No Time Lost

In Hebrews we read, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him, that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared. I wonder what my Savior's voice sounded like as he agonized to God in prayer. I wish I could peer back and turn the windows of time and look into that terrible scene in Gethsemane where Christ is trembling on his knees in desperate prayer to see his hot tears as they hit the ground on the earth, the very earth he created, the same earth that soon would be splattered by his blood at Calvary with strong crying and tears, our text says.

How the sight of Christ in agony on his knees must have been a wonder to the angels in heaven. It's a wonder to me how often I've neglected prayer to my shame. I am reminded of a story about a painting in a Spanish art gallery.

In the painting is a farmer who is in the position of prayer, there in the background of that painting is a church steeple, and evidently the bell has rung in the village for a time of prayer. The farmer is kneeling in his field, his straw hat lies beside him, and he has put down his farm implements to lay hold of God in a time of prayer. And if you look carefully at this old painting you'll see in the distance there's the form of an angel who is just taking up the reins to a team of mule and is turning to make a fresh furrow in the soil.

And at the bottom of the painting is a brass plate with three words written on it, and they read, no time lost. Do you get it? When we pray all of heaven's resources are unleashed and enlisted on our behalf, we get more done in prayer than out of prayer. No time lost.

But as I turn that image over in my mind and chew on it for a while, and I turn that whole thought upside down in my head, and I'm sad at the opportunities I have lost where I could have more engaged in prayer, but instead I was busy with the things of this world, the things that had no value in eternity. My time lost, squandered and frittered away on things that didn't count for nothing. I should have been interceding on my knees for a nation to return to God.

I should have been on my knees more and before my God in intercessory prayer, pouring out my soul for lost souls all around me. How I should have turned off the television and turned my face to the wall and agonized there over my own wickedness in the community. But that time is lost.

I remember Adrian Rogers saying something about his predecessor R.G. Lee. Dr. Lee was an old man, still active in itinerant preaching ministry, and Adrian Rogers asked him where he got all his energy. R.G. Lee replied, I'm living off the dividends of a well-spent life.

And when I think about that, I think about my own life and how I've lived it, how I've wasted a good part of it. For now, I'm an old man myself, and I think about all the regrets I have, all the mistakes I've made, all the opportunities I lost, and I squandered away, and I shake my head in disbelief. If I could do it all over again, I'd sure do it all differently, but only get one chance in my generation, and then I'm gone as all dust returns to the earth because I only have one life.

Years ago, I knew my business life was coming to a close when I was out having lunch with my business partner at his private country club. He was a man who came from money, but he wasn't satisfied with what he had. He wanted more money, and he was telling me that day how much money he wanted to make that year, and then he looked at me across the table and said, Do you know what I want written on my tombstone? Three words, win, win, win, and I went home that day and told my wife what he had said, how he wanted win, win, win on his tombstone, and I told my wife, I said, Do you know what I want written on my gravestone? Only one life will soon be past.

Only what's done for Christ will last, and it's true, friends. We only have one life, and how we live it will impact eternity one way or another. When I think about all the hours I wasted on golf courses, chasing a white ball around, I was addicted to the game of golf.

I played it five times a week. One day, God in his mercy revealed to me what golf stood for in my life. G-O-L-F, golden opportunities, lost forever.

Squandered away for what? The only things that matter are things that count for eternity. In 2 Corinthians, we read, For other foundation can no man lay other than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus. 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 as by fire. When we stand before Christ at the beam of seed for believers, and he reviews our life, when he rolls out that blueprint of our life before us, will he say, just according to plan? When we stand before him, who has eyes of fire, and he opens the books of our life, and reads the things that are there according to our works, will we stand there with the gold, silver, and precious stones of a life live for him, reflect in his glory, or will we hang our heads in shame as we stand there knee-deep in the ashes of a wasted life, and then bend down to scoop up those ashes and press them into his nail-pierced hands? Only one life will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last. I remember that time in my life, friends, years ago, when I was a successful businessman. I was pouring myself into my career and still trying to serve God at the same time, and I was plum worn out.

It was two o'clock in the morning, and I couldn't sleep. In fact, I felt like I was dying. I was sweating profusely, and I had trouble breathing, and I managed to get out of bed and go down the hall to my study where I slumped in a chair before my open Bible, and I prayed.

I told God I was tired. I was worn out and weary, and the world was upon my shoulders, and I was ready to come home to him, and I heard a voice ask me a question, not an audible voice, but a voice nonetheless. The question was, what do you do for a living? I answered, investments, and he said, I have an investment in you, and I will receive the dividends from my investment, and it's true, friends.

We should be on the full stretch for God in a life lived for him. We should be full of him, but instead of being full of the Holy Ghost, we're full of covetousness and wickedness and lasciviousness and lewdness and full of pride and boastfulness. Why have we squandered the resources God has entrusted to us? Why did we do more for him and the gospel but shall not the Christ who bled for us and died for us not deserve to receive the dividends from his investment in us? That cross had his blood splattered all over it.

Christ held nothing back at Calvary. How can we hold anything back from him? I used to disciple men. I would have them come to my home at 6 a.m. on Fridays and at 7 p.m. on Tuesday evenings.

I spent years training up disciples as I poured my life into them. Paul told Timothy, in the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. But I stopped discipling men because those men failed to go out and disciple other men.

I learned that the best of men are only men at best. Why don't we do more for Christ and our generation? Why do we choose to live unto ourselves? All that really matters are the things that have eternal worth. I must fill my thoughts with the Christ who loved me and gave himself for me.

I must relinquish all I am and all I have for my risen Lord who sits at the right hand of the Father who made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

He is Lord. He is a risen Lord. Should not I bow in reverence before him? Only one life will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last. No time lost should be my life's motto. No time lost should be my aim.

I want to live my life on the full stretch for my God who bled and died for me. I want my days to be so full of fire for him that my very shadow scorches the ground. I want the rest of my days to burn with a consuming flame like the following men.

The Apostle Paul, Luther, Wesley, Whitefield, Knox, Edwards, Finney, and Moody each shared a common denominator of fire in their belly. But they were each so eaten up with the gospel and thirsty for Christ and filled with the Holy Ghost. They could not stand idly by while others perished.

They saw nothing but eternity and worshiped the Holy God and served a risen Christ living not for earth nor its gains but living only for heaven and its rewards. When they preached they linked the devil with sin and the cross with salvation. They preached hell and its fire and Christ and him crucified.

Not one of them feared king, queen, or pope and not one of them sought the compliments of man.