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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/daniel-shutt/wasting-your-life-for-christ/
I'd like to ask you to turn in your Bible to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14. Our brother's ministry about being a servant has spoken to me, and I hope that this will be a suitable follow-up and an encouragement in that line.
Mark, chapter 14, and verse number 1. After two days, Mark 14 and 1, was the feast of the Passover and of unleavened bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him, that is, the Lord Jesus, by craft and put him to death.
But they said, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. And this is a short story that I want to read now. Verse 3. And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious.
And she broke the box and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste of ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than 300 pence.
My understanding is that 300 pence might likely be a year's wage. So if you want to think of it in modern terms, I'll just pick a round number. Imagine this to be $50 ,000, that this woman in one extravagant act of self-sacrifice poured on the head of the Lord Jesus.
It might have been sold for more than 300 pence and been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, let her alone. Why trouble ye her? For she hath wrought a good work on me. Some translations say, she hath done a beautiful thing to me.
I really like that. I hope that's what it really means. She has done a beautiful thing to me. For ye have the poor with you always. And whensoever ye will, ye may do them good. But me, ye have not always.
She hath done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body to the burial. Verily, I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.
And I want to read verses 10 and 11, because the Holy Spirit has bracketed this story with this piece of information. And Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went unto the chief priests to betray him unto them.
And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money. And you know the money they promised, 30 pieces of silver. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him. In our environmentally conscious world, one of the great sins of our day, and I put the word sins in large brackets, is the idea of waste.
We have to be so careful now. How many trash cans do you have lined up beside your house? Paper and plastic and tin and old magazines and every other sort of thing. And the entire emphasis of our society in many ways is on what can be recycled and reused and repurposed.
There's no one that would willingly or gladly take upon themselves the title of a waster. Someone who threw away something that was valuable. I have come with a different message today because I want to tell you from this little story that what man calls waste, God saw of great worth.
And what to them, and by the way, I don't believe for a minute that they thought that that 300 pence should have really been spent to the poor. That was a very, very convenient excuse out of their own selfishness and self-interest.
But nonetheless, the point that the Lord Jesus is making is that what is wasted on him is of what is of true worth in the presence of God. I want to ask all of us today if we are willing to waste our lives for the Lord Jesus.
Now, I know that some of you have read books like books by John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life. And I understand the point of that book. Don't throw away your life for things that are unworthy of the kingdom of God.
And that is certainly one way that we might approach it. Don't waste your life. You know, we sing to the unbelievers sometimes, room for business, room for pleasure. But for Christ the crucified, not a place that he can enter in the heart for which he died.
My friends back in Detroit know that I think we ought to sing that at ministry meetings sometimes. Because far too often, we are found wasting our lives on unworthy things. But I want to take up the word waste the way it's taken up in this chapter.
And I want to challenge all of our hearts today. Would we be willing in extravagant, sacrificial love for Christ, throw everything at his feet? And like this woman, without regard for the value that men placed upon it, be willing to give everything for him?
Many years ago, back on the East Coast, I have spent the last week trying to remember who it was. And it still hasn't popped into my mind. So if I haven't gotten to any of you, and you know the answer to this, you can see me after the meeting.
But there was a dear brother, I think it might have been Caesar Patrizio, who was preaching in the open air, preaching the gospel. And there was a man that was walking by, and he shouted something at him.
He shouted this, you are wasting your life. If it was Mr. Patrizio, he didn't even miss a beat. He said, yes, and if I could do it all over again, I would waste it more. I want to just think with you a little today about what I can waste for the Lord Jesus.
I'd like to think, first of all, personally about the great importance of wasting my life. I want to ask you to turn to a text. Sometimes we read things at the beginning of a meeting, and they're forgotten.
By time we come to speak on them, I'm going to be a little different today. I'm going to read as I go along. I want you to read in Hebrews chapter 11 about a man named Moses. And I am so affected by this, because it really addresses some of the attitudes and the needs of my own heart.
Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 24, by faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasure in Egypt.
For he had respect unto the recompense of reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king as seeing him who is invisible. I want to take you back at least 3 ,500 years to a young man standing by the banks of the River Nile.
