live well and to finish well. We pray this podcast will be a source of strength and encouragement as we seek to glorify Christ as we engage Him in our aging years.

0:46Narrator Now, here's your host for Finishing Well, Hal Habecker.

0:52Dr Hal Habecker Welcome to this podcast. Again, over this summer, we're going to replay some of the most listened to podcasts we've ever had, you recently received the one that we did on our identity in Christ for our aging years. It's literally the most listened to podcast we've ever had, and I would say it's one of the greatest truths we could ever repeat again and again, and this podcast that you're about to listen to. This is the very first podcast we ever did, December 11, 2020 You're going to hear a conversation that I had with Randy Hess, one of our board members, who helped me introduce the whole idea of podcasts to our network, and the topic is, what about finishing well ministries? How did it start? What does it mean? And I

1:50Dr Hal Habecker hope you'll enjoy re-listening to this. It's actually six years ago, almost, that we recorded this, and I think I'd still say the same things: finishing well, living well, growing well, completing our lives well, understanding the purpose God has for us. It's just a marvelous truth that we all need to remember day after day. So, without anything else, enjoy this podcast from december 11, 2020

2:27Dr Randy Hess Welcome to the Finishing Well podcast, number one, where we encourage seasoned believers to find meaningful ways to impact their world for the Kingdom of God. I'm Randy Hess, and I'm with the founder of Finishing Well Ministries, Hal Habiker. Good morning, Hal. Good

2:47Dr Hal Habecker morning, Randy. It's great to see you and hear your voice.

2:50Dr Randy Hess Great to see you.

2:52Dr Hal Habecker What I'd love to do this morning, and feel free to interject here anytime. This is our very first podcast, and I want to give you a little feel for what Finishing Well Ministries is all about, what we're trying to do, how God orchestrated this, and Randy, I'm going to ask you to jump in anytime you have a thought or two to add, but welcome, and I hope this is a beginning discovery of what it means to finish well, to live well day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. So, what is Finishing Well Ministries about?

3:32Dr Hal Habecker And why are we doing it well? Let me tell you, it starts with me personally. I was a pastor most recently for 21 years at Dallas Bible Church here in Dallas, and the Lord led in a transition. So, what was I going to do? Well, I had this keen interest in older people, and Randy, you were there, you were one of my friends in the church when all of this started, so it led to a number of conversations, and one of the dreams that I've had is to encourage older people to finish well.

4:08Unknown The

4:09Dr Hal Habecker problem is our culture, in a sense, says when you're retired, you're finished, you're finished with your productivity, you know, the company says we don't need you anymore, so you're out. So the whole retirement idea in our culture is, well, we don't need you anymore. Well, and unfortunately, you know, I felt as a pastor, I'm watching the church for 45 years in full-time ministry, I feel like the church marginalizes older people as well. You know, it's completely against the scriptures. The scriptures value older people.

4:49The fourth commandment Honor your father and your mother. It's the first commandment with a promise that your days may be long. The scriptures value. Value older people in an incredible way. You go to Peter's sermon on Acts two verse 17, where he talks about young men, your daughters, your old men dreaming dreams, young men seeing visions. You see this multi generational approach to the church, but in many churches today, you just don't see that older people are marginalized, and they ask themselves, what is my value? Well, as I said, scripturally, older people have an incredible value in their lives, they have the experiences, the wisdom, the failures, the hardships, everything out of which to speak and love younger people, you

5:43The fourth commandment know. We, as older people, we're not these wisdom dumpers, in a sense. I mean, I want to learn from my kids, my grandkids, but I want to share my life with them, and how to encourage us to do that and make an impact for Christ is really the focus of Finishing Will Ministries.

6:02Dr Randy Hess Well, it intrigued me right away. I'm not sure how to be totally, totally truthful and honest with you, that I got it right away, but it was intriguing as you spoke about it, and it was obvious, you know, that it was leading your heart in a specific and special kind of way to me. I was curious as to how you were going to launch it, how you were going to move it ahead, but I knew you knew what I knew you knew what you were talking about, and I also had a.. I think since I was a at your church for several years, I had a feeling about what you were getting at. There were a number of senior people, and I know that you spoke to us many times in what you tried to do, either what you tried to preach about or what you got us

7:00Dr Randy Hess to do it with each other and think about, but as you moved on, and you said, "Hey, I'm thinking about taking another step, a different step in my life. I'm moving on to a ministry. I'm retiring from from being a pastor at the church. I have to say also that it gave me a little angst about it, because I, I wondered, gosh, I wonder who's going to be, and I wonder how we're going to be able to capture what you were talking about, how we were going to be able to make that work

7:30Dr Hal Habecker well. The idea that keeps occurring to me, even, I mean, this is five five years ago now, where, yeah, we launched this,

7:36Dr Randy Hess yeah, that's right, the

7:37Dr Hal Habecker idea that keeps occurring to me is that God's purpose for us never changes. Now you're a corporate psychologist and organizational guru. You mentor people. You know one of the things that happens when you retire, your purpose changes. Your purpose when you worked at the company, or my purpose when I worked as a pastor, I knew exactly what I had to do, or at least thought I did, and kept growing at it, but then you leave the company, you leave the executive position, you leave the classroom where you've taught, you leave as a physician, or whatever you're doing, and you say, Well, what is my purpose now? What do I do?

