Pouring out your life before a great God! Part 1

“POURING OUT YOUR LIFE BEFORE A GREAT GOD”

2 Tim 4:6 As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near.

2 Tim 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.

2 Tim 4:8 And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of His return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to His appearing.

INTRODUCTION

You can tell a lot about people by what they choose to put on their own tombstone.

Thomas Jefferson His self-composed headstone declares that he was the author of the Declaration of Independence and founder of the University of Virginia but doesn’t even mention that he had been the third President of the United States.

Daniel Webster’s headstone has just five words: “The Gospel - A divine reality.” Those words speak volumes about his priority.

Winston Churchill’s reads, “I am ready to meet my maker. Whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”

Not all epitaphs communicate faith. The tombstone of author Robert Keats reads, “Life is a jest and all things show it. I thought so once but now I know it.”

In Crafton Vermont, there is a tombstone that reads, “Gone home below.”

I like one preacher’s epitaph much better. It reads simply, “Gone to another meeting.” My favorite epitaph is, “Here lies Solomon Pease. Pease is not, here only the pod. Pease shelled out and went home to God.”

If you were going to write your own epitaph what would it say? How would you sum up your life in a sentence? “Faithful unto death”? “My family came first.” “He cared.” “She shopped until she dropped”? I used to think I wanted my epitaph to read, “He preached the truth in love.” But in studying for this sermon I’ve changed my mind.

The tombstone of the Apostle Paul could read, “Poured out liked a drink offering.” When he came to the end of his life and looked back he summed up his journey by writing: “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure “(2 Timothy 4:6).

Paul was referring to Exodus 29:40 where God’s people were commanded to pour fermented wine over the grain offering and the meat offering. As that sacrifice burned it presented an aroma that was pleasing to God. There was one significant difference between the drink offering and the meat offering. After sacrificing an animal, a portion of the remaining meat could be eaten. (It had some benefit for the priests.)

But once a drink offering was poured out, there was no retrieving it from the ground. There was no physical benefit to the presenter. The drink offering was a demonstration to God that they were totally giving up something of value to Him, with no intent of ever recovering it.

When the Apostle Paul came to the end of his life and looked back he wrote, “My life is poured out like a drink offering to God.” That’s a legacy that all of us who want our lives to count for the Lord Jesus would do well to emulate. We’re inclined to let our lives drip out, little by little, while retaining a safe amount for our own consumption. But our divine challenge is to take our selfish ambitions, our personal pride, our most vital energies and, like Mary’s alabaster jar of expensive perfume, pour them out with reckless abandon in sacrifice to Him.

If we’re willing to passionately pour out our most precious treasures as a drink offering, then our great God promises to honor our ministries and reward our efforts in the end. Jesus assured us, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:25). The Apostle Paul was Exhibit A of that truth.

He poured out his personal ambitions as a drink offering to God. If you had met Paul prior to his conversion I don’t think you would have liked him much. He wasn’t the kind of guy you’d want to take a long trip with or be assigned to as a roommate for a year. He was highly ambitious, egotistical, radical, and ruthless. He wrote in Galatians 1:13-14: “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”

How would you like your new freshman roommate to say, “I was captain of the National Bible Bowl Championship Team. I was Valedictorian of my high school, leading scorer on the basketball team, and my dad is President of the College. Who are you?” That’s not the person you were praying for as a roommate.

Paul wrote in Philippians 3: 4- 6: “…If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.”

Paul was a driven, type A personality. He had all the credentials to be a rapidly rising superstar in the Jewish political arena. (He could have been the Barack Obama of his day.) But he gave up his personal ambitions when He met Jesus. He said, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3: 7-8).

Paul was never going to be a member of the Sanhedrin. He would never get to wear the phylacteries of power and parade in front of adoring crowds. His ambitions weren’t put on hold temporarily; he poured them out like a drink offering because serving a great God mattered more than his personal goals.

