Redeem the Time. Pick Up the Pace. No Retirement for Christians. - Highlight Episode 354

Retirement, from a biblical perspective, is not about stepping away from purpose but entering a new season of service. Ray, E.Z., Mark, and Oscar emphasize that Christians never retire from their calling; instead, they steward their time, talents, treasure, and testimony for God’s glory. The guys explain that although identity is often linked to vocation, believers are called to remain disciplined in the Word, evangelism, and prayer, using retirement to serve without the burdens of career-related thorns and thistles. Financial preparation is part of wise stewardship—saving early, avoiding debt, and planning ahead equips believers to give generously and serve freely. Retirement should be intentional, focused on advancing the Kingdom through mentorship, outreach, and meeting needs in the community. Since both time and money belong to God, they can be wasted or invested, and as long as a believer has breath, they have purpose—continuing to run the race with urgency, faithfulness, and an eternal mindset.

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Learn more about the hosts of this podcast.
Ray Comfort
Emeal (“E.Z.”) Zwayne
Mark Spence
Oscar Navarro

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, friends.
Today, what does retirementlook like for the Christian?
It doesn't Tell us, ray.
Why doesn't?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
it.
There shouldn't be any thoughtof retirement for the Christian.
For the world, yeah, retire,just go over and die somewhere,
walk your dog around the block.
But for the Christian, you cango full-time for the Lord now.
All your life you've beenrestricted by work.
Work's a curse.
God gave work as a curse.
It makes you sweat.
You can be free of that and nowyou can serve the Lord with all

(00:30):
your heart, full-time, and allyou do is get a diary and when
you go witnessing with your dogwearing sunglasses going around
the block, get a person's nameand write down what you said to
them and pray for themafterwards.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
There what you said to them and pray with them or
pray for them afterwards.
There's things you can do whereretirement won't come near you,
and it shouldn't.
Okay now, oscar, is there aplace for a Christian to retire?
Now, we've already dealt withthis Not, but not really retire.
So maybe we can break down thedifference in perspective on
what the world's talking aboutfor retirement.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yeah, I think what you're getting at here is is the
retiring from vocation is onething which is moving into a new
season of life, and to clarifywhat Ray meant earlier, I know
he meant this is the work is agift from the Lord to us.
We see Adam work in the gardenAfter the fall.
After the fall, it becomescursed, right.

(01:31):
So Adam had God glorifying work.
We are made to make in the sameway that our maker makes.
That's not a part of the curse.
Part of the curse is that then,attached to that is the
thistles and the thorns, and ifyou work in a vocation, that is
hard, that's a struggle.
You feel the thistle, you feelthe thorn.

(01:51):
One of the beautiful thingsabout retiring from your
vocation, though, if that is infact you is, now look at it as
you get to experience work withless of the thorn, with less of
the thistle, because now you'refree to work unto the Lord, not
just to provide for your familyand to check in on a nine to

(02:12):
five, but now you know the dayyou go home after your
retirement party.
It's like what do you have forme, oh Lord?
And I thought about it in fourdifferent ways.
Ultimately, retirement, you getto steward four different things
.
It's time for you to stewardyour time well, because you have
more time than ever.
It's time for you to stewardyour talent well.

(02:33):
God has gifted you and you havean opportunity to steward that
talent in a new way becauseyou're not being held back from
the responsibility of yournine-to-five.
You have an opportunity tosteward your treasure Well.
In retirement age we have moreexcess income than we had
through all of our working years, and so you have an opportunity

(02:53):
to give, to steward thattreasure in an incredible way.
And you have an opportunity tosteward your testimony well.
You've gone through so manyseasons of life.
Why not invest that in to thenext generation?
And so, when you have thatperspective, you retire from

(03:14):
your revocation.
But now you get to experiencework with less thorn and less
thistles, because you work intothe Lord.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
I love it.
Often, when you hear people whoretire, you'll hear some of
them say they'll go back to getanother job and they'll say what
I needed?
Something to do which isindicative of right.
We're designed to like, create,to do, to be productive,
productivity.
But I'm baffled that theChristian would ever have to say

(03:45):
that we have so much to do.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
I think someone who spends their life busy and then
suddenly they retire.
They're going to feelabsolutely useless, just cast on
a trash heap.
And that's tragic when you'vebeen laboring your whole life.
But now, if you're a Christian,you can be a laborer for the
Lord.
And I think the key to beingretired and keeping your brain
and not becoming depressed andfeeling useless is to be