Around him were the symbols of the greatest empire in the world of that day, an empire that was known for its learning, for its erudition, for its power, for its intelligence. But there was a young man that day, and he did the unthinkable.
Born, I'll use that expression, born to great privilege as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. You know the whole story. I'm just using shorthand here. A man for whom no achievement, no pinnacle would have possibly been denied.
And there's a man who throws it all away for the reproach of Christ. I don't know what Pharaoh's daughter thought. I'm going to put words in her mouth. What a waste. I don't know what his fellows thought.
I'll put words in their mouths. What a waste. Maybe there's somebody here today, and maybe you look at this and you say, what a waste. But you know, isn't it interesting that 3 ,500 years later, like the woman whose alabaster box was poured on the head of Jesus Christ, the name of Moses is remembered.
The sacrifice of Moses is revered. Why? He was a man who wasted all of his potential, as the world saw it, for the reproach of Christ. You know, there's an interesting little expression in 2 Corinthians chapter 8.
And I'm very fond of it. I might have taken this up as a text. But it comes from a message that, or at least a section where Paul is talking about giving. And he is thinking about the believers who had so sacrificially given to support him and to support the work of the gospel.
I'll encourage you to look up that little text, 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 5. It just says this. It says, ye first gave yourselves. You know what that reminds me? Reminds me of this. God isn't so interested in my stuff.
First of all, God wants me. You know, dear brother, dear sister, this will provoke a great crisis in the Christian life. I remember my wife came to me one time and she said, Dan, she said, I've written a new hymn.
I was shocked. Because my wife is very good at math and science. I'm the English major in the family. And I said, I'd like to hear your hymn. She said, well, it's not really a new hymn. It's an old hymn just in a new kind of way.
I said, what is it? She said, well, this is how I like to sing it. Room for business. No, no, I've got the wrong hymn. That's not what I'm thinking about. Oh, yes. Take my life and let it be. Some for God and some for me.
Why are you smiling? Because most of us live exactly like that. My dear brother Albert was speaking last week about the importance of consecration, the importance of putting all on the altar for God. Young man, young woman, here at this conference today, God isn't looking for your things.
He's looking for you. And God isn't looking for part of your things. God is looking for all of you. You know, there was a man who served the Lord a few years ago. His name was Jim Elliott. Many of you know the story.
I have people come to me all the time saying, what kind of books should I read? And by the way, I wasn't paid to do this, but make sure you get down and look at the books. I think this is one of the most excellent arrays of books that are available at any conference that I've ever been to.
And I tell you, I hope you make good use of it. But I will tell you that I was exposed early in my Christian life to the journals of Jim Elliott. And reading about this dear man who gave himself on the banks of the Kouroua River as he sought to carry the gospel to those people there, I learned a saying from Jim Elliott when I was a young Christian.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. I want to tell you, dear brother, dear sister, all that may be accumulated of Earth's accomplishments, all that may be accumulated of Earth's gains.
A man said one time, he said, never give your life for anything that ends when life does. Isn't that interesting? What does God want from me today? Brother Shadd has been telling us about the lowly pathway of a servant, a servant whose eye is not on himself and his own aggrandizement, whose eye, like Moses, was not on the pleasure of sin.
His eye was on the reproach of Christ as seeing him who is invisible. May God grant us today that we might sing from our hearts, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. And without reserve for self, without reserve for the thoughts and the opinions of others, that we might gladly waste all for the honor of this fragrant one.
I want to read another text with you. And I'm not going to be too long up here so you brethren can figure out how you'll fit in when I'm done, because I'm going to be very quick. I want you to read in 1 Thessalonians 2, because if we have thought about Moses, the man who gave everything for the invisible God, I want to think about a man who gave everything for the gospel.
1 Thessalonians then, chapter two, this is a chapter that I have been reading personally a great deal over the last few years, because it is a chapter that reminds me of the great responsibility of how we operate in the gospel.
The gospel is not merely about throwing a few invitations into the air and hoping they land on people's porches. And the gospel is not simply about standing up and giving a clever three points and then going home and doing whatever I want.
The gospel is something that is to take our whole life. And I want to read in 1 Thessalonians chapter two and verse number eight. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only.
I think this might be one of the most frightening lines in all the Bible, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember brethren, our labor and travail for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you.
