THE MAN GOD USES – CHAPTER XIII – Oswald J Smith

THE INVESTMENT OF LIFE

GOD has a plan for every life. He had a plan for Jeremiah’s life even before he saw the light of day. (Jer. 1:5). He has a plan for your life; He has one for mine. And because of this fact no one can be supremely happy until he has found God’s plan for his life. Are you ever discontented, despondent, or miserable? It may be that you have refused to accept His plan and have persisted in following one of your own. But you ask: “How am I to know God’s plan?” That I cannot answer. You must decide it for yourself. It may, however, by God’s help, be able to make it easier for you to reach a decision.

As a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ you have but one great aim, i.e. the advancement of God’s kingdom. As a Christian, I say, the interests of the kingdom of God become your main object in life. God’s work is of paramount importance. Everything else must take a secondary place. Jesus Christ never entrusted this work to the ministers alone; He has laid it upon every Christian man, upon every Christian woman. Each individual believer has his own particular part. God is depending upon you; He is depending upon me. He trusts us. If, then, our aim is to serve the kingdom of God, it necessarily follows that

SERVICE IS THE HIGHEST MOTIVE

Not dollars and cents, but service. The man who measures success in life by the standpoint of money has not caught the true meaning of success. There is another standard, vastly higher. Oh, that we might catch the vision of that standard! Let us listen to the warning voice of the Master Himself as He exclaims, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness, for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses” (Luke 12:15).

The majority of you who read this message are intending to spend your lives in the business world. You believe that in this way you can best serve the interests of the kingdom. Probably you are right. It is not for me to act as judge. All that I ask is that you invest your life in terms of service. In other words, if you can best serve God’s kingdom as a merchant, then be a merchant, as a lawyer, be a lawyer, as a stenographer, be a stenographer, as a doctor, then by all means be a doctor. God has so ordained it that money is necessary to carry on His work. It may be that He would have you assist in this capacity. But woe unto the man, and woe unto the woman who makes money the aim rather than the means, and piles it up for selfish purposes rather than using it for the glory of God I Beware lest you offer Him money when He is asking for life!

But possibly you are still young. Then to you I would speak especially, for there lies before you a great field of opportunity and responsibility, and you are just on the eve of choosing your life’s work. Oh, that I might guide you in your choice! So much depends upon your view of a successful career. You have a life to invest. You desire to invest it as God has planned you should. But the way seems dark. There are so many things that you might do that it seems extremely difficult to decide. Is there no help in such a crisis, no guiding star? I think there is. It seems to me that in the investment of life

THE PLACE OF GREATEST NEED HAS FIRST CLAIM

Do we need more businessmen today, or do we need more ministers, more lawyers or more foreign missionaries, more doctors in this country or more in China and India? Do we need more lady stenographers here, or more workers in the Far East? We are surely all agreed that the business world is not suffering as these other places are. I would turn your eyes to the fields that are pleading for workers because the need is greater there than anywhere else.

THE MINISTRY

Take, for instance, the Ministry. How great is the need here! Oh, young men, do you want a field of real service, a service that will yield a rich reward? Then turn to the Ministry. It needs you, and it may be that you need it. I know of no calling that gives quite as much joy. Nor have I ever been sorry that I chose the Ministry as my life’s work.

Why do you not become a minister of the Gospel? Perhaps that is God’s plan for your life. Is it because it has never occurred to you that you might? Do you look upon the Ministry as too high and sacred for you? Then remember that it is made up of common ordinary men just like yourself, who have responded to the Call of God. Or is it because you have been in the habit of measuring success by the standard of dollars and cents? I grant you that a minister can never become rich as a minister. But do you mean to tell me that D. L. Moody was not a success simply because he never became wealthy, that Charles H. Spurgeon’s life was a failure because he died a poor man? God help us to get rid of such a standard! Success can never be measured in dollars and cents, it can only be judged in terms of service. Or is the fault with your parents? Have they talked before you of making money until you have come to consider that as the chief aim of life? God help the parents who place stumbling blocks between their sons and the call of the Ministry!

I would that some of our city men might give themselves to this glorious work. Why is it that nearly all our ministers come from the country? We build large city churches and then go to the country to get men to fill the pulpits. And yet the country boy hasn’t one-half the advantages that the city boy enjoys. Most of our men in the city have known the church from their childhood. I seldom had an opportunity, living in the country, of even attending a church until I was sixteen, and yet God called me in my boyhood days to this, the greatest of all things. Does it not seem strange? Young men, I ask you to consider the Ministry before going into business.

THE MISSION FIELD

And now what of the foreign field? I almost hesitate to speak of it; but I must say a few words. And may God help me to say something that will reach every heart! I take up a book descriptive of the conditions existing in the non-Christian world, and my heart burns within me as I read of the terrible darkness. Two-thirds of the world still without Christ! Thousands dying every day who have never heard the name of Jesus. Africa, “the open sore of the world,” with her hundred and fifty millions calling for laborers! India, O poor India! The land of little widows and child-wives, with her three hundred million stretching out weary hands for the Light until she has grown so tired that she doesn’t care! And China, the fourth part of the world, absolutely helpless without Christ! O God, how long?

And yet the Savior’s last command was “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”⁹¹ Nineteen hundred years have rolled away, and we have not obeyed it yet. O young men, yes, and young women, too, for I speak to you as well, do you want a life of service and sacrifice, but also of untold joy, then I call upon you to respond to the cry that comes from over the seas. You haven’t a single talent that God cannot use out there.

If there is one excuse that is given more than another on the part of young women, it is this: “I am needed at home.” Or very frequently the mother will say: “Oh, we couldn’t possibly get along without her, we need her at home.” Listen I There comes a time when her hand is sought in marriage. You give her up. Somehow she is not needed at home any more, at least she can be spared and she goes away. What have you done? You have given her to an earthly bridegroom, and refused the Heavenly Bridegroom. Jesus, your Saviour—her Saviour—wooed and won her first. Then He tenderly asked her to follow Him. You answered: “No, Lord, I cannot spare her.” Later came the earthly bridegroom, and–well, you know the rest. I wonder what you will say when you meet Him! Do you remember that He said: “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me”? (Matt. 10:37). Young men and women, I call you this day to Christian service. I have only pointed out two great and needy fields, there are scores of others. The question resolves itself into this: Are you willing to accept God’s plan for your life? If so, you will invest your life in terms of service, and you will endeavor to find the place of greatest need. Jesus gave up all for us. Is there nothing we can give to Him? God had only one Son, and He made Him a missionary. Is there nothing we can do in return? He Himself has taught us what it means to be a true disciple when He says: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matt. 16:24-26).

Have you heard the Master’s Call? Will you go forsaking all? Millions still in sin and shame Ne’er have heard the Savior’s Name. Some may give and some may pray, But for you He calls to-day-Will you answer: “Here am I, “Or must Jesus pass you by?

Have you heard their bitter cry? Can you bear to see them die, Thousands who in darkest night Never yet have seen the light?

Soon ’twill be too late to go And your love for Jesus show; Oh, then quickly haste away Tarry not another day.

What if you refuse to go? Someone then will never know Of the Saviour kind and true And the blame will rest on you.

Will you, then, forsaking all, Gladly heed the Master’s Call, Answer quickly, “Lord, send me!” To the lands beyond the sea?

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91 Mark 16:15

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