Something Big for God

I'd like to read a passage from Luke chapter 19, starting at verse 11. As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive kingly power, and then return.

Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten pounds, and said to them, trade with these till I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent an embassy after him, saying, we do not want this man to reign over us. Then when he returned, having received the kingly power, he commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by trading.

The first came before him, saying, Lord, your pound has made ten pounds more. He said to him, well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall receive authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, your pound has made five pounds.

And he said to him, and you are to be over five cities. Then another came, saying, Lord, here is your pound, which I kept laid away in a napkin, for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow.

He said to him, I will condemn you out of your own mouth, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking up what I did not lay down, reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money into the bank, and at my coming, I should have collected it with interest? And he said to those who stood by, take the pound from him, and give it to him who has ten pounds.

And they said to him, Lord, he has ten pounds. He said, I tell you that to everyone who has will more be given, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. When we read this parable, there's something within us that confirms it.

We all know in the inmost part of our being that one day we're going to be giving an account. We're saved by grace. Salvation is a lavish gift from God that we did not earn.

And yet, we're going to answer to God for what we did with this salvation. Just as surely as we were called into the banquet hall free of charge, without any merit or worthiness in ourselves. So we are also sent forth from the banquet hall to gather others in.

We're given a pound, an amount of money, so to speak. And we are to do something with this until the king comes back. And for those of us who are inclined to say, and some do, I'm not worried about rewards.

I don't care if I get a reward. All I care about is if I squeak into heaven somehow, saved by grace. This is a warning that if you squeak in and you come there and you say, well, Lord, here's my salvation, I was saved, and you unwrap your little pound and give it back to him, he'll take it from you and give it to the one who made 10 pounds, and you'll be thrown out.

But what exactly does Jesus mean when he gives us this pound and tells us to trade with it until he comes back? The one who converted his into 10 pounds is rewarded by being given authority over 10 cities. The one who trades it into 5 pounds is given 5 cities. But exactly what kind of gain is Jesus talking about? Our fleshly religious minds are inclined immediately to pounce on concepts that are more at home with General Motors and the Democratic Party.

In other words, the man who brings in the most for GM gets the biggest promotions and the biggest salary. And the woman who does the most for the party is given the fattest political rewards. Now Christendom is rampant with that idea.

Many, many multitudes of believers within Christendom actually believe that ingenuity, imagination, and drive put into the developing of what is often called some Christian work are the equivalent of converting your 1 pound into 10. Now if this is true, this then means that the man or the woman who develops the largest congregation or builds the most impressive missionary outreach or the one who develops the largest radio following is the one who has turned his or her pound into 10. But is this really what Jesus means? Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

There they made him a supper. Mary took a pound of costly ointment, a pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was to betray him, said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. And as he had the money box, he used to take what was put into it. Jesus said, let her alone.

Let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. Now, let's suppose that in the first wave of persecution to hit Jerusalem after the beginning of the church, Mary is killed, which is quite possible.

Centuries pass. Now arrives the time for the accounting. Mary's turn comes to stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Now, remember, she never organized the church, never started a Bible study, never went on a missionary journey. All Mary ever did that anybody can remember is take this expensive nard and anoint Jesus' feet and wipe them with her hair. Before her turn came, there were evangelists standing before the judgment seat who were given the credit for a million souls saved.

Missionaries, Christian authors, church statesmen, converts from Watergate, converts from the Panthers, converts from the New York Jets. Poor Mary is staggered by all these wonderful tours these people took and the books they wrote, the movies that were made of their lives. And what has she done? All Mary has done, anoint Jesus' feet with some ointment.

And what did that accomplish? How many people were fed with that? How many souls were saved? Think of what could have been done with the money. Those 300 denarii, a year's wages. Think of the tracks that could have been printed.

Think of the radio time that could have been purchased. What's he going to do with her now? Granted, she got a little bit of fame. Her name got into the Bible.

But what is this compared with the spectacular things that were done, especially by some of the more ambitious 20th century saints? Finally, the moment comes. Jesus pronounces the verdict. And the instant he does, 30 radio preachers faint right on the spot.

Jesus puts this woman right up on top, even over St. Paul. But Lord, you say, wait a minute. I thought the one who converted his town into 10 town was put over 10 cities.

Doesn't this mean something about bearing fruit? Indeed, my child, he answers. Indeed, it does. Well, Mary didn't bear any fruit.

All she did was anoint your feet. Ah, my child, he said. But that costly, expensive, extravagant act that she performed bore more fruit than you will ever know.

For in that act, Mary linked herself with my death. And out of that flowed life. Mary took the one step which alone causes real fruit to be born in my kingdom.

She died with me. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Now, who of us doesn't deep within our heart long to do something big for the Lord? I mean something really big. Lord, if I could, if I knew how to do it, I'd convert this one town you gave me into 100. I want to sow seed by the acre.

I want to bring in a big harvest. I want to do something for you, Lord. And who of us isn't frustrated by the lack of results that we're getting? We look out over this city and its suburbs, teeming with people who have food in their stomachs mostly, money in their pockets in the main, and yet whose souls are empty.

Who have nothing within them but pain and frustration and guilt and despair. Lord, just give me the power so that I can bring these people to the streams of living water. And to who of us isn't given the promise that if we abide in Jesus and he in us, we can ask whatever we will and it will be done for us.

