Finally: A Farewell

Bubba finally won the lottery.

He was excited.

He headed off to the lottery headquarters to collect his 30 million dollars.

He took his ticket to the headquarters, they examined the ticket, then they announced to Bubba, Congratulations, you have the winning lottery ticket.

You have won$30 million.

So here's your first million dollars, and every year from now on, until you get$30 million, you'll get a million dollars.

Bubba was in shock.

Wait a minute.

I won$30 million.

I want my$30 million right now.

Lottery representative looked at Bubba and said, that's not the way the lottery really works.

You get a million dollars today for the next 29 years, you'll get another check for a million dollars.

To add up to be$30 million.

But today you only get a million.

Bubba objected strongly.

I won$30 million.

I want my$30 million and I want it right now.

Lottery representative went in the back, got a few more people that came out and tried to explain to Bubba.

You don't get the whole thing today.

You get a million today, and for the next 29 years, you'll get another million dollars to add up to be$30 million.

But you don't get the whole thing.

Bubba really went into an argument.

He got really mad.

He got furious.

He finally goes, you know, that's a ripoff.

In that case, I want nothing to do with the lottery.

You keep the ticket and just give me my dollar back.

Oh finally.

You know, when I started preaching in 1982, I had no idea what road God was going to lead me on or even where all I would travel to.

I feel blessed to have had three ministries, and even though I came to Valley Christian Church in 2003, no one told me before I made here the full history of Valley Christian Church.

It was once I got here and moved my family here, they had a congregational meeting back by the kitchen area, and they informed me that this church has commitments from the congregational people to pay my salary for 12 months, and if the church doesn't grow, we're closing the doors.

At the time it was roughly 30 years old.

Nobody had ever stayed very long.

I was number 19.

That was scary.

But God has blessed Valley Christian Church through many years.

He's allowed Deborah and I to be here for 23 and a half years.

And I was told a long time ago to keep my sermons 30 minutes or less, because if I can't get an idea across to you in 30 minutes, I actually should just sit down and shut up.

So here I am, 23 years of preaching later, preaching roughly 600 hours of preaching to you.

And I have one last sermon.

Finally.

You may have noticed the scripture reading for this past week was scattered all around in the New Testament.

I looked up several of the finally verses, and I want to use them today for my sermon, for my final sermon here before I retire from full-time preaching.

But first, let's begin with prayer.

Lord, I do ask that you help me.

I preach this sermon.

Help me get the message across.

Lord, I pray that everyone here will accept this message and take it to heart and live it out.

Lord, help us understand what we really need to be doing as Christians in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now I pick these passages because I don't want any of you to become Bubba.

I don't want you to throw away the gospel message that I have given to you over the last 23 and a half years and go back and just take your dollar.

I want you to really pay attention to the scripture and the message I've been sharing with you for 23 and a half years.

And it can be summed up in these verses that we're looking at today.

There's five main points I want to get across today to leave everyone here with as I finish up serving 23 and a half years here.

The first one is be strong in the Lord.

Paul wrote this in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10.

Ephesians 6:10

Finally, get the point.

This comes from the sermon.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

And then Paul went on to write there in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10, to put on the full armor of God.

Ephesians 6:10

In all my years of preaching here, my goal was to point people to Jesus, point you to Jesus, lead people to Jesus.

Let them know that salvation is in Jesus, that everything should be focused in on Jesus.

I don't care if you forget my name.

I don't care if you call me Jared.

I had somebody call me Jared just last week.

I said, Well, I've been called worse things, so that's fine.

It's fine.

It doesn't matter.

My name, Jared's name, that's not really what's important.

That's not what we're trying to get across in this church service.

What is important is we want to point people to Jesus as our Savior.

And even after I'm gone, I want this congregation to be strong in the Lord.

The strength is not based upon me.

I have appreciated the love that's been showered upon me during the years of ministry, but my greatest goal for each and every one of you for this congregation is that you would continue to be strong in the Lord, that you would put on the full armor of God so that this church stays strong as a light in the kingdom of God.

That's the point of being here.

And many of you have expressed to me you're going to miss me.

Well, I'm going to miss you.

But if the Lord wills, we'll be back in a few months, not as your preaching minister, but just to serve faithfully alongside of you as a Christian, just like you are.

