I am both blessed by the Lord and old enough to realize the futility of life, the knowledge that any man or woman alive who is not living a life devoted to Jesus Christ is engaged in a useless existence. It may seem right in his own eyes as the proverb says, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts,” (Prov. 21:2) but the only purpose their lives serve is one of self, for the continuation of self in all its venues. The man who is devoted to family, to the concerns of this world, to pleasure, power and position, is not devoted to the service of the Lord, but to an existence that does not place our Lord first, and that is not the life that holds any meaning, it is fruitless and futile.
This fact lies not only in the revelation that within just a few short years after our demise we will be forgotten, nothing but a fading memory as the world continues to turn, but also in that those deeds we have accomplished, the words we have spoken, will be just as we were, as the dew in the morning. (Hosea 13:3) It is a hard task that has been placed before the children of God, to inform the lost not only of their sins and the need for repentance, the offer of salvation that comes from Christ, but to tell them that without Christ they are serving only those things that will not last, and thereby their lives have no more meaning than the temporary, that which will be forgotten. To see the look on a man’s face, a man who has devoted his entire life to his trade, earned accolades and rewards, raised a family in, of, and for the world only, that all that he has done, all he has accomplished has been and will be to no avail, is difficult to say the least. Nevertheless, it is the truth, everything under the sun is vanity and vexation of spirit. (Eccl. 1:17)
The life the lost lead is not always what they would choose if given a choice, but the demands the world places upon them must be met, they have no other choice for they know no other master, they are left with only one option, serve or cease to exist. In this striving and turmoil they seek out what pleasures they can garner, those breaks from the continuous pursuit of their continuing existence, those moments in time when they are able to reap, if only a few moments, what they have sown. A life of hard work and savings bring a few short years of rest, the burden of the daily grind is replaced with a moment of leisure, but in the repose, they begin to see little value to their existence, the world they served continues to move forward, and they have become unable to keep up with it, they are being left behind, they are becoming useless to it. To be able to understand these truths by those of the world that generally only the very aged have come to comprehend is to be able to debate within oneself the true meaning of our existence, and this is the man that will listen as we speak to them about the reason for our existence.
To know that all we have done in this life will come to naught, that it will serve no eternal purpose, is to begin to seek for more, and this is a man that will listen and begin to contemplate the reason for his existence, the purpose for his life. “Call ye upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6) When are the lost the closest they will ever be to our Lord my friends? When they are listening to the words that come from the heart and lips of one of His children, one of the servants of Jesus Christ. Everyone we meet we have been prepared to meet, there are no such things as luck, chance or coincidences, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) And if for our good, then their benefit.
Your lost friends and family who only see the part of you that still serves the world will never see Christ in you unless you present them to Him, will never understand that there is more, that there is a purpose for each of us outside of what we see every day. Without the word of God my friends, they will never know the will of God for them, the lost know deep inside of them that their existence is futile, that it has not served an eternal value, for He has placed eternity in their hearts. (Eccl. 3:11) It is perhaps the strongest deceit of our adversary, that our lives have meaning outside of God, that we are useful, necessary cogs in the great machine, no matter how small or large our part in it is. “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (Gen. 11:7)
We all retain within us, every human being that has ever lived, a language of the heart, the voice, as it were, of God Almighty calling us to repentance, calling us to submit to the authority of the Sovereign Lord, but we have hardened our own hearts, we have believed the lie that our existence, our actions, deeds and words can have value without the Lord God, we have said “My will, not thine.” It is not the commandments of God, not the fear of His omnipotent power, not even the fear of eternal fire that draws a man to Christ, it is the Father, (John 6:44) and it is always done in love. “Say unto them, As I live, saith the LORD God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11) It is the love that He has for us that shows us our lives can have meaning beyond the temporal, that when our time is completed here it will have been used for an eternal purpose, it is His love for us that gives value to our lives, and the purpose of our lives increases exponentially when we realize that we have done absolutely nothing to deserve that love.
The sacrifice that was done for us, the price that our Lord paid for us on the cross is incalculable, no greater price has ever been paid or ever will be paid. This is the reason for a man’s life, this is what gives our lives purpose, to know that Almighty God Himself gave His only Son for us, no greater knowledge can man attain to. They will hate you for telling them that outside of Christ their lives have served no purpose, that they will be forgotten with the passage of time, that their names will be remembered no more, (Psalm 109:13) but if the Lord has given them ears to hear in these moments, your responsibility to them, and to our Lord, will be complete, the choice, as it was for all of us, is now up to them.
The truth cannot be altered, Jesus Christ is the only way, the truth, and the life, (John 14:6) they must be told the truth, and we have been commanded to be the ones to do so. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)