(04:10):
disciplined.
Absolutely, Just say I'm goingto be disciplined.
I'm going to start the day offwith prayer.
I'm going to read the Word,Then I'm going to go to my
fishing spot each day and lookfor a sinner.
I'm going to get a dog, putsunglasses, go around the block.
I'm going to take gospel tracts, give them out.
I'm going to get a table andget a local Walmart and you can
get permission to do this.
Set up a table outside Walmartand just put free Christian

(04:32):
books on it that people can take, evangelistic books, get them
from Living in Waters, thescientific facts in the Bible,
and they're totally free.
And you just spend two hours inthe morning doing that.
You come back, have a snooze,say God, please give me more
energy, because that's theproblem when you get your 70s
Every day.
So and I pray for wisdom andfor energy, because energy is
life and without that you'rejust going to roll over and die.
And so if you're disciplinedand make sure you do this each

(05:00):
day, life's going to havemeaning because you're tapping
into the eternal.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
Yeah, paul didn't coast into glory.
He saw it as a finish line,right, he picked up the pace.
I often tell my kids, and Iwrite it in almost every
birthday card to my kids pick upthe pace, right, I get it.
Life is, for a lot of us, amarathon, I get it.
Life is, for a lot of us, amarathon, and slow and steady
wins the race.
But just pick up the pace.
Have you ever seen thedifference between somebody who

(05:24):
finishes first at a track meetand somebody who finishes sixth?
If somebody finishes first,there's always that lunge right.
The difference between first andsecond you know first, second,
everybody knows your name.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
I love that, seinfeld , that's so.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
Somebody finishes sixth place, though it's almost
like they're coasting.
There's no urgency.
But for us Christians, we neverretire from the Great
Commission.
We never retire from doing whatGod has called us to do.
For 2 Timothy 4-7, I havefought the good fight.
I have kept the faith right.

(06:01):
You will still be in the raceuntil you see His face.
You'll know when God is donewith you.
Right, you die.
You're done.
So God is not done with you.
No matter what you've done, nomatter who's made your bed, no
matter what drug you've done, nomatter how many people's lives
you've wrecked, god's not donewith you.
And we know that he's not donewith you because you are still

(06:21):
alive, and by virtue of the factthat you're still alive means
that God still has a plan thathe wants for you.
So get out of bed.
Go to bed with purpose.
Lay out your clothes before yougo to bed so that you know
exactly what you're doing.
Lay out your schedule inadvance so you wake up in the
morning with a purpose Today I'mdoing this, tomorrow I'm doing

(06:43):
that.
And therefore, when you end updoing something like that,
you're going to find just thisexuberant joy that comes upon
you because you're doing whatthe Lord has you to do.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
We talked about stewardship in terms of money.
Right, god owns our money.
God owns our time too, doingwhat the Lord has you to do.
We talked about stewardship interms of money.
Right, god owns our money, butGod owns our time too, and you
have to understand that.
You have to look at your timeand say what am I doing with it?
The Christian who loves the Lord, when he thinks of retirement,
says Lord, how can I redeem thattime?
And that's biblical right.
See, then, ephesians 5, 15 to16, that you walk circumspectly,

(07:15):
not as fools, but as wise,redeeming the time right.
See, then, ephesians 5, 15 to16, that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise,redeeming the time right.
That means buy it up, take itand redeem it so that you can
then use it for what reallymatters.
So, friends, I hope that you'vebeen encouraged today to
recognize that if you live tothat stage of life where you're

(07:36):
able to disconnect from yournormal vocation, there is so
much to do.
People are sitting in hospitalbeds, lonely, dying.
There are kids that are indifferent institutions because
they don't have parents, thatneed big brothers and big
sisters.
There are lost people allaround your neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
And there are people coming out of Walmart and you
could have your table there withChristian books on it.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah get a dog, get it some sunglasses.
Get a hole in your beard, it'sthe cover of his book man, I'm
like, yeah, right, but who saidit?
Do something, do something, dosomething.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
That was Spurgeon.
Spurgeon, societies and unionsare making constitutions.
Let us win soul, yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights
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(08:47):
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