There are people today who pour out their personal ambitions as a drink offering for Jesus Christ. There are Bible College students here who have given up appointments to military academies, athletic scholarships, and music contracts to study for Christian ministry.

But it has been my observation that some of the most spiritual, sacrificial believers are not behind the pulpits, but sitting in the pews. There are thrilling accounts of Christians who get so enamored with Christ they pour out their life-long ambitions for Him.

Tony Dungee, the coach of The Indianapolis Colts® has. Following the victory that sent the Colts® into the Super Bowl for the first time ever he testified before a national TV audience, “All the credit for what has happened to me goes to the Lord.” That bold testimony probably makes many in the media uncomfortable and may eliminate some lucrative endorsements. But Tony Dungee said the same things when he coached in Tampa and got fired. He has consistently poured out his ambitions to bring honor to Christ more than self.

Chris Strickland has. Chris is my favorite tenor singer. He has been offered positions with some of the best-known gospel quartets in the nation. He’s turned them down and works at an unglamorous job because he’s seen too many professional singers lose their families.

Suzie Snyder has. Suzie is a physician with such a keen mind that she is board certified in both internal medicine and pediatrics. I met Suzie, not in a plush, suburban home in the States but on a mission trip to Kenya. Suzie and her husband David, a business administrator, have operated a medical mission in Massai land for over a decade. They live miles from electricity and modern conveniences. In that remote place, they raise their children, minister to the needy, and try to bring Christ to those who need Him so desperately. The world doesn’t understand why. But they are pouring out their ambitions as a drink offering to a great God.

Charlie Vittitow has. Charlie leaves his successful dental practice several months out of each year and does medical mission work in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and other third world Muslim countries that are dangerous destinations. Charlie is not living the safe, comfortable life style of many of his peers. He’s pouring out his life as a drink offering to a great God.

Bob and Kathy Drane have. Bob is a member of the Master’s Men and a very talented interior decorator. The Dranes had a good life but on a short-term mission trip to Ukraine, Kathy and Bob fell in love with an orphan girl and went against reasoned judgment to adopt her and bring her to America—their second child. Bob and Kathy were 48 and 46 years old at the time. That compassionate effort turned into a series of incredible events that led the Dranes to institute an adoption pipeline into the Ukraine that has resulted in an organization called, “Hopeful Hearts,” which has helped Christian couples adopt 186 babies. Now Bob has resigned his business and is dedicating his life full-time to working for SOZO, an international mission organization. Bob and Kathy will tell you they have never been more fulfilled as they pour out their lives to a great God.

I got an incredible phone call last month. A representative of the National Christian Foundation said, “A Christian businessman has donated $150,000 anonymously in honor of your dad and has designated you as the one to distribute the funds. I got so choked up I couldn’t speak for an entire minute.

My dad was a wonderful Christian, but a very humble man. He was the 17th of 18 children. His mom died when he was three, his dad was an alcoholic and he was passed from one older sister to another. But he met my mom and became a Christian and poured out his life like a drink offering to Christ. For thirty five years he was a blue-collar factory worker who skimped to provide for his wife and six children. But he tithed every paycheck and served as an elder in the church.

When an unscrupulous preacher skipped town, leaving a lot of unpaid bills, my dad went to the bank and borrowed $2500 to pay off the preacher’s bills so the church wouldn’t have a bad reputation in town. Then he took a second job, working in a sawmill three hours a night to pay off the loan.

My mother and dad lived their whole lives giving up self for others. A few years ago my sister wrote inviting the entire family to come to her house for Thanksgiving. She said, there’s not enough room in the driveway for all the cars and we’re not allowed to park on the street, so if the driveway is full when you arrive, drive a half block down the street and park at the grade school.

We arrived at 11:30, no one in the driveway. We thought we were the first ones there. We carried in our casserole and there in the living room sat my mom and dad. I said, “Where’s your car? They said, “Oh we parked down at the grade school and walked so those who came later wouldn’t have to.” (Isn’t that sickening? So I went back out and drove my car down to the school. But that’s what is meant by pouring out our lives as drink offerings for Christ. We consider other people more highly than ourselves in little, every day decisions.