And Paul himself ministered in various cities, and then he left, and his goal for them, as here in Ephesians chapter 6, is that they would be strong in the Lord and put on the full armor of God.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

And as Paul wrote in 1st in Thessalonians, in a passage I preached on just a little over a month ago, in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 1, to walk in holiness and love.

1 Thessalonians 4:1

1 Thessalonians 4 1 verse states, finally, wonder where we would have that word finally.

Finally, then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us instruction as how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more.

And Paul continued that thought, sharing that they would walk in sanctification, in sexual purity, and in the love of the brethren.

And it's my desire that my preaching doesn't turn out to be in vain.

I don't want you to be Bubba and go back and try to exchange your winnings for a$1 bill.

I want you, if you've heard my preaching, to stay strong in the Lord, to be faithfully walking with him in holiness, in love for one another.

That you take advantage of all the word of God that I have shared with you over 23 and a half years.

And we have been doing this series on the books of the letters of Paul, and we've been into them, and we're finally back over there between 1st and 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, and the Lord willing, Jared will continue on preaching on that series.

And my hope and prayer is that you would follow what Paul says, his desire, his heart for the congregation that is writing to them, that they would live faithful and holy.

And whenever it was reported to him that there was sin or there was division, Paul's heart broke.

And he would call him to repentance.

Even though he wasn't still there, it broke his heart.

And I want you to remember that.

If I find out there's sin and division, it's going to break my heart, even if I'm not the preacher here.

And I hope and pray that Valley Christian Church stays faithful and holy and full of love.

And just because I may not be your preaching minister here anymore, that doesn't mean you get to abandon Christ and you start fighting and arguing with one another.

I pray no one comes here to Valley Christian Church just because of me.

I pray you come here to worship Jesus Christ and to encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ.

That's the focus on Jesus, not on me.

So finally, be strong in the Lord.

Second point of finally, down in the scripture, is finally rejoice in the Lord.

Paul wrote this, 2 Corinthians chapter 13.

2 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

Finally, brethren, rejoice.

Be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace, and the love of God and peace will be with you.

I condense our 2 Corinthians 13, 11 down to this point.

Rejoice, be like-minded, live in peace.

I already pointed out that here I am, I'm preacher number 19 for Valley Christian Church.

And so the people here before me had gone through a lot of preachers, and they actually had a real hard time accepting me.

I wasn't like Harry Orne, the interim preacher before me.

I wasn't like Richard Gonzalez, who had preached before Harry.

I wasn't like Randy Hill, who was before him.

I wasn't like John Marshall, who was before him, and go right on back.

My preaching style was different.

My talents were different.

My skills were different.

Some people didn't like it all at all.

Some people put up with it.

Some people actually liked it.

You know, Jared and I are different in our preaching styles, but we still preach the exact same Jesus.

We still preach the Bible is 100% true.

We still preach the same gospel message, and you need to rejoice and get behind him, being like-minded, living in peace.

And don't compare him to me.

That would be totally unfair.

I mean, if you remember in the Bible, when it talks about a man, uh, when he gets married, a man is to leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, cleave to his wife.

And the husband had better learn from that.

He should not, when he gets in this married relationship, always compare his wife to his mother.

My mother didn't do that.

My mother didn't cook things that way.

She didn't clean things that way.

My mother didn't.

If you wanted to be married to your mother, you know, you don't leave it.

And when Jared is preaching, he's going to be a little bit different than me.

Don't bring that into the church body.

Don't be comparing Brother Jared with me.

Rejoice and be like-minded, living in peace with one another.

And let Valley Christian church rejoice that you got a new guy here.

In fact, Paul wrote this in Philippians chapter 3, verse 1.

Philippians 3:1

Finally, well, I bet you didn't know that word was going to show up.

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.

To say the same things again is no trouble to me.

It's a safeguard for you.

In other words, Philippians 3 1, rejoice.

Paul had brought many people, many of the people in Philippi, to Christ.

Most of them had learned about Jesus through Paul.

Then Paul left to go preach in other places.

And he left them to hear the gospel from other preachers.

And Paul is telling them, rejoice.

Rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoice.

I am certain the various preachers, even in the first century, had different styles and different emphasis on biblical things, but that shouldn't have been a reason to be sad or depressed.