We preached unto you the gospel of God. I'm not up here to give a message today about going into the Lord's work full time. But I want to tell you today about lives that could be wasted for the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
Lives that could be taken up in your school, in your work, in your home, in your community, souls that could be poured out for the good and for the blessing of others. You know, I'm not interested in gospel preaching as much as I am gospel work.
I had the great privilege of speaking at a going away party for our dear brother who's now in heaven, Mr. John Slabaugh when he moved from Ohio to Michigan. And I was very honored to be able or moved to Iowa here rather.
And I was very, very honored to be able to speak at that. And one of the things that I said about our dear brother, I had many series of gospel meetings with him as some of you also did. And I said, my great appreciation of brother John is not so much that I could speak of him as a gospel preacher, but I knew him as a gospel worker.
You know, that's something that God wants from every single one of us. You know, this is going to require a great sacrifice on our part. Listen to what Paul says, that laboring night and day, he works to impart the gospel to them.
You know, the gospel today is not exactly the same as it was 50 or a hundred years ago. And I've made this point a number of times. Some of you have heard me say it and I'm going to take the time to repeat it to you because I hope it will not be tedious to you.
You know, it used to be when life was simple, when people were not financially as well off as they are today, that a mere invitation to a gospel meeting was sufficient impetus to bring some folks out.
And I'm not here to argue that preaching the gospel was ever easy, that seeing people in was ever easy. I know far better than that. But you know, when people live in air conditioned houses with 800 cubic inch flat screen TVs and a cold soda at the end of their arm, it's not easy to get them to come to a sweaty gospel tent and hear a man shout at them about how they're going to die in their sins and be in hell.
It's a tough sell. I want to tell you what does work today. And God does still work today. Thank God for that. But people today come to gospel meetings because they are invited by people that they know and trust.
I don't know what you're like. I'll tell you what I'm like. If somebody said to me, Dan, come down to our little church and listen to a life-changing message, I'd say, well, you're number 400 today. I don't think I've got the time.
I'm not a joiner. I'm not an attender. I'm not a person that's interested in the latest fly-by-night philosophy. If somebody randomly asks me to go to something like that, I'm gonna try and get them off the doorstep as quickly as possible.
But if it's somebody I know, if it's someone whose life displays the sorts of things that I would love to see in my life, and if I trust them as a person of integrity, I might just listen and I might just go.
Dear brother, dear sister, you and I have a solemn responsibility today to use our time and our energies and our homes and all that God has placed in our hand that sinners might be wooed to the Lord Jesus.
It's gonna take a lot of work. It's gonna take a lot of time. It means that you may well spend hours with people that you would not naturally choose for your friends or your associates or your intimates.
And maybe it will be fellow Christians who say, do I dare say this? Why was this waste made? But I wanna tell you that the story of Christian testimony is about people who are willing to waste all. So that one soul could be saved.
Where am I at this morning? I'm in Iowa. What about a man named Mr. Goff who put up a little text, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. And one young farm boy, Charles Heeler, reads the text and is converted to God.
And that one farm boy, Mr. Heeler, tells a man named Mr. Herman about the gospel of Jesus Christ. You all ahead of me now? And Mr. Herman tells another farmer, his name was Oliver somebody. You can fill me in later.
And here we are today and just one small link in a chain. Maybe you don't approve of that text that was over Mr. Goff's washstand. Pretty tough stuff. Why was this waste made? Well, look at today and see the fruits of what was wasted for Jesus Christ.
I want to read one last little text in Philippians 2. I'm backing up through the New Testament, but I just have one last little point and then I'm going to sit down in just a couple of minutes. Philippians 2 and a little verse now from verse 25.
Paul is writing, "'Yet I supposed it seemed necessary "'to send unto you Epaphroditus, "'my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, "'but your messenger and he that ministered to my ones. "'For he longed after you all and was full of heaviness "'because he had heard that he had been sick.
"'For indeed he was sick, nigh unto death, "'but God had mercy on him and not on him only, "'but on me also lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. "'I sent him therefore the more carefully "'that when you see him again, "'you may rejoice that I may be less sorrowful.
