So please come up, it matters a great deal to me. I want us to go to Romans chapter 12. In verse one, Paul says, Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is a spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Let's go the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for your word. Dear God, I pray. Lord, let so many words, so many teachings. Lord, let this have something of a mark on eternity to help your people. Lord, we constantly have need to set a course again, to set a right that which has fallen, to remember what we have forgotten. So please, dear God, work among us, work among your people. Lord, I've always thought that regarding myself, your son deserves a better minister. But Lord, also, he deserves a better people. Make us, Lord. Something more, not for our sakes, but for his. And for his testimony in the world. In Jesus name, Amen. Paul says, therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice. To present your bodies, all that you are. Paul is asking the Romans and through this letter, every believer to give absolutely everything. Now, he's not marking out the different ways in which we might give everything, but he's calling us to utter and complete devotion. That our passion for Christ consume our lives, that that he be our ambition. Now, all of you good people who believe in Jesus Christ here would all acknowledge that that is what the Bible teaches us, and you would also acknowledge, like myself. That Christ is worthy of this. The problem is the motivation, the strength, The power intellectually, we can look at this text and we can acknowledge every word is true. This is not only what I should do, I should give myself completely to Christ. It's not only what I should do, it's what I desire to do. But the very thing I desire to do, I seem so often to fail. Now, you need to understand that this text is not is not written for laity. It's written for all of us. Paul wrote this even for himself, we can see this from Romans chapter seven, we oftentimes look at someone like Paul and we think that they were somehow exceptional people that didn't struggle with the apathy and the problems with which we suffer. We sometimes look at ministers that seem to have some sort of success in the ministry and we think they do not grapple with this problem of a lack of motivation or strength to go forward and do the very thing we all know we should be doing. And that's simply not true. That's idolatry. I've been with some of the greatest men in the world, and the one thing that they all have in common is that they are quite common. The best of men are men at best. We are all children, we are all needy, we are all broken and being fixed. So here's the question from where we can acknowledge this, we can sing about it, but we all will when we look in the mirror, lay our heads low and say. The fire, the zeal, the passion for Christ that I should have, I do not have. And I'm sick of myself. And sometimes instead of going to scripture to find the answer, what we'll do is is we will light our own fires and then try to walk in the light of those fires. For example, young people will be sent off to something like a choir, the fire or some conference to get them fired up and they'll listen to wonderful songs, powerful songs, energetic songs, and they'll be in a community of people who are all excited that week and they'll hear possibly powerful and motivational speaking. But they're like toy soldiers, they get wound up. And they come back to the church and they give testimonies of everything that they've seen and heard. But within a few days, they wind down. And not only do they wind down, they're in more despair than when they began because they began to think there's absolutely no solution. So where do we find genuine and true motivation to do the thing? That if we are reasonable and we are believers is the right thing to do, and that is to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to offer ourselves as living and holy sacrifices. From where does the motivation come? Well, we're going to see it here. We're going to see it. In verse 12, in chapter 12, verse one, he says, therefore. that connects us to that which proceeds. And in this case, it connects us to the first 11 chapters. We see the same thing in Ephesians, and if we have time, we will go there. There's a therefore in chapter four, verse one, and what it's doing is connecting the rest of what Paul will write in that epistle to the first three chapters of that epistle. He says, therefore, I urge you, brethren. Now, this is very, very important. We expect passionate preaching and urgings when we're talking about evangelism, don't we? We need to plead with men. We don't just need to inform them about the gospel. Peter Masters at Metropolitan Tabernacle, he says this. If after preaching the life, death, resurrection, ascension and second coming of Jesus Christ, you do not plead or beg with men to repent, you have preached no gospel. You've preached a truncated gospel. The gospel preaching is not just about informing. It's about transforming. It's about begging men to come to Christ. It's passionate. I urge you. I beseech you. But in this case, he's not talking to lost