Oh, it's not so-and-so.

It's this person.

No, Paul writes, rejoice.

In fact, consider the very next verse there in Philippians 4, verse 8.

Philippians 4:8

It brings me to my next point.

Focus in on the positive in the Lord.

In this same letter that Paul told him to rejoice, Paul wrote these words.

You want to guess what the first word is?

Finally, well, you guys got this sermon.

Why am I preaching it for?

You already know what it is.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Or as I condense this verse down here, Philippians 4.8, if there's any excellence, let your mind dwell on these.

Look at the bright side.

When I retire, you're not going to have to hear the old over the hill guy.

You're going to hear somebody younger.

Someone who's very close to the age that I was when I started here.

You're going to get to hear from somebody who still has children at home so he can better relate to some of our younger people here who are still raising their children.

You still get to attend the same church with the same elders and the same deacons and the same brothers and sisters in the Lord that you have come to love and they've come to love you.

There's all kinds of pluses for the fact that me, I'm going to retire, and Jared is going to become the main preaching minister.

So don't focus in, oh, woe is me.

Look at the bright side.

Jared's a very capable minister who loves the Lord and has a servant's heart.

We're very blessed to have him come on and be our preacher.

So focus on the positive, the things that are true and honorable and right and pure and lovely, of good repute, the things of excellence, the things that are worthy of praise.

Let your mind dwell on the good.

And especially as Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2 commands us, one of the most excellent things to focus in on is Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2

Hebrews 12, 2 states, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Fix your eyes on Jesus.

I hope and pray that none of you have fixed your eyes on me.

My whole goal here is to have been pointing you to Jesus.

I don't want you to have your hope and trust in me.

I want you to look past me to see Jesus.

All through my ministry years, especially these last two years, I have been trying to prepare every one of us for this day.

That when I would retire, and I have been reminding you over and over and over again through different sermons, through different things, even some of our songs we sing.

A lot less of me, a lot more like Jesus.

It's all about Jesus.

And I know there are people who grow attached to a preacher, and whenever he leaves, they decide to wander off too.

But I hope and pray none of you do.

Because Valley Christian Church needs each and every one of you.

And Jared is going to need each and every one of you to help him as he's transitioned into the full-time ministry.

Of all times, this is the time for Valley Christian Church to rally together, to be strong in the Lord, to rejoice in the Lord, to focus in on the positive things in the Lord.

And fourth, to pray in the Lord.

2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 1 states, first word.

2 Thessalonians 3:1

Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it also did also with you.

Pray that the word of the Lord spreads rapidly and is glorified.

My prayer for Valley Christian Church is when I leave and I retire, that this church continues to grow.

That when I come back after being gone for several months, I'm going to have a hard time looking around and figuring out who's that person.

I don't recognize them.

I don't remember them.

They haven't been here, and I'm going to have to learn a lot of names.

That's my prayer.

I'm praying that there's going to be a whole bunch of new people, and a lot more people have been baptized into Christ.

I have known a few people in ministry that when they left a church, they started praying that that church would collapse, that that would struggle because they wanted everybody to know how important they were.

And I'm going, that is not my prayer.

My prayer is this church continues to grow and you guys develop.

And pretty soon you're going to be not just three services on a weekend, you're going to have four, you're going to have five services.

And there's going to be people here.

And even Jared's going to have a hard time memorizing everybody's names, and let alone me coming back, trying to remember and know everybody.

You know, whether I'm present or not, my desire is that Valley Christian Church continues to work for the kingdom of God, that you share God's love, and that the gospel message is still made available to all people that they can know about the salvation that's found through Jesus Christ.

Of all things.

And that shouldn't just be my prayer.

It needs to be your prayer too.

I believe all of us should be praying for continued growth of the kingdom of God and especially be praying for Brother Jared as he steps into a new role of being the preaching minister here.

He needs prayer, a constant prayer.

In fact, Philippians, or 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 17 states very simply: pray without ceasing.

1 Thessalonians 5:17

Pray all the time.

Pray especially for Jared and do all you can to encourage him.

Here's some things he hasn't even paid me to say these things yet.

Take him out for lunch to encourage him.

Encourage him to go out and go fishing, to have some downtime.

Encourage him not to work so hard that he would burn out.

Encourage him to spend time with his family.