"'Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness "'and hold such in reputation.'". Look at verse 30. "'Because for the work of Christ,' and I'm going to say this and this is how I'm going to deal with it.
"'This is for the sake of the work in the local assembly. "'He was nigh unto death, not regarding his life "'to supply your lack of service toward me.'". I think today that in this company, if there were men and women that would be willing to give themselves to waste their lives for Jesus Christ, there will never be an end of the avenues for service for him.
Pouring ourselves out, wasting ourselves for the gospel. Let me close with a little appeal for men and women who will waste their lives for the local assembly that bears the fragrant name of Christ. You know, there's a wonderful statement in 1 Corinthians 16 about the household of Stephanas.
The first fruits of Achaia. They addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. What do you have? You have people who wasted everything so that the assembly would be blessed. You know, the world does not understand what we do.
We give up every Sunday. We give up one seventh of our week for God. We still do that, right? I hope you do. I remember what I read many years ago that what you think about the Lord's day might well be the best reflection of what you think about the Lord.
And I'm not a legalist by any stretch of the imagination, but I fear that often we are becoming far too quick to simply take up earthly pursuits and other things on the day that for the child of God is called the Lord's day.
Why was this waste made? Why not do your shopping? Why not do all of the other things that your neighbors are doing? Sure, the lawn needs mowing. Sure, the eaves trough need to be cleaned. Sure, there are things that need to be done.
Why was this waste made? Tell you why. Because of love for the one who has saved us. What about the work of studying the scriptures? Let me speak really clearly right now. And if I offend you, I'll think of some way to apologize later, but not now.
You know, it's a sad thing when Bible readings and the preaching of the gospel become poor because of lack of preparation. May I tell you, there are people who come to me all the time and they say, well, I didn't get anything out of the Bible reading.
I've got a stock answer. What did you put into it? How did you prepare for it? How did you feed your own soul in the presence of God? Because after all, it's not about me. I know that's a great shock, but it isn't.
Dear brother, dear sister, being prepared for the meeting is gonna take time. And there may be people who see the light on in your study when normal people are going to sleep. And their response may be, why was this waste made?
I wanna tell you something, there's nothing wasted in it. I wanna tell you, I look around here at some of my fellow workers. And I'm just gonna say this, and it applies to many other people here too. I probably shouldn't even single out the preachers, but I admire what they know of the word of God.
I really do. There are brothers here that for 40 and 50 and 60 years, they have devoted themselves to the word of God. Why do they know what they do? Why are they able to bring out of the word of God such treasures for our hearts?
It wasn't because they were playing golf. I'm not against golf. It wasn't because they were fishing. I love fishing. But I wanna tell you something. There was something that was laid down so that something of true value could be taken up.
And so let me encourage you, go ahead, waste the Lord's day on Christ. Go ahead, waste the hours when your wife and children have gone to bed. Waste some time on the word of God. One more thing. You know, the work of shepherding God's people is a long and thankless task.
You know, it's not enough, dear brother, may I speak to elders and overseers who are among us? It is not enough to shake people's hands and say, hi, how are you? And receive in return the gospel hall lie, fine, thank you, and how are you?
Shepherding takes much more than that. Shepherding means that there are nights when we are going to weep with those who weep. It means sitting long watches with those who are sick. It means grappling spiritually with those who are away from God.
And yet, shepherd work is not always done in the glare of the spotlight. Far rather, and far often, it is done in the quiet places but none. But God can see. True shepherd work requires prayer where no one can see.
It requires sympathy. It requires time. And I just want to plead with all of us today that we might be willing to count earthly success as not. And personal time, it's not really for me after all. It's to be poured out for those who need the Savior.
And our earthly pursuits, things that appeal to me, things that I would love, things that I would naturally follow after, to be wasted for God's assembly. I was thinking of a verse before I got up, just thought of it when I was waking up this morning.
And I may be taking a little bit out of context. It's in 1 Peter, in the context of trials. But he's looking forward to the day when it is not the evaluation of the world who sees only waste in the Christian life.
This is what it says, that my life might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. There's somebody here that would waste their life for him. God grant that we may weigh our lives in the scales not of earthly acclaim, but in the scales of heavenly affection.
And for the Lord Jesus, pour out all that I am and have for the Savior who gave himself for me.