8:15Dr Hal Habecker Well, you know, from God's perspective, that's never changed. What I like to do is quote Ephesians 210 for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. So, as a, as an aging person in your 70s or 80s, you don't work for that same purpose anymore, but your purpose is exactly the same from God's viewpoint. It is to use your skills, use your wisdom, use whatever He has entrusted to you, the bank of experiences I've had, and how do you pass them on to the next generation and continue to use them. So, what we've worked on is how to encourage older people to keep zeroing in on the purpose God has them. Here, another verse in a poem that comes to my mind that has really captured me in this whole thing

9:10Dr Hal Habecker is Psalm 90, verse 12. Moses writes this, the oldest psalm in the psalter. I don't know how old Moses was, he was somewhere I'd say between 110 or 120 maybe. He writes, 'So teach me to number my days that I may present to you, oh God, a heart of wisdom. So here's Moses looking at the hourglass going down. It may have been the last 40 years of his life when he went to lead the people out of Egypt. You know, teach me to number my days, see, teach me to get the best value from your standpoint, oh God, out of my life. And then he closes in verse 17, confirm the work of my hands, confirm the work of my hands, he repeats it twice. So God has a work for older people to do, whatever their age.

10:00Dr Hal Habecker Change, and the poem that I mentioned is by Robert Browning. It's in the long poem, 32 stanzas, entitled Rabbi Ben Ezra, and I love to quote just the first stanza. Rob Browning

10:13goes like this Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be the last of life for which the first was made. Our times are in His hands, who saith a whole I planned youth, or your pre-retirement years show but half. Trust God, see all, nor be afraid. So the way I see it, God has the maximum impact of your life in your latter years, does that make sense, Randy?

10:44Dr Randy Hess It does, and you know you have studied this a little bit, how you've looked into some, some other folks out there who have explored and delved into helping people adjust to the second half of their life, so to speak, or the last quarter, if you want to put it that way. You've looked at halftime, which is a process that some go through. I remember several years ago Rick Warren wrote a book about the purpose-driven life, and in that there was, I think, something around two questions related to what you know, what have you done for God? What have you done for Jesus? And the second question was, what have you done with what has been given to you?

11:39Dr Randy Hess So I see you asking that kind of thing, because most of us, as we get into our aging years, do I won't say struggle, but we are very fascinated with what is our purpose, what has been our purpose in life. Many of us, we look at these pictures in senior magazines, or we look at some things on TV showing seniors, you know, living quote unquote the good life. You know, what are we doing? We're out there doing stuff to make us feel good. We're out there to entertain ourselves. We're out there to just have fun, and what I see is in that a struggle to find purpose for my years now, or to, in some cases, say this is my purpose, just to go play golf, you know, four times a week, and, and, and, and hang

12:37Dr Randy Hess out, but many after they think about what you're saying, after they look into what you're saying, after they explore it just a little bit, and after they reflect on it, when they go home at night, I think they come to the conclusion that house onto a perspective I need to get a hold of, and that is what is it that God has for me that I do not see yet, or maybe not, maybe I'm not aware yet.

13:10Dr Hal Habecker I can't agree with you more, Randy. Let me take a couple different tacks. You know, as a student of the scriptures, I don't know that I ever noticed this before I started to age. You know, Moses was how old when God tapped him to go to Egypt to lead the children of Israel. He was 80 years of age. Well, let me ask you, how old was Joshua when he took over for Moses? Well, he was 80 years of age, and you know they lived, Moses lived 120 I think Joshua lived 110 Joseph lived to 110 in Egypt. He led, and you say, what's the value of their lives at 80 plus? Well, it was an inestimable value. I mean, it's just crazy. And then I think about scripture writers, I mean, how old was David as he wrote many of his psalms? He may

14:04Dr Hal Habecker have written Psalm.. well, I don't think he wrote Psalm 23 as a young man, because he talks about the challenges of death, but it's a perspective of life. I think of.. I love the Gospel of John, of course, I love all the Gospel writers, but I think John wrote the Gospel of John. When he was in his early to mid 70s, at the earliest, he could have written it later in his 80s, and he didn't write Revelation till he was in his late 80s or early 90s. I mean, you think about that, you know, these people and the writers in Scripture. You go to the birth of Jesus and you see Simeon and Anna in the temple, many people would suggest that Simeon was a centenarian, you know. Anna was, she was in her 84th year, and

14:47Dr Hal Habecker these people are blessing Jesus. So, here's what I view. I mean, if you take a snapshot of your congregation and let's say you have a healthy number of 80. People, and you ask yourself, as a pastor, what are these older people, post-retired people, what is their contribution to our church? And if you look at the scriptures, you would say we wouldn't have the Bible without the aging contribution to the life of the church. It's incredible. I mean, Paul writes his letters from prison in his last day. Peter writes his both letters to the scattered tribes in his 60s before his last day.

