WEBVTT

00:00:10.923 --> 00:00:12.863
I want to talk to you,

00:00:12.863 --> 00:00:15.024
young person.

00:00:15.024 --> 00:00:17.386
You've learned doctrines 
of sovereign grace.

00:00:17.386 --> 00:00:18.647
You read the Puritans.

00:00:18.647 --> 00:00:23.481
Congratulations.

00:00:26.011 --> 00:00:29.632
I will not lose sleep tonight

00:00:29.632 --> 00:00:31.786
because people in the world

00:00:31.786 --> 00:00:34.691
lack self-esteem.

00:00:34.691 --> 00:00:36.894
I will not lose sleep tonight

00:00:36.894 --> 00:00:39.204
because they're not having 
their best life now,

00:00:39.204 --> 00:00:40.969
or they're not being all 
that they can be,

00:00:40.969 --> 00:00:42.914
or their checkbook is not balanced.

00:00:42.914 --> 00:00:44.670
I will lose sleep tonight,

00:00:44.670 --> 00:00:46.175
if I lose sleep tonight,

00:00:46.175 --> 00:00:48.317
because men will stand 
naked before God

00:00:48.317 --> 00:00:53.992
and be cast into hell.

00:00:53.992 --> 00:00:56.486
When I preach, and when you preach,

00:00:56.486 --> 00:00:58.360
whether here or in the mission field,

00:00:58.360 --> 00:01:00.383
you cannot simply think that

00:01:00.383 --> 00:01:02.452
you're just a communicator of truth

00:01:02.452 --> 00:01:04.394
and you leave it there.

00:01:04.394 --> 00:01:11.266
You must preach as a 
dying man to dying men.

00:01:11.266 --> 00:01:13.513
And I see that in Paul.

00:01:13.513 --> 00:01:14.687
There was a passion.

00:01:14.687 --> 00:01:16.548
There was an urging.

00:01:16.548 --> 00:01:20.634
He wasn't simply satisfied

00:01:20.634 --> 00:01:22.876
if he preached well

00:01:22.876 --> 00:01:25.957
or communicated truth.

00:01:25.957 --> 00:01:27.576
He longed for God to be

00:01:27.576 --> 00:01:28.957
honored among men.

00:01:28.957 --> 00:01:32.016
And he longed

00:01:32.016 --> 00:01:34.133
for men

00:01:34.133 --> 00:01:35.849
to be holy,

00:01:35.849 --> 00:01:37.860
to be Christlike,

00:01:37.860 --> 00:01:39.455
and to be able to rejoice

00:01:39.455 --> 00:01:43.919
in the benefit of their great salvation.

00:01:43.919 --> 00:01:45.341
We ought to be a people

00:01:45.341 --> 00:01:49.507
given to urging our brethren

00:01:49.507 --> 00:01:51.306
to greater and greater godliness,

00:01:51.306 --> 00:01:53.193
to greater and greater piety,

00:01:53.193 --> 00:01:58.952
to abound further and further in love.

00:01:58.952 --> 00:02:01.139
He says, "I urge you, brethren."

00:02:01.139 --> 00:02:04.301
What is he going to urge them to do?

00:02:04.301 --> 00:02:06.837
To do the most difficult, scandalous,

00:02:06.837 --> 00:02:08.292
in some cases, some would say,

00:02:08.292 --> 00:02:09.662
preposterous thing

00:02:09.662 --> 00:02:10.826
a person could ever urge

00:02:10.826 --> 00:02:12.499
another person to do.

00:02:12.499 --> 00:02:16.633
To give their life away.

00:02:16.633 --> 00:02:19.211
Do you know, even the 
devil had it right?

00:02:19.211 --> 00:02:20.019
In this sense,

00:02:20.019 --> 00:02:21.770
you can take away a man's goods,

00:02:21.770 --> 00:02:23.259
his houses, his lands,

00:02:23.259 --> 00:02:26.111
you can do absolutely anything to him,

00:02:26.111 --> 00:02:28.030
but the moment you touch his flesh

00:02:28.030 --> 00:02:32.038
is when you're truly going to 
test this man.

00:02:32.038 --> 00:02:33.124
To give away a car,

00:02:33.124 --> 00:02:35.000
a home,

00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:37.862
a tithe...

00:02:37.862 --> 00:02:39.447
is a small thing.

00:02:39.447 --> 00:02:43.707
But to ask a man to 
give away his life...

00:02:43.707 --> 00:02:46.437
I know there is so much
romantic notion about missions,

00:02:46.437 --> 00:02:48.802
but Amy Carmichael,

00:02:48.802 --> 00:02:50.208
Elisabeth Elliot's book,

00:02:50.208 --> 00:02:51.463
it's right,

00:02:51.463 --> 00:02:52.703
missions is only this:

00:02:52.703 --> 00:02:55.829
an opportunity to die.