My dad died with very little money twelve years ago. Now an anonymous donor gave $150,000 in his name to be given away to Christian causes. I really hesitate to tell that to this crowd representing so many deserving missions! So lest I get to be overly popular at the end of this message, let me hasten to add, my dad had three parachurch causes that I’ve already determined should be the recipients.

But there’s a businessman out there whom I cannot name, who is pouring out his ambition to make money as a drink offering to God. May his tribe increase!

Paul not only poured out his personal ambitions, he also poured out his intellectual pride. Paul was one of the most brilliant men who ever lived. He was a native of Tarsus, a city renown for its elite educational system. Paul went to the best of schools and later studied under Gamaliel, the most esteemed professor of his era. Paul was a prolific writer. He wrote half the New Testament—he was the C.S. Lewis, the Charles Colson of his day.

Yet he gave up seeking to impress his intellectual peers and focused on communicating the basics of the gospel with simplicity. God had humbled him on the Damascus Road and he had to admit, as smart as he was, he was dead wrong about Jesus.

When he visited the sophisticated, multicultural city of Corinth he said, “…I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).

When he went to the University town of Athens and began to preach the good news about Jesus’ resurrection, “A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, ‘What is this babbler trying to say?’" (Acts 17:18). It had to annoy Paul to be called a babbler by the Philosophers of Athens. But deep down inside they were impressed and invited him to the Aeropagus.

To be invited to speak to a meeting of the Aeropagus would be like being invited to give a series of lectures at Harvard or being invited to appear on “Meet the Press.” But Paul didn’t spend much time trying to impress them with his intellect or dazzle them with his creativity. He proclaimed the simple truth about the one true God who created them and sent a Messiah to save them and would one day judge them by the One He had raised from the dead.

“When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered,” (Acts 17:32) and only a small remnant believed. First Century scholars sneered at him—dismissed him as shallow for believing in the resurrection from the dead. Even some pseudo-intellectuals in the church, who didn’t have half of Paul’s education or experience, ridiculed him as weak and questioned his authority to lead.

Paul reasoned, Christ sent me, “to preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:17-18).

If you have a keen mind and are going to serve Jesus Christ you have to give up the desire to impress the intellectuals of our day. Christianity has intellectual credibility but it will never appeal to the prideful academic community for one reason—it is accepted, humbly by faith, not discovered by man’s wisdom. Creationism is scoffed at as unscientific. Divine revelation is ridiculed as naive. Absolute truth is considered anathema in postmodern circles.

Bill Maher, popular host of HBO specials, said, “I’m sorry—I don’t respect anyone who says they believe in God and the Bible. You were taught that as a child but you were also taught about the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus but you grew out of it.”

I had a breakfast with a city councilman who had studied for ministry at a liberal seminary. He had chosen another field, but he knew enough about the Bible to be dangerous. He wanted to know why I opposed a proposed ordinance that would offer equal housing to homosexuals. I tried to make it clear my opposition was not that I didn’t think homosexuals should be able to buy a house. They should and were able to do so under current legislation.

My opposition was that this was another piece of the gay agenda seeking to legitimize a life style that is called “perversion” in Scripture and is a threat to the stability of the American family. When I quoted a verse of Scripture he angrily challenged me, “Have you ever had an original thought in your life?” His accusation was, “You accept the Bible as the source of your authority. Don’t you think on your own?” I didn’t have a brilliant answer. But Christians have to be more interested in proclaiming the truth we’ve received than trying to impress with new ideas we’ve invented.

You may have an I.Q. of 160, have a PhD in systematic theology, and devote 20 years of your life to teaching the Bible, but you will never be accepted among the intellectual elite of our day. Even some in the church may scoff at your learning, not appreciate your credentials, and never compensate you fairly.

