19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
-- Matthew 6:19-21

Each of us, in one way or another, looks for items with lasting value. However, what some might consider as valuable may surprise you. For example, I once read that Napoleon’s toothbrush sold for $21,000, Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ fake pearls sold for $211,500, and Jack Kennedy’s golf clubs sold for $772,500.¹ Obviously, those who paid such a high price for these articles thought they might hold some lasting value. Granted, they might for a while. But in the eternal view, their value, like that of cars and computers, will depreciate with time.

According to Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6:19-21, if you want to see if something is truly going to have lasting value, then look at it through the eyeglass of heaven and ask yourself this question, “Will this still be valuable in heaven?”

Missionary to Pakistan Warren Webster must have asked himself this question. After serving fifteen years in Pakistan, he shared the following at a missionary conference. Webster said,

If I had my life to live over again, I would live it to change the lives of other people, because you have not changed anything until you’ve changed the lives of people.²

According to Webster, the one item of truly lasting value is the value of influence—changing the lives of others. Abel would agree. The murdered son of Adam and Eve lived such a life that Hebrews 11:4 says though he was dead, the influence of his life could still speak.

In some small way, we all would like to think that after we die, like Abel, our lives would still have something to say, that through our lives others would still be changed. We would like to think that because we lived godly lives our lives would have lasting influence. According to the Bible, here is how it is possible.

Being Influenced

1 Corinthians 15:33-34 announces this timeless truth: “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’” The principle is simple. We are all influenced by the company that we keep. Therefore, if you want your life to have a lasting influence, you need to be influenced by someone whose life has a lasting influence. That someone is Jesus Christ. Your life can have lasting influence by having the Spirit of Jesus Christ live within you.

When you surrender your life to Christ, the very Spirit of Jesus comes to live within you. John 14-16 promises that you then receive the lasting influence of His encouragement, teaching, and leadership. It is as though you have a resident tutor shaping your character, thoughts, decision, and actions. You have the Spirit of Jesus in you providing a lasting influence to you and through you, if you will let Him.

When pastor and author Bill Hybels attended his twenty-fifth high school reunion, he was shocked. He wrote,

I was amazed how many vibrant, optimistic, and enthusiastic seventeen and eighteen year olds had somehow stumbled into a world of multiple divorces, financial calamities, family estrangement, and vocational nightmares before they had reached the age of forty-five.³

High school graduates remove their caps and gowns and think their lives are going to make a lasting difference. But this was not the kind of difference they expected to make. What happened? Either they never invited Jesus into their lives to be their resident tutor, or they did, but would not listen to His influence.

What do you need to do so your life will have a lasting influence? Do you need to invite Jesus into your life to become your resident tutor? If you have already done that, do you need to pray that you will listen to Him? The Apostle Paul prays such a prayer for the Christians in Ephesus. In Ephesians 3:16-19, Paul writes,

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Twice Paul writes “I pray” and both prayers have the same end, that the believers would experience the fullness or lasting influence of God. Furthermore, both prayers provide the same means to this end. He prays that the believers would know the power of God by grasping the scope and depth of God’s love for them.

If we would also pray to know the scope and depth of God’s love for us, it too would have a lasting influence upon us and through us. Here is how. Realizing God’s love for us has a lasting influence on our

• Sense of Security – Children have always lived healthier, happier lives when secure in their parents’ love. This will be true for us as God’s children.
• Sense of Confidence – Secured in God’s love, we will live and love with confidence. Our relationship with God directly affects our relationships with others.
• Sense of Perspective – Secured in God’s love, we should not look at life with glasses tinted by distrust or hate. We should look at life and others the way Jesus looks at us.
• Sense of Responsibility – Children of loving parents, for the most, have a sense of responsibility. They want to give their children the love given to them. God’s children, for the most, have the same sense of responsibility. Christ has had a lasting, loving influence on us. Thus, we want to have that same lasting loving influence on others.