Encourage him in these things.

It's really easy for a young preacher to spend so many hours in preaching and his ministry that he neglects his own family and even his own health.

Pray for him to find that balance.

Pray for him and for all your brothers and sisters here at Valley Christian Church.

Pray without ceasing.

Finally, be strong in the Lord, rejoice in the Lord, focus on the positive, pray in the Lord, and the final of the finally is make sure everything is in the Lord.

1 Peter chapter 3, verse 8 says, to sum up, which means finally, all of you be like-minded, sympathetic, love one another, compassionate and humble in spirit, or as I put it here, be like-minded, sympathetic, love one another, compassionate and humble.

1 Peter 3:8

How many of you have ever heard me say, or even say?

It's not always about you, it's not always about me, it's all about him.

And that is going to be key to going forward after I retire.

Yes, even though Jared and I have similar senses of humor, we like to laugh about the same kind of things.

We like to watch the same kind of videos that make us laugh.

But we both love the Lord and we both try to live, uh lead by a servant lifestyle leadership.

We have different backgrounds.

We're two different generations.

We sometimes see things differently.

We preach the same message about Jesus, but we use different words, different terms.

We come at it in a slightly different angle.

It doesn't make one of us wrong or one of us bad.

We're both being used as servants of Jesus to spread the good news of salvation about Jesus.

And so don't get upset that maybe he doesn't start his sermon with a joke.

Maybe he won't have a three-point outline.

If you notice, I've got a five-point outline today.

But you know what?

He preaches God's word.

Look to the positive, be like map-minded, sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate, kind, be humble.

Because it's not about you.

It's not even all about Jared.

It's all about Jesus, as Unity just said.

And I've shared it with Jared, and I'll share it with you.

His first audience that he's preaching to is Jesus.

He's trying to make certain that his message is according to the Word of God, that his message is in the Lord, that is according to this scripture, the Bible.

His second audience is himself.

He needs to hear what the Holy Spirit is telling him what he needs to do about this passage.

And if he accomplishes that with his sermons, he's fulfilled what matters.

Then each of us needs to be praying for Jared and praying that the Holy Spirit works in our hearts and our ears, that we would hear the word the Holy Spirit wants us to hear from what Jared has prepared by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And we need to hear the message the Holy Spirit wants us to hear.

And if we do that, I believe we'll see Valley Christian Church continue to be growing.

We need to pray about this.

Make certain everything's according to the Lord, that we would stay faithful.

In fact, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 8 says, Therefore, which is another word for finally, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:8

In other words, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Stay faithful.

In my ministries, my first ministry was among a small group of very faithful people.

In fact, uh two of them drove down from Oregon just to be here for this weekend.

Appreciate that.

They're related to us, but they're here.

Sister-in-law and brother-in-law.

But they were in that ministry.

And after I left, that church actually grew.

Good thing I left.

The church continued to grow.

And I'm excited about it that it grew.

And I'm not ashamed to say it grew after I left.

I think that's a good sign.

They continue to be faithful to the Lord.

In my second ministry, that congregation has dwindled way down.

And that's very disappointing.

That breaks my heart, actually.

But there are several very faithful, steadfast saints still worshiping there.

And I pray that this congregation will be part of a great success story.

For the years to come, as Jared takes up a mantle and steadfastly teaches the truth of the word of God, I pray all of you stay strong in the Lord.

That you are steadfast, that Satan can't move you away from God.

Stay strong in the Lord.

Rejoice in the Lord.

Focus in on the positive things in the Lord.

Pray in the Lord.

Or just in general, make sure you're in the Lord.

Let me finish up with what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 8.

1 Thessalonians 3:8

For now we really live if you stand firm in the Lord.

The greatest retirement gift Valley Christian Church could ever give to me is that you stand firm in the Lord.

In the Lord.

Stand firm in the Lord.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you for being able to share tonight these words from the scriptures.

Help us to stand firm for you.

Help us to live faithful for you in everything that we do.

Thank you, Lord, for being such a wonderful, awesome God.

Thank you for letting us serve here for 23 and a half years.

We've seen our ups, we've seen our downs, but mainly ups.

Thank you, Lord, for letting us rejoice in you.

And Lord, if there's someone here who is not in you, let them make that decision tonight in Jesus' name.

Amen.