By this, my father is glorified, says Jesus, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Much fruit from you, not just as a prayer partner of some big name in the Christian world, but directly from you. The promise is that you're going to bear fruit directly out of your heart and out of your mouth and out of your hands.

And isn't it wonderful that this promise does not hinge on our intelligence or on our eloquence or on our physical drive? It hinges on one thing, the state of our hearts. What we have to do is what Mary did. We break them and offer them up.

The fruit that we bear is the result of giving Jesus pure and the best that we had up even to death. Now, who can deny that the apostle Paul was doubtless the most fruitful of the apostles? Why was he the most fruitful? Was it because he had the best education? Was it because he was a better organizer than the rest of them? No. Perhaps it was because he was a bachelor.

Didn't have to drag wife and kids around. Maybe it was that he just had that, you know, he was able to get by in three hours sleep a night and then he could run five miles in the morning and do all his pushups. And he had more of that stamina and that drive than the other apostles had.

We know that's ridiculous. Why was he able to bear so much fruit? He tells you himself. But whatever game I had, I counted as lost for the sake of Christ.

Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse in order that I might win Christ. I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Paul offered up his life to Jesus in the same way that Mary offered up her life to Jesus in that NAR, that ointment, all the way up to death. The whole thing, no reservations, everything up to the Lord. And because he did this, fruit came.

Lasting fruit, fruit that abides the trial of fire. Now, if you are willing to offer up your life totally to Jesus, all the way, holding nothing back, just like Paul did and just like Mary did, then the only other thing you have to worry about if you want to bear fruit is to begin exactly where you are. Gathering people into the harvest from a heart, see, that's just given up to the Lord.

That's all you have to worry about. You are now no longer your own. You are the aroma of Christ for the salvation of the world.

You don't even have a name of your own anymore. Your name is lost in God. You are a voice crying in the wilderness.

Make straight the way of the Lord. You have no name. You're lost in God.

Praise God. Somebody says, oh, wait a minute. I thought the people who were really fruitful are the ones who caught a world vision like it says in all the missionary books.

Now, granted, Jesus does say, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation, make disciples of all nations. This is true. But the one in charge of this world evangelism thing is God.

He's the Lord of the harvest. He calls the shots. He makes the plans.

He does it. Once we begin to offer our lives up to God as living sacrifices in truth, there are only two things we need to worry about. One, pray the Lord of the harvest for laborers and to fit in.

Do the harvest exactly where we are. Notice what Paul did after he was brought into the kingdom of God. We'll start out by noticing what he didn't do.

Notice that Paul did not immediately call a conference to establish strategy for world outreach. Never in his life did Paul do anything like that because Paul understood that he was not God. He was just Paul.

He didn't write a book about his life. He didn't form a nonprofit organization for converted Pharisees and sent out a prayer letter every month to raise money. What Paul did do was begin preaching Christ exactly where he was.

This thing happened to him in Damascus. And so Paul begins immediately in Damascus to preach Christ in the synagogue. And he continues to do that until there's a plot on his life.

Then the believers lowered him over the wall in a basket and send him off to Jerusalem where he had been before. In Jerusalem, Paul does it there, preaches Christ, preaches Christ all the time until again his life is in danger. Then the believers send him back to his hometown of Tarsus.

Now, scripture is not specific as to what Paul was doing in Tarsus, but you can be sure he was preaching Christ there until Barnabas comes and takes him over to Antioch. In Antioch, Paul preaches Christ again until the Spirit says, Separate unto me Saul and Barnabas to the work to which I have called them, and sends them forth through the church. Notice, Paul stays where he is until he is sent forth by the Spirit of God.

And where he is, he preaches Christ. From a heart that has been offered up, broken, like Mary's. If you want to do something big for the Lord, get your eyes off the big names in Christendom and offer up your life just as it is, like Mary did.

Start praying for laborers for the harvest and begin to proclaim Jesus as Lord in the situation where you are right now, in your work, in your home, on that telephone, in those letters, not just like a broken record, ramming the four spiritual laws and the seven steps to this and that, but Jesus, his mercy, his goodness, his love, his holiness, his majesty, his cross. Now, if God wants you in New York City or in Escanaba, he'll let you know it. And you'll know it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

If he wants you to join some cracked missionary team, you'll know that. If God wants Warren and Pat Pollington in Nigeria this summer, they'll be there. In the meantime, they preach Christ here.

If the Lord wants John Church in Thailand by fall, he'll be there. Meanwhile, John preaches Christ here, and you and I do the same. Meanwhile, until God moves us anywhere else, if he ever chooses to do so, keep offering up your life, keep praying for laborers, and keep preaching Christ.

And you will bear fruit, much fruit, real fruit, lasting fruit, fruit that will abide the trial of fire which is soon to test everyone's worth. Heavenly Father, I just ask that you help us all to get down to business and to be delivered, Heavenly Father, from the vicarious Christian life where we do it all by watching somebody else do it. We're just so used to getting our kicks out of watching the soap operas and getting our exercise by watching a baseball game, and we do the same in the Christian realm.

Oh, God, save us from this mistake, this lie, and enable us to get on with the business that you've given us to do and to do it well from parts that have been broken and spent and continuously are broken and spent. For him who broke and spent himself for us, even Jesus our Lord. Amen.