Always Leaving Their Marks on Others

I was eating at a local Japanese restaurant, where I was seated at a table with a family of five, a mom, a dad, and three sons. And when the Oriental cook arrived, he warmly greeted the family next to me and promptly ordered them free appetizers. Then when the meal was over, the cook informed the family that their entire meal was on him, no charge.

I sat there astonished. And because of the look on my face, the man seated next to me, who was the father of this family, related the following story to me. He said he was a fireman, and two years ago, this cook's house caught fire, and he was one of the first responders.

He had helped this man whose house had burned down, and now the man was returning the favor by buying them dinner. And I thought to myself how some people can make an impression on others through good deeds and human kindness. And then I applied that to the Christian life, that as believers, we too should be leaving our mark on others through our selfless lives, where Jesus ministers to others through us.

And that's the title of my message this evening, friends, always leaving their marks on others. And I want to quote J.C. Rowe, whose thoughts ran along these lines. J.C. Rowe made the following comment.

That day alone shall reveal the amount of good that every believer is made the instrument of doing to others from the very day of his conversion. Some do good while they live by their tongues, like the apostles and first preachers of the gospel. Some do good when they are dying, like Stephen and the penitent thief and our own martyred reformers at the stake.

Some do good long after they are dead by their writings, like Baxter and Bunyan and McChain. But in one way or another, probably almost all believers will be found to have been fountains of blessings by word or deed, by precept or by example, directly or indirectly. They are always leaving their marks on others.

I like that quote by J.C. Rowe, don't you, friends? Always leaving their marks on others. Think about that. Think in your mind now about someone who has left their mark upon your own life, how your own life is different because of someone else's influence upon it.

Perhaps they discipled you or led you to Christ or ministered to you in some capacity that left a lasting impression upon you and made your life better because you knew them. I can think of several men right now and how their Christ-like example left a mark on my life. Men like Stephen Olford and Bill McDonald.

William McDonald taught me how to live more for eternity through a life of discipleship following Jesus. Bill and I would often have long conversations on the life of discipleship. In fact, he encouraged me to write my book on discipleship, No Turning Back.

Bill McDonald never took a dime from his royalties of his published books, and two of his books sold well over a million copies. He lived frugally and lived a life of self-denial. In fact, in his small apartment, his work desk was a door taken off the hinges and placed atop two chairs.

Every penny that he did not leave to live on, he gave to the spread of the gospel, and he inspired me to give away all my royalties as well. Bill left his mark on me in regard to living for eternity. Bill McDonald made the following statement to me one time.

He said, now the Lord Jesus is ready to enter into a covenant with all of us who are his disciples. He knows that if we have to provide for a future, we will be so busy accumulating wealth that we won't have any time for our primary work, that is serving him. We will give the best of our lives to hoarding money instead of to live in with eternity's values and view.

So he says to us, in effect, put my interests first. Work hard for the supply of your current needs and the needs of your family. Put everything above that in my work, and I promise to take care of your future.

If you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, you will never lack the necessities of life. So Bill McDonald left his mark on my life through a life of discipleship and living for eternity. Stephen Offord was my homiletical mentor, a colleague, and dear friend.

He taught me how to preach. We wrote a book together, Offord on Scroggie, and the mark which he left upon my life is deep and lasting, for he taught me the imperative of the lordship of Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. I've spent many hours with Dr. Offord talking about the importance of a spirit-anointed ministry in life, that to even think of preaching without the empowerment of the spirit is to court disaster right from the get-go, that God does not have to bless a single word I say, but God must bless his preached word by the spirit of God who transforms a person's life.

And Dr. Offord made a lasting impression on me in regard to a holy life. His life motto was that of Robert Murray McChain, Lord, make me as holy as a saved sinner can be. In fact, Dr. Offord kept a plaque hanging on his wall with those very words of Robert Murray McChain.

That's why I've got used Stephen Offord to such a global degree. He lived his life under the lordship of Christ, and he was a clear channel through which the spirit of God could flow in rivers of blessings to others. Two other men who've left their mark on me in regard to revival are my dear friends Richard Owen Roberts and Ted Randall.