00:02:55.829 --> 00:02:58.899
And opportunity to give your life away.

00:02:58.899 --> 00:03:01.667
For something much larger than yourself.

00:03:01.667 --> 00:03:04.027
Much greater than yourself.

00:03:04.027 --> 00:03:06.403
So he is going to ask these people

00:03:06.403 --> 00:03:09.238
to do what some would consider

00:03:09.238 --> 00:03:11.560
almost cultic,

00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:12.529
absurd,

00:03:12.529 --> 00:03:13.601
ridiculous,

00:03:13.601 --> 00:03:14.767
immoral,

00:03:14.767 --> 00:03:16.368
to give their life away,

00:03:16.368 --> 00:03:19.648
to offer their life.

00:03:19.648 --> 00:03:22.809
Now, you're going to need strong medicine

00:03:22.809 --> 00:03:25.245
to motivate a person to something

00:03:25.245 --> 00:03:27.590
such as this.

00:03:27.590 --> 00:03:29.945
What on earth or in heaven

00:03:29.945 --> 00:03:32.470
could ever motivate a man

00:03:32.470 --> 00:03:34.510
to give his life away?

00:03:34.510 --> 00:03:35.746
I'm going to urge you to

00:03:35.746 --> 00:03:37.947
give your life away to God.

00:03:37.947 --> 00:03:39.573
To offer it up as a living

00:03:39.573 --> 00:03:41.035
and holy sacrifice to God.

00:03:41.035 --> 00:03:42.394
Now, I'm going to do so

00:03:42.394 --> 00:03:44.351
on the basis of the following:

00:03:44.351 --> 00:03:46.786
The first 11 chapters of this book

00:03:46.786 --> 00:03:49.094
that outline for you the mercies of God.

00:03:49.094 --> 00:03:51.364
And have you decided that you

00:03:51.364 --> 00:03:56.599
would submit your life 
to those directives?

00:03:56.599 --> 00:04:04.116
You see, we talk about
being biblical

00:04:04.116 --> 00:04:05.685
in our worship.

00:04:05.685 --> 00:04:07.214
Have you gone through Scripture

00:04:07.214 --> 00:04:09.358
to discover what God desires
out of worship?

00:04:09.358 --> 00:04:11.376
Well, you know, we love 
worship this way.

00:04:11.376 --> 00:04:13.186
I don't care how you like worship.

00:04:13.186 --> 00:04:15.346
Because that's not the point.

00:04:15.346 --> 00:04:18.769
What has God said?

00:04:18.769 --> 00:04:19.894
You see, in this idea,

00:04:19.894 --> 00:04:23.585
we can romance this thing to death.

00:04:23.585 --> 00:04:25.505
We can spiritualize it to death.

00:04:25.505 --> 00:04:28.508
We can say, oh, I've given my life

00:04:28.508 --> 00:04:29.648
to the mission field;

00:04:29.648 --> 00:04:31.369
that does not mean at the same time

00:04:31.369 --> 00:04:34.333
that you have given your heart to God.

00:04:34.333 --> 00:04:38.491
Because you can go to the 
mission field and be godless,

00:04:38.491 --> 00:04:41.099
and carnal and trite.

00:04:41.099 --> 00:04:43.400
You'd be better off joining
National Geographic

00:04:43.400 --> 00:04:48.475
than you would a mission agency.

00:04:48.475 --> 00:04:55.657
Are you seeking in simplicity

00:04:55.657 --> 00:04:59.561
to examine your life?

00:04:59.561 --> 00:05:00.997
I'm not talking about finding

00:05:00.997 --> 00:05:02.637
legalistic inferences

00:05:02.637 --> 00:05:04.762
and forcing them upon yourself.

00:05:04.762 --> 00:05:06.979
I'm talking about the great principles

00:05:06.979 --> 00:05:08.775
of Scripture dealing in every aspect

00:05:08.775 --> 00:05:10.743
of your personal life,

00:05:10.743 --> 00:05:11.977
applying them to you,

00:05:11.977 --> 00:05:18.369
and seeking to obey them?

00:05:18.369 --> 00:05:23.628
Let me ask you a question.

00:05:23.628 --> 00:05:27.866
If you go to the mission field,

00:05:27.866 --> 00:05:29.715
without taking what I have said

00:05:29.715 --> 00:05:32.308
as a serious endeavor,

00:05:32.308 --> 00:05:33.665
isn't there the possibility

00:05:33.665 --> 00:05:36.893
that the only thing 
you're going to do there

00:05:36.893 --> 00:05:39.351
after you have crossed land and sea,

00:05:39.351 --> 00:05:40.923
is make a convert like yourself

00:05:40.923 --> 00:05:45.488
that's nothing more than a 
two-fold son of hell?

