What's Next Papa? - With Special Guest Debbie Wallis

Many Christians find themselves trapped in grave tending - constantly revisiting past hurts, regrets, and failures instead of embracing the resurrection life God offers. Romans 8:12-17 reveals that we are called to be led by the Spirit of God, living adventurously expectant rather than in timid grave tending. Age is never a barrier to serving God, whether you're young or old. When God gives you a vision or burden, He will refine it but never remove the call. According to Jeremiah 29:11-13, God has specific plans for each of us that He reveals as we seek Him earnestly. Stop making excuses and leave the cemetery of past failures behind to step into the resurrection life God has prepared for you.

Transcript

Good morning.

Some of you may know me. My name is Debbie Wallis and I've been attending two and a half years and I've been a member for about from Kentucky and Tennessee. So you're going to hear that the more comfortable I get with you, the more comfortable. So that's just who I am. For the most part of the last 50 years, Allen and I have lived here in Tulsa.

So with an exception of a stint in Houston, we've been here for about the.

We have two of them are here this morning. Yes. Hey Erin and Jordan and surprised me I did not know they were coming taken back by that and I'm really. We also thing really cool happened to us in September. Alan and I celebrated in September and so our.

And then we had our first child two days before our 50th wedding anniversary. September.

I'm a teeny bit and I will tell you I'm allergic to Oklahoma. So I'll do the best that I can. This morning, my church family who I so trust. How I've seen God working in my life. This is kind of a testimony probably over the last decade or so.

And I want to share how he's been stretching me and challenging me and the plans that I believe he has just for me. Even more the message that I put on my heart for you. Would you please pray with me? Am I not loud enough?

Okay. Okay. I'm moving a little bit, aren't I? Oh my. Okay, so we have the senior assistant light and we have these Senior assist microphone.

Thank you.

Okay. All right. Would you please pray with me? Lord God, Lord Jesus, Lord spirit, welcome. Welcome into our hearts and minds as we prepare for all that you have for us today.

Thank you for another morning to celebrate the resurrection life you've gifted each of us. Thank you for your perfect love and the love and care of this church family. Lord God, the one that goes before us in these next few minutes, help us to release to you all that is troubling us and all that is straining for our attention so that we don't miss a single word of what you would have us hear. Lord Jesus, the one that goes with us, sit by our side and help us understand and respond to your unique call on each of our lives. Lord spirit, the one that dwells within us, move in such a way that we leave this place ready and willing to follow wherever you lead.

We will give you all the praise and all the glory and all the honor. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The scripture this morning is found in Romans 8:12 17 Romans was written by the apostle Paul in Corinth at about 57 AD to the Christians in Rome. You can read along on the screen. Yes you can. Or from your own copy. This is NIV is where it's taken from.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, abba, Father.

The Spirit himself testifies with our Spirit that we are God's children. Now, if we are children, then we are heirs. Heirs of God coheirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. And I like the message Bible. It's a paraphrase.

It basically is modern English and it kind of captures the spirit of biblical text. And I like this. So don't you see that you do not owe this old do it yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us. Nothing at all.

The best thing to do is to give it a decent burial and get on with your life. God's spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go. This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid grave tending life. It's adventurously expectant.

Greeting God with a childlike what's next, Papa? God's spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is. And we know who we really are, Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us.

An unbelievable inheritance. The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Almost my entire life, I have been doing what amounts to grave crawls with my mom and my little mamaw. And I know what y' all are thinking, or at least I call them grave crawls.

Paying our respects to loved ones one cemetery at a time was always important in my family. And actually the practice has been passed down to generations. The most intriguing part of all was the stories I would hear the elders tell. And I can see my little memo right now. The first five children all died before the age of one.

Tina was just three and had scarlet fever. When our house burned to the ground. We lost her too. The horse got spooked and threw mom out of the carriage. She died the next week.

Your papaw's mom died shortly after he was born, and this woman married your great grandfather and raised his children like her own. Being familiar in cemeteries causes me actually to be comfortable in the daylight, not at night. I'll just qualify that right now.