Your life will never be a lasting influence unless you allow the greatness of God to influence you. This means inviting Jesus into your life, understanding His love, listening to His voice, and letting Him be the tutor within you. Your life will be a lasting influence if you continually keep company with the One whose life has left the ultimate lasting influence. Your life will be a lasting influence when you let Jesus Christ influence you.

Living Influenced

When you let Jesus have a lasting influence in your life, then your life should naturally attract and have a lasting influence on others. A life of lasting influence attracts others. By watching you, others should want to be with you and be like you.

Our early presidents understood this. The homes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were built with guests in mind. Mount Vernon, Washington’s home place, would feed and house thousands of guests each year. Monticello, Jefferson’s home, had a museum-like foyer so the guests could be amused and entertained while they waited their turn to see him. Both men lived such influential lives that people wanted to be in their company.

Jesus said that godliness will be attractive and will have lasting value. He said in Matthew 5:14-16,

14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

A life of godliness attracts others and will have lasting influence. Therefore to live a life of godliness and to have lasting influence, you must monitor what you don’t do as well as what you do. Lasting influence requires living a life of abstinence and action.

Influence Through Abstinence
1 Peter 2:11-12 says that a life of lasting influence is achieved through “abstinence.” Peter wrote,

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Abstinence, as a way of life, has received a great deal of negative press, particularly in the present push for safe sex. For some reason, our society says it’s all right to “Just Say No” to drugs, but unreasonable to “Just Say No” to sex before marriage. Why? Because of the times in which we live. Peter said that we Christians are “strangers” in the world. “Strangers” literally means “neighbors to pagans.”

The majority of people we live and work with have neither the strength nor desire to say no to actions that are ungodly. So as the war within rages over what’s right and wrong, our neighbors in life surrender to what’s wrong more times than they surrender to what’s right. As Christians, we diminish our lasting influence when we start following their lead rather than God’s. On the other hand, we build our lasting influence when we say no to everything God would “Just Say No” to.

A grandfather passed the following lesson to his grandson. He said, “Boy, if you live like a skunk, people are going to catch wind of it.” I believe the same can be said for saints. If you live like a saint, people will catch wind of it. The difference between the two is the fragrance. Live a life without abstinence and you can stink it up with the world. Live your life with abstinence and you can have the aroma of God—the fragrance of a lasting influence.

Influence Through Action
The second way to maintain lasting influence is through our actions. Abstinence is refraining from what God wouldn’t do. Action is doing what God would do. Jesus taught this in Matthew 5:16 when He challenged us to “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Doing what God would do is appealing. It’s attractive. The adjective “good” describing “deeds” is the Greek word “kalos,” which means “attractive.” When we live a godly life with godly actions it attracts people to the greatness of God. When this is done consistently, our lives have a lasting influence on others.

Sometimes, however, we hesitate to live out godly actions because of bad experiences. I read of one minister who was walking down a row of fine old Victorian homes on a cold winter day. He noticed a young boy on the front porch of one of the homes. The boy was jumping up trying to push the doorbell. The old-fashioned doorbell was set high and remained a few inches beyond the boy’s jump and reach. Well, the minister felt sorry for the boy and thought he would perform a good deed. He walked up beside the boy and pushed the doorbell. Smiling, he looked down to the boy and said, “There, Son. Now what do we do?” To which the boy replied, “We run like crazy.”

Sadly, not every good deed or godly action is going to have the response we expect. You may find yourself standing alone on the porch of an agitated homeowner. You may find your ears scorched by the fiery language of someone to whom you just witnessed. You may feel the wind of a door shut in your face because you simply invited a child to church. Sometimes these negative experiences cause us to grow tired of doing good. Yet, remember Paul’s encouragement in Galatians 6:9:

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Don’t let the bruising experiences keep you from abstaining from the bad, acting out the good, for it is the accumulation of your godly abstinence and actions that gives you lasting influence.