00:05:45.488 --> 00:05:47.960
There isn't a whole lot of 
American Christianity,

00:05:47.960 --> 00:05:51.259
folks, that needs to be exported.

00:05:51.259 --> 00:05:52.596
Unless, like Ravenhill says,

00:05:52.596 --> 00:05:54.551
we put it on some kind of a raft,

00:05:54.551 --> 00:05:56.246
and send it off to a lone island,

00:05:56.246 --> 00:05:58.259
and after it's going away from the dock,

00:05:58.259 --> 00:06:01.772
we all sing the doxology.

00:06:01.772 --> 00:06:07.488
If we're going to endeavor to 
work in missions,

00:06:07.488 --> 00:06:09.116
then we must be motivated

00:06:09.116 --> 00:06:11.772
by a God that we know.

00:06:11.772 --> 00:06:15.195
A Gospel that we know.

00:06:15.195 --> 00:06:18.054
And we must be a people

00:06:18.054 --> 00:06:22.740
who have endeavored with great force

00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:24.123
to examine their lives

00:06:24.123 --> 00:06:27.258
in the light of Scripture

00:06:27.258 --> 00:06:29.369
and conform their lives

00:06:29.369 --> 00:06:35.480
to what Scripture says.

00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:39.435
How much of what you have -

00:06:39.435 --> 00:06:44.331
even the way you sit in a chair -

00:06:44.331 --> 00:06:47.713
is formed by those around you,

00:06:47.713 --> 00:06:50.534
and not by Scripture?

00:06:50.534 --> 00:06:51.918
Something to think about.

00:06:51.918 --> 00:06:54.247
Well, I think if you're going to be
a missionary of any account,

00:06:54.247 --> 00:06:56.128
this is what you must do.
Stay in your room.

00:06:56.128 --> 00:06:59.317
Not only pray, but study.

00:06:59.317 --> 00:07:01.578
So that when you walk out of that room,

00:07:01.578 --> 00:07:04.716
you have something to say about God.

00:07:04.716 --> 00:07:07.379
And so that you will be able 
to walk out of that room.

00:07:07.379 --> 00:07:08.920
Listen to me.

00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:11.328
I've been there, done that,
got the t-shirt.

00:07:11.328 --> 00:07:13.086
You walk out there in all your zeal,

00:07:13.086 --> 00:07:14.499
in the middle of the plaza,

00:07:14.499 --> 00:07:15.902
and you begin to preach,

00:07:15.902 --> 00:07:17.642
and you think as a young missionary

00:07:17.642 --> 00:07:19.524
that angels are going 
to drop out of heaven,

00:07:19.524 --> 00:07:21.484
and the Hallelujah Chorus 
is going to be sung,

00:07:21.484 --> 00:07:23.193
and millions of people 
are going to be converted,

00:07:23.193 --> 00:07:24.823
they're going to toss 
you on their shoulders

00:07:24.823 --> 00:07:26.648
and build a statue of you.

00:07:26.648 --> 00:07:28.394
That's not going to happen.

00:07:28.394 --> 00:07:29.953
What's going to happen is this:

00:07:29.953 --> 00:07:32.002
you're going to go there,
and you're going to preach,

00:07:32.002 --> 00:07:33.290
and you're going to preach,

00:07:33.290 --> 00:07:35.673
and when a crowd starts listening to you,

00:07:35.673 --> 00:07:38.392
somebody somewhere is going to rise up

00:07:38.392 --> 00:07:39.833
and call you a demon.

00:07:39.833 --> 00:07:41.860
The entire crowd's going to turn on you.

00:07:41.860 --> 00:07:43.864
They're going to grab your little pulpit

00:07:43.864 --> 00:07:45.706
and your makeshift microphone

00:07:45.706 --> 00:07:47.289
and all your little tracts

00:07:47.289 --> 00:07:49.446
and they're going to throw 
you out on the street.

00:07:49.446 --> 00:07:51.167
It's going to take a lot more

00:07:51.167 --> 00:07:53.239
than a romantic zeal for missions

00:07:53.239 --> 00:07:55.859
to make you get up, pick up your pulpit,

00:07:55.859 --> 00:07:57.971
your tracts and walk right back in there

00:07:57.971 --> 00:07:59.888
and preach again.

00:07:59.888 --> 00:08:02.505
It's going to take a passion for God

00:08:02.505 --> 00:08:05.531
that is created out of knowing Him.

00:08:05.531 --> 00:08:06.744
And that's the same for

00:08:06.744 --> 00:08:08.886
everything in the Christian life.