Baker Preaches on His 100th Birthday

In the year 1908 Theodore Roosevelt was the president of the United States. This was also the last year that the Cubs won the World Series. You could also buy a first-class stamp for a mere two cents. However, something else worthy of notice took place that year as well. That was the year that preacher W.L. Baker was born, and exactly 100 years later on August 3, 2008, Baker stood before a congregation of almost 500 in Mt. Juliet, TN to deliver a sermon as they celebrated his 100th birthday and his almost 80 years in the Gospel ministry.
"I thought I was going to get all of this when I got to heaven," W.L. Baker said on his 100th birthday. He was speaking to the incredible honors that he had been given on this day, some of which included citations from Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen and President George W. Bush.
On this morning, Baker stood and preached from Deuteronomy 34. The article in which I found this story, which can be found here , gave us a few quotes from his message:

"Moses linked his whole life to a worthy cause and he spent all of his last day on earth climbing, and I hope to do the same," Baker told the gathering.

"On Moses' last day, when he climbed the mountain, the Lord was waiting for him at the top," Baker said. "I am excited about that time when my last day comes and my Lord greets me in death and smiles. Until then, I want to press on.... God didn't put us in the world to look at small things, but big things."

He challenged the audience: "You are not living for today. This morning you are living for eternity."

Baker took classes at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for one year, but after that he decided to move to Louisville, KY to attend the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he later graduated in 1932 (Haze and Elijah would no doubt agree that this was indeed the correct decision). Baker's time in these wonderful institutions allowed him to have close and personal contact with some theological giants, such as L.R. Scarborough, W.O. Carver, George W. Truett, A.T. Robertson as well as a few others. His age also makes him Southern's oldest living alumnus.

The article continues:

"There's no way to describe how much those two years meant to me," Baker said of his studies at Southern Seminary. "Dr. [E.Y.] Mullins was gone by then, but Dr. [John R.] Sampey was there and Dr. Carver was one of my instructors. Anyone who went in Dr. Carver's class and stayed long and didn't come out with his heart burning for missions, then something was wrong with him."

The most valuable lesson he learned at Southern Seminary? Baker does not hesitate with an answer: "Love for the Bible. They instilled in me a great love for the Lord and the Bible."

One must ask the question, "How does one man stay so long in the ministry?" Baker answers the question simply: "Memorize the Scriptures." Baker is noted for being able to recite the Sermon on the Mount and has presented it from memory in more than 50 churches. He said:

"I would tell young ministers to memorize as much of the Bible as possible while they have the mind to do it." He continued: "The highlight of my life along that line was when I was at my first church and I was wrestling with the problem of what to preach the next Sunday. I wrestled with that quite a while and in three or four weeks was doing it again, and I felt an impression come to me, 'Why don't I preach Jesus' sermon?' So I committed the Sermon on the Mount to memory and it has been the greatest blessing in my ministry."

It's amazing how he very quickly breezes over the fact that he would just memorize the Sermon on the Mount as if it were not big deal. The sermon on the mount is three chapters, or 111 verses long. If you memorized one verse a day it would still take you almost three months to memorize it. 100 years old, and the man still has an unbelievably sharp mind. What a gift from God he has and what a blessing he is to us.