But my mom said it's not the dead you should be scared of anyway, because the living are far scarier. So I appreciate that. Todd Henry is an internationally known speaker. He's an author and a leadership advisor, and he said the most valuable land in the world is the graveyard. In the graveyard are buried all the unwritten novels never launch businesses, unreconciled relationships, and all the other things that people thought.

I'll get around to that tomorrow or someday. One day, however, their tomorrows ran out. A former pastor friend of mine from Texas once told me that some Christians he knew started digging their graves before they actually needed them. They believe they had done their part. It's someone else's turn now.

There's as many reasons for stepping away as there are Christians on this planet. In Romans 8:15 grave tending is a metaphor for any number of things. Regrets you can't shake off. Resentment you can't release. Grief that keeps you trapped in the past, Betrayals that still wound, shame that still cripples, fear that still paralyzes.

And unforgiveness that blocks blessings. Mistakes you can't undo. Basically an inability to really embrace the resurrection life that you've been gifted by God.

So what is your story? Everybody has a story. Do you regularly go on your own personal grave? Crawl past all the reasons you can't be or do what you suspect God is calling you to be? Or do I get it?

Oh, I get it. But you need to know that that graveyard tour is guided by the deceiver. And he would like nothing more than for you to dial down God's call on your life to barely a whisper and pull your head and your heart into the darkness for his own purposes. Better yet, render you incapable of movement, stuck indefinitely in lost and fear. Or maybe it's not that you're stuck in the past.

Maybe you're just too busy. We all know at least some of what we're doing comes down to a series of choices. Yes, family matters. Friends matter. Jobs matter.

But what if we became more deliberate and more focused in our choices? Or where in all that's going on in your life? Do you already see God at work? And since his beckoning for you to join him it is there. Have you really watched and listened?

He has so much more for all of us, I promise. You think you're too young maybe to have much of an impact. You'll get serious about discipleship when you're out of school and settled in a job or when you've truly started adulting. One of my younger brothers, Jerry, who's now with God, used to carry his Bible to elementary and high school and talk to the other kids about his faith. His confidence and boldness grew and in the very last days of his life, he asked one of the women he worked with, so when are you going to give your heart to Jesus?

As it turns out, she did that at his funeral. Jerry's journey started in grade school. You will never be too young to serve or share Jesus. Jump in. God will provide everything you need.

On the other end of that, are you too old?

That's not possible.

Okay, heckler is this early in? That's not possible. Not in kingdom work. Let me tell you about the night I was leaving my church job in Houston and It was after 9 o' clock and frankly I was feeling kind of sorry for myself. It had been a long day and I was walking down the hall of the building at First Methodist Houston and I looked straight ahead into one of the classrooms and there was a 97 year old lady sitting at a sewing machine.

She was part of the Stitches of Gloria ministry and she was just sewing away all by herself after nine. And she was making cotton caps for cancer patients and she was making bibs for senior adult facilities. She's my hero. Or let me tell you about a couple that is at a church downtown that used to be at a church downtown. And they said that they wanted to serve, but they were oh so frail.

And so they pulled up chairs and they sat at the entrance of that church and they waited to welcome people and to listen to them and talk with them and just have a caring conversation with them. They are my heroes too. And then there's a homebound person who was also at this church and she said, I can't be there, I can't get there, but I want to help. And so I think I'm pulling my pages a little bit early here. But anyway, she said, I want to help.

So what we did is we took cards and notes and a roll of stamps and a church directory and we sent her the weekly prayer list. Can you guys imagine what she was doing until she went to be with God too? You can never be too old. What if we all left the grave tending and our excuses behind and fully embraced God's spirit and ran after that unbelievable inheritance that we just read about. When we're tending regrets and spending our energy in the cemetery of all things lost, it's hard to participate in that new life God offers.

When he sends you a vision, a possibility for your future, it is to get you moving. When he lays a burden on your heart, it's to pull you toward his purpose for you. He will not remove the call. I promise you. He will not remove it.

He will refine it. He will redefine it continually. Not sure what that call is. Vance Pittman, who is a dynamic church planter from Georgia, said, a lack of clarity is always a call to deeper intimacy. Jeremiah 29:11 13 states and you guys know this, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. God was speaking through his prophet Jeremiah to the wayward people of Judah.