15:31Dr Hal Habecker So, you look at the big picture and say, what are you bringing to this congregation? What do you bring into your family? What do you bring into your community? And do you have a clear sense of what God's mission is for you, right up to the point of death. You know, if you have your cognitive abilities, and I mean, even the limited strength, God has a purpose. I think of Psalm 118 verse 24 This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it, because God is in charge of my life, and He has a purpose for me at this age. Doesn't matter whether you're 30, whether you're 40, whether you're 50, whether you're 60, you're 70 or 8090, God has a purpose for me at this age. And I think that is a

16:12Dr Hal Habecker riveting message to get out and encourage older people, older believers.

16:18Dr Randy Hess Psalm 138 says the Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. Your steadfast love, oh Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands,

16:29Dr Hal Habecker ever, ever, ever. So, what's the work of your hands at 7075 at 8085, 9095, Centenarians, God has a plan for us. And then I think of the impact of this in the, in the church, Randy, as I'm a churchman, I've given my life to the church, I would give anything in my life for older people to be the best encouragers of younger people, I would give everything in my life for older parents, grandparents to be pouring their lives into their adult kids, their grandkids, and even their great-grandkids, you know. If God lives us, He leaves us live long enough. What is our value to the community around us? And it's an inestimable value. I mean, there's nothing could replace the contribution that God has in mind for older

17:24Dr Hal Habecker people. So I'm back to my first back where I started. Why does God create the aging years? Why does He let us live in general? Yeah, there are all kinds of exceptions, but why does He let us live long enough to see the impact of our lives and to keep growing right up to the very end, so that our lives have great value in terms of how he sees us and how we can contribute to the rest of our communities, our families around

17:55Dr Randy Hess us. I guess you'd have to say how for me at my age, and thank you for asking me to be one of your board members, but at my age this question is on my mind a lot. I can't believe I'm that different from many others out there, and again, I'm not trying to position this in a struggle kind of mentality. I'm just saying I think it's on our minds. It's just something we, we think about, we deal with. We look at our lives day to day, and we say, gosh, why? Why am I here?

18:29Dr Randy Hess Am I designed to be here, sitting in my easy chair, you know, watching some kind of TV shows every day, wasting away, or am I designed to maybe find something a little bit more meaningful that I can do for somebody else. What is it I'm here for? Which, which is those, and as, as you, as you bring that message, how, and you have been bringing it, and it's been resonating quite well. As you bring that, more and more people are going to wrestle with that, and they are going to come to the conclusion that they are, they are here for, for something more than just finding the good life, or finding so-called rest that they never quite find.

19:16Dr Hal Habecker Let me, let me sum it up this way. Think through the scriptures first of all, and think of older people, and where they were in life, and take them away, and what would you have, let's say, Abraham, I think, what was he, 75 when he, God called him out of Ur, the Chaldees, and we talked about, you know, Joseph, you would talk about Jacob, you would talk about Joshua, you would talk about, you know, I mean, you go right through the scripture, you talk about Peter, you talk about Paul, you talk about John, I mean, you think of Paul, he wrote those letters from prison throughout the hardships of life, and you say, what would we have in the scriptures if. We didn't have those older men and women speaking to us out of

20:05Dr Hal Habecker their heart for God, and what God had done for them, and that is just a practical thing. I think about parents and grandparents and other older people who have poured their lives into us. Where would I be if I didn't have these older people, who have given their lives for me and have mentored me and helped me immensely in my life. You know, I think of a good friend of mine. He's 93 He and I have had lunch, generally speaking, once a month for the last 40 plus years. He has poured his life into me and he's mentored me. I think of my mentors at Dallas Seminary, where I studied, you know, just I could go all throughout my life, and of course, I think we have a tremendous purpose, which is why Browning says grow old

20:51Dr Hal Habecker along with me, the best, the best is yet to be, God wants to use us in our aging years as never before, and I would argue even more now than when we thought our best productive years were in whatever work, family, whatever. So, God has an inestimable value for older people, and I look forward, Randy, with you regularly on these podcasts to processing the value of our latter years and to keep pressing on, and by the way, if you find this interesting, I'd love for to invite you to keep coming back.

21:27Dr Hal Habecker You'll be able to find these podcasts at our website, Finishing Well Ministries dot o r g forward slash podcast. They will all be there, and you'll be able to get them on whatever platform you use for your podcast, and I'm looking forward to doing this with you, Randy. I want to explore your mind and what God's doing in your life, and explore our ministry. And just, it's been a joy to be with you personally, and with those of you who have listened to us.

21:58Dr Hal Habecker We want to encourage you and invite your feedback in our lives, so God bless you, and we'll see you next time.

22:05Narrator You've been listening to the Finishing Well podcast. Let's keep pursuing Jesus together and encourage each other to follow Him in our aging years. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, or you can find us at Finishing Well ministries.org/podcast.org/podcast Our vision is to change the way we think about our aging season of life, equipping you to actively pursue God's calling in your life. May the Lord bless and encourage you. And we'll see you next time on The Finishing Well Podcast,

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