Pour out your pride anyway…because it’s not about you—it’s about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There are few servants more powerful than those who are brilliant but continue to humbly stay with the basics.

Dr. Lewis Foster came to our church to teach a series of lectures on “Between the Testaments.” Dr. Foster is about the smartest professor I ever had. He graduated at the top of his class from Harvard and Yale. He was considered one of the world’s leading authorities on Alexander the Great. He served on the translating team of the New International Version of the Bible. Yet he was a humble man and a man who poured out his life to communicate the truth of the cross.

This series of lectures that I asked him to do was his specialty and that night he was especially animated and dynamic. I noticed that my five-year old son on the front row was soaking it up. On the way home, I asked, “Rusty, how did you like that talk?” He said, “Dad, that was great! I liked it all. You know, Dad, I was thinking, maybe you should preach a little more like that. Even the little children could understand it.”

I was convicted, and that week I wrote down that the gospel is so simple that it can be communicated in one-syllable words. God made man and loved him. Man sinned and fell from God’s grace. But God in His great love sent His son to die for our sins. Then He raised Him from the dead. Now if we turn from our sins and trust His grace, He will cleanse our sin, set us free, and give us life that will not end.”

The Apostle Paul poured out his intellectual pride to communicate that truth, not with eloquent words or human wisdom, but with simplicity and power.

Paul also poured out his secondary interests like a drink offering. Have you ever wondered how Paul could accomplish so much in just one lifetime? He was about 30 years old when struck down on the road to Damascus. After that he spent almost a decade training in obscurity, probably re-reading the Scripture, developing spiritual maturity and compassion. He was about forty when he took his first missionary journey and he must have died in his mid sixties or so.

In that twenty-five year span he took four major missionary journeys that we know about, planted dozens of new churches, and revisited many. He had a three-year ministry in Ephesus and a lengthy stay in Corinth. He wrote half the New Testament by hand or by dictation. For two years he was in prison in Caesarea and there was another prolonged imprisonment in Rome. He accomplished all that without a cell phone, lap top, or minivan!

Paul apologetically described his personal sacrifice in 2 Corinthians 11:23b-28) like this, “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.”

There’s only one way to describe the life of Paul: totally focused, totally surrendered to Christ. He was willing to suffer hardships, go unmarried, and work part-time as a tentmaker to supplement his income. When a man says, “This one thing I do,” it’s amazing what can be accomplished in a lifetime. He advises us, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is” (Ephesians 5:15-17).

We make the most of our opportunities only when we pour out secondary concerns as a drink offering to God. A man from Ohio called me a few years ago and said, “Bob, your radio ministry has been such a blessing to me; I want to say thanks in a tangible way. Once a year I play Augusta National Golf Course where they host the Masters. I’d like to take you with me this year. Can you go? What a question! That’s every golfer’s dream! Great golfers have offered $15,000 to play and not been able to get on the course.

I said, “Sure I’d like to play. Let me check the date.” I checked it and my heart sank. I had agreed to deliver the commencement address for Portland Christian School that night. I could tell them I had to cancel…after all, there were only nine graduates. Surely they would understand. But I’d already sent in my topic titled, “A Time for Integrity.” What to do? I called the man in Ohio back and said, “This is killing me. But I can’t go. I’ve already got a speaking engagement—maybe some other time.”

Sometimes there are dramatic sacrifices of secondary interests that we are called upon to make, but they are rare. The real pouring out of our lives is usually daily, unnoticed decisions. My secretary had a plaque over her desk that read, “Great occasions to serve God come seldom. Little ones surround us daily.”

If I could pick out five turning points of my ministry, one would be the first day of my first church. I was the first full time preacher the church ever had. My wife left for her job at 7:30 a.m. It was Monday morning and there I sat at the breakfast table. The eighty people in the church were not accustomed to having a preacher in the community so they were not going to call or stop by. I could watch TV, read magazines, go to the drugstore and strike up a conversation…or even get up a golf game.