Both these men have dedicated their lives to the study of revival, and together, I bet they've read more books on revival than any other man alive. They taught me how to be a man of revival, how to study historical revivals, how to pray for revival, and how to research and write wisely on spiritual awakenings and revivals. My own ministry revival is deeply influenced by both of these revival men, for they surely left their marks on me.

Think of your own life, friend, how others have left their mark upon you, how God has used you to leave your mark upon others. Perhaps you have a desire to be more useful to God in this regard. In heaven, God, use your own life in a deeper degree by leaving your mark upon others for God and his glory.

Then we must be honest with ourselves for a moment now and honest before God. How do we spend our free time? Are we careful with the time God has allotted to us? Are we like John Wesley and George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards who lived so not to waste a fragment of time? Or do we squander our time on foolish things? Do we waste our time on things of this world rather than on investing in eternity? Listen, friend, time is a commodity that cannot be replaced once it's gone, for it's gone forever. I used to waste a lot of time chasing a golf ball around golf courses until God showed me what golf stood for in my own life.

G-O-L-F, golden opportunities lost forever. I used to waste time in front of my television set, calling it relaxation. Then God convicted me of that as well.

Three years ago, I got rid of television and used that time on my knees and in my Bible. I can tell you that God has honored that time spent with him. If we really believe that Jesus is returning soon, how can we foolishly waste the precious time he's given us to advance his work in our generation? Now let's be honest with ourselves and before God in regard to our priorities.

Do we live for self or do we live for eternity? Is self-gratification more important than soul winning? Do we hand out tracts? Do we witness on a regular basis or are we silent Christians? Let me ask you a question, dear friend. Are you leaving your mark or missing your mark? Are you missing God's best for you in relation to time and eternity? What counts costs and what costs cost counts? Whether it's a higher education or achievements in life, there must be a sacrifice made. I remember John Phillips, the Bible commentator, relating to me a story.

He said that when he was at Moody in Chicago as an employee years ago, there was an older man there who was a Bible scholar and this man would often preach in churches around the Chicago area. One night, John Phillips went with this man to a meeting and after the Bible scholar preached, a man about 50 years of age approached him and said, oh doctor, how I wish I had your knowledge of the Bible. The Bible scholar looked him up and down and in a stern voice said, sir, you will never have my knowledge of the Bible.

And with that, he walked away. In other words, this man spent his entire life in the study of God's word and it would take a lifetime to gain what he had sacrificed to learn. Are we willing to make that sacrifice for God? Are we willing to ask God to make us a sacrifice for him and his glory or do we care too much about self-preservation and self-enjoyment for that? I'm thinking of a man now, a pastor who in the 1960s befriended me and gave me my first Bible.

I was just an awkward teenager but he took an interest in me and prayed for me and witnessed to me and preached to me and left his mark on me. Do you realize, friend, that there may be a teenager in your life whom you can influence for good and for God if you only took the time but many of us don't want to give up our candy bar. We rather stay self-absorbed and say with our lips how much we love Jesus.

But that pastor took the time to invest himself in me and he influenced me for God and left his marks upon me for good. He was a dear man. Listen, friends, to what the apostle Paul has to say to us today from Romans.

The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

Paul also admonishes us to redeem the time for the days are evil. Let me ask you a question, friend. Are the days in which we live evil? Are they? Then why are we not redeeming the time that God has given us? Some of you here within the sound of my voice may be in eternity this time next year and you will soon stand at the judgment seat of Christ in 1 Corinthians.

Paul speaks of this very day. Turn in your Bible friends to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Let me read us this striking passage of scripture beginning in verse 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ.

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire.

Let me ask you, friend, when you stand before the one who has eyes of fire, any places your life works into the fire of testing for time and eternity, what will remain? Will it be the gold, silver, and precious stones of a well-spent life for eternity and for Christ, or will you stand there a knee deep in the ashes of a wasted life and bend over and press those ashes into his nail pierced hands, or will you be the one who is always leaving their marks on others? Let us take time now to go to the one who has our life in his hands.