Wasting Time

Wasting Time



John Maxwell, in his book “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect”, relates this story.

“President Abraham Lincoln, an incredible communicator, was known during the Civil War to attend a church not far from the White House on Wednesday nights. The preacher, Dr. Gurley, allowed the president to sit in the pastor’s study with the door open to the chapel so he could listen to the sermon without having to interact with the crowd.

One Wednesday evening as Lincoln and a companion walked back to the White House after the sermon, the president’s companion asked, “What did you think of tonight’s sermon?”

“Well,” Lincoln responded, “it was brilliantly conceived, biblical, relevant, and well presented.”

“So, it was a great sermon?”

“No,” Lincoln replied. “It failed. It failed because Dr. Gurley did not ask us to do something great.”

It’s worth remembering that we are dealing in the most significant of arenas. That the 20-40 minutes you stand before God’s People with the open Word in your hand and a message on your heart are multiplied by the number in the audience and that it is not man’s time you are wasting but God’s. We do not preach nice little sermons to nice little Christians in nice little buildings. “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

Challenge your audience to be more for the Master, to do commit more to His Cause, to sacrifice greater in His Service.

May it ring in our ears: “…we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Ultimately Lincoln was right on this one. Ask your audience to do something great! Anything less is a waste of God’s Time.