Somehow I realized I was forming disciplines that would stay with me a long time. So I determined that if I was not in the small study we had in the home by 8:00 a.m. I was late. I went into the study and began writing a sermon for the next Sunday. When in Bible College, preaching on the weekend, I prepared sermons in 3-4 hours, while sitting in class. So, by Wednesday of that first week I was finished. I had my Scripture, three point outline, and the illustrations. I decided to read some more and then include those ideas in the sermon. Within a few weeks I was writing a manuscript and then reading it aloud five times. That habit of spending every morning, five days a week, studying for a sermon for the coming week stayed with me for over forty years.

What little I contributed in ministry was not determined by what I did at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning—but 8:00 to noon ever day of the week. The most practical way that you can pour out your life as a drink offering to God is not in the dramatic sacrifices that come on occasion, but the little daily choices that go unnoticed by most and seem almost insignificant at the time.

Do you look for a better illustration to reinforce your point or do you accept the one that almost fits?

Do you play golf or spend the afternoon with your children?

Do you write the thank-you note by hand or just send a form letter?

Do you take time to make the eulogy personal or just do a canned funeral message? After all—only thirty people will be there.

Do you read a book that edifies or watch a television program that numbs the mind?

Do you leave home a few minutes early so you can greet people as they arrive at church or do you wait to leave home until the last minute?

Do you give that extra $50 a week to the special campaign or do you keep it for those extras you want for yourself?

Do you go visit the grieving family in the funeral home or just call them on the way to the movie?

Now I know life has to be balanced. There’s a place for golf, form letters, and movies. But the passion of life, the majority of our time, should be a pouring out of selfish desires for a Great God.

I have a great deal of respect for Johnson Bible College. It has a beautiful campus, academic excellence, an active, proud alumni, financial stability and has been experiencing phenomenal growth. There are a lot of reasons for that, but the primary reason is that Dr. David Eubanks and his wife Margaret have poured out their lives as a drink offering for the past 49 years for this school.

What could Dr. Eubanks have done if he had been selfish? Would he have been a wealthy investor? An esteemed University professor? A Governor of the State of Tennessee? A professional golfer? I know Margaret could have run a major hotel! But they poured out their lives every day as a drink offering. At the end we look back and see how God has blessed and we honor them.

“The test of a man’s devotion will come some other day. They love God most who are at their post when the crowds have gone away.”

The amazing thing is that when you pour out your personal ambitions, your intellectual pride, your secondary interests like a drink offering, God is so great that He rewards you many times over. Jesus promised, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29).

You sacrifice a music scholarship to come to Bible College and you wind up singing for more people or being more fulfilled than you ever would have if you’d gone to Nashville.

You give Jesus credit even though you get fired from the coaching job in Tampa and a decade later you win the Superbowl with the Indianapolis Colts®.

You pour out your personal ambitions and adopt a little baby at 46 years of age and God opens the windows of heaven and gives you 186 more children to channel to others and your life is more fulfilling than before.

You borrow $2500 anonymously to pay off the preacher’s bills and years later someone donates $150,000 in your honor.

You pour out the opportunity to play Augusta with a stranger and God arranges for you to play it twice with a friend.

You go into the study at 8:00 a.m. when no one sees you and years later a Bible College puts your name on a building.

You dedicate your life to building up a Bible College and forty years later you see the fruit of your labor and your students rise up to call you blessed.

For you, the real prize may not come until eternity when God will reward even the cup of cold water you’ve poured out in His name. Even if there was no promised reward, Jesus merits our complete self-sacrifice. On the night before He died Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). Jesus poured out his lifeblood for us. His complete sacrifice merits our very best gifts in return.

I used to think I wanted my epitaph to read, “He preached the truth in love.” But I now think a more appropriate epitaph for us all would be this phrase from 1 Timothy 1:14. It reads, “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly.”

Whatever talents God has entrusted to you, pour them out with reckless abandon on Him because our God is an awesome God.