But this call is for you too.

And this is the personal part. I've talked with several friends and family over the past year as I've been pursuing Certified Lay Servant and Certified Lay Speaker. This is training in the United Methodist Church that is available to anyone. Most wonder why I feel like I'm being called to preach after all these years in church work. I've served on five church staffs spanning 43 years and surely by now I am fully cooked and ready to be pulled from this ecumenical oven.

Evidently not.

All I can answer is that I have an intense desire, a calling to tell people just how much God loves you and to encourage and help equip you toward the closest possible relationship you can have with him this side of heaven. And honestly, that realization didn't happen overnight. It's been years in the making.

Something that you guys probably need to know about me. I am a rabid overthinker. I am not going to tell you how long it took to get these words on paper, but it could be a salaried job. Oh my, it took a while. Case in point.

Believe it or not, this season of discernment regarding preaching is in its I'm not proud of this 11th year. It began after officiating a close friend's funeral at a Methodist church in Houston. That amazing, gifted, guitar collecting friend and I had served together on the same church Staff and his family asked if I would lead the service. One of the pastors from that church approached me after the service, and he asked if I had considered licensed local pastoring.

I'd only been an actual member of a Methodist church for a few years, and I didn't have any idea what he was talking about. But he explained it. I bought a book. A seed was planted. Soon after that, Allen and I both retired and we moved back to Tulsa.

However, the seed started to take root. I continued researching and praying about a higher calling in the Methodist church, and in 2016, even met with a pastor friend in Tulsa to discuss it. I shared my heart, I asked for guidance, and the next thing I knew, I am right back on a church staff. It's a good thing. I poured my heart and soul into what I knew best, directing ministries and leading people.

But I couldn't escape the nagging feeling that I was on the right bus, but I wasn't in the right seat. Three years went by. Covid hit and I retired again because I'm evidently very good at that. And I circled right back around to the restlessness.

Finally, in my desire to do something that I felt would clarify God's call on my life, I ordered a workbook, I bought a guitar, and I taught myself to play. Maybe this is how God wants me to share the gospel. I was thinking, I'm an artist, a poet at heart. I'll build my skills and see if in time, some church will let me play with their Praise team.

Hallelujah. Because of this church and because of this Praise team, God began to build my confidence and more importantly, my reliance on Him.

He's still working on me and getting me ready for the next season of my life. I actually said to Alan driving here this morning, what if I like this? What if this fits? What if this lands scared him to death?

I cannot imagine worshiping without that beautiful instrument in my hands every Sunday morning. Can I just tell you guys the journey? I almost levitate every Sunday morning, The gratitude at you guys making a place for me on the praise team. There are no words at all. But occasionally being given the opportunity to preach at various UMC churches in Oklahoma feels like I'm not only in the right seat, I'm finally in the best seat for me, at least at this season of my life.

John Greenleaf Whittier is a poet from the 1800s. He was a Quaker, he was an abolitionist. He was a journalist. He wrote a poem entitled the Call of the Christian. There are several stanzas, but I just want to read a couple of them to you again.

1800s. Not all. Always with outward sign or fire or voice from heaven the message of a truth divine, the call of God is given, awakening in the human heart. Love for the true and right, Zeal for the Christian's better part, Strength for the Christian's fight. Though heralded with naught of fear or outward sign or show, Though only to the inward ear it whispers soft and low, though dropping as the manna fell unseen yet from above noiseless as dewfall, Heed it well Thy Father's call of love.

Please hear me. We do not have permission to rest from doing the work of God with whatever faculties or abilities we possess until we see the face of Jesus as we observe communion this morning. The Praise Team and I would like to share a fairly new song with you by Josh Baldwin. It's partly responsible for giving me the courage to stand before you guys today and to preach. The song is entitled Made for More, and it's about who we are in Christ and his unique call on our lives.

So what vision has God given you? What burden has he laid on your heart? You know he will never be done with you, right? Talk with him in your own words. Ask, what's the next Papa?

Because you are absolutely, most certainly made for more. Please join me in prayer.