One of the arches in a magnificent cathedral in Europe possesses a sculptured face of magnificent beauty. It can only be seen once a year, when the sun is in a certain position. Then, its rays streaming through a small window, the sun illuminates the exquisite carving. According to legend, when the cathedral was being built, an old man begged permission to work on the great church. He had been a well-known artist, but his trembling hands and failing eyesight caused the architect to fear he would mar the over-all work. Out of respect for his age and reputation, the architect allowed him to work on the church, but only in a small area hidden in the shadows of the vaulted ceiling, thinking no one would see his work. For months the aged artist strained as he climbed his way up to the platform to work. One day, he insisted on making one more climb to make some finishing touches. When he failed to come down that night, worried workers climbed to check on him. They found the artist dead, with his chisel still in his hand, staring lifelessly at his work. To this day, the work remains a lasting influence on all who see it.

Why Stay At It?

You may feel like the artist. You continue to give your best at saying no when God says no, and saying yes when God says yes. Each day you chisel at the work of your life to produce a life of lasting beauty or influential appeal. But sometimes you wonder, “Who notices?” Sometimes you think, “Why continue?” Let me leave you with two reasons to continue abstaining and acting as God would, why you should strive for a life of lasting influence.

Remember All God Has Done For You
Memory is a good motivator. The memory of being oppressed can produce revenge. Revenge can be an endless supply of fuel for staying at the wrong task. On the other hand, the memory of being rescued or cared for can produce appreciation. Appreciation can also be an endless supply of fuel for accomplishing the right task. Peter explains this endless fuel of appreciation in 1 Peter 2:9-10:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

You were once a person without God. You were without His acceptance, His purpose, and His forgiveness. You never fully understood the scope and depth of His love. But once you open your life to Jesus Christ, you have all of these and more. You have in you the lasting influence of the greatness of God as seen in the person of Jesus Christ. This is worth enjoying and modeling. Furthermore, there is always the reminder that God is watching and you wouldn’t want to do anything to disappoint Him.

After achieving greatness in the NBA, Michael Jordan returned to North Carolina to see Coach Dean Smith and watch his alma mater play basketball. Pulling into Chapel Hill, he found the parking lot was full except for some handicap spaces. His friend suggested that Jordan use one, but Jordan replied, “Oh, no, I couldn’t do that. If Coach Smith ever knew I had parked in a handicapped parking zone, I wouldn’t be able to face him.”⁴ The memory of his coach’s character kept Jordan from doing what he shouldn’t, and doing what he should. The same will happen when we remember the character of God. It will have a lasting influence on what we do and don’t do, which will cause our lives to have a lasting influence on others.

Reflect The Greatness Of God Through You
Once more, listen to Matthew 5:16 and hear the second reason to continue a life of lasting influence and appeal.

“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

This is the first time in the New Testament that God is referred to as “Father.” The verse says that by living life as He would we can show others the way He is. The best reason to maintain your lasting beauty is so others can see the greatness of God through you.

We often confuse great accomplishments with lasting greatness. But that is not always the case. Paul Harvey once told of a twenty-one foot metal sculpture in San Jose, California, that was mistakenly destroyed. Workmen with a bulldozer thought it was junk so they smashed it and removed it. Apparently, others were not too impressed with this work of art because it took the city one year to notice it was missing.⁴

When you allow the Spirit of Jesus Christ to live within you and through you, people will notice. When you allow Jesus’ lasting influence on you to become your lasting influence on others, your life’s work will never be destroyed or removed. It will last forever, for lives influenced by Jesus Christ are the treasures in heaven that last.

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[1]Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998), 300.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Bill Hybels, The God You’re Looking For, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997), 146.
[4] Steve May, The Story File (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2000), 170.
[5] Paul Harvey, Jr. ed., Paul Harvey’s For What It’s Worth (New York: Bantam Books, 1991), 23.