people, he's talking to brethren, to Christians. There is a problem and a burden with wisdom. There is a problem and a burden with spending, walking with Christ for so many years, when years turned into decades and decades turned into multiple decades. There's a burden. It seems like the other side becomes clearer than this side. That you see what's at stake. Heaven, hell, life, death. Living, living according to the fact that you were made in the image of God are living in frivolity. That we all stand before the judgment throne of Christ. The preacher deals with magnificent, in some ways awesome, in some ways terrifying concepts of reality. So when I look at the people of God and I see them. Wandering. I see them without focus. I see them spending their lives in so many things that do not matter. It doesn't call for just information to be given. It calls for urging, for begging, for beseeching. We must no longer live like this. We must offer our lives as living sacrifices unto God, we must live for him where we were created for him. For his glory. for his good pleasure, for his usefulness. So he beseeches them. He says, brethren, this is a man who had seen heaven. This is a man who knew Christ intimately. This is a man who was a part of that Jewish tradition. The history of Israel that spent thousands and thousands of years longing for the one who was promised at the very fall of Adam, the Messiah. And now Paul says he's here, he's here. How then shall we live? How then shall we live? Therefore, I urge you, brethren, to do what? To present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice. Now, you said, well, you skipped over mercies of God, we're going to get back to that. He's saying to present your bodies now, this is not a every Sunday rededicate yourself passage. This is not an over and over and over dedication. The tense of the Greek indicates that what he's saying is basically it's the prophetic call of this. How long will you limp between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, serve him. If the world, if Baal is God, then serve them. But don't limp between two opinions for once in your life, make a strong decision for once in your life, set yourself on the course that is the only course for people who say they know the gospel. To offer your bodies now, why does he say bodies here? This just doesn't seem to fit here, we see the wisdom of God. It's almost as though. He was looking at our generation when he said it. Offer your body this. Why? Why that way? Have you ever heard someone say this? A preacher comes to them and says, you know, you're in the church. You're living in adultery, living in worldliness. You need to really consider your life. And what is the response? You don't know my heart. You can't see inside my heart. You don't know anything about my heart of hearts. According to this text and many others, the preacher just has to say, I don't need to see in your heart. I see what you're doing with your body. You see what you need to understand is that when the Bible talks about the heart to the mind, it is literally the control center of everything. It's the control center. It's the intellect. It controls the emotions, it controls the will, it manifests itself in the use of the body. If Jesus has your heart of hearts, he's going to have everything. Once he takes your heart, he takes it all. Do you see that? And what Paul is saying, he's talking about practical religion. You can say all day, you can sing all day, I offer my life as a living sacrifice to you. And Paul says, prove it with your body. With your conduct. With your way of life. Do you look like someone whose name is written in the registry of Zion? Do you look like someone who is on the path to that holy city? Do you look like someone who has seriously contemplated the fact that they have not been redeemed with coin? But with the precious blood of the lamb, do you see that that's what Paul is saying here? Once and for all. Answer the prophetic call and offer your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. Now. We know this, don't we? We know it's reasonable. But from where comes the motivation, the power, the strength? This is one of the things I most want to push to my reform brethren. This is more than just right information. We need more than just knowledge. Now. How can I do this? Well, I want to show you something for a moment, maybe it's something of a physics lesson. Let's say that. I was you came into this room and I was laying down on my back. Just laying on my back, but you notice that I had both hands fixed around my belt tightly, and then you notice that I was straining and I was pulling up with all my might. On my belt. And you said, Brother Washer, what are you doing? I said, well, isn't it obvious I'm trying to pick myself up. Now, if you've studied physics, you would come to me and say, well, there's a problem here. In order to pick yourself up that way, you must be acted upon by an outside force. You can't pick yourself up that way. A force external outside of you must grab that belt and pick you up. Do you see? Let's look at it another way. Let's say that you find a man that has an extraordinary love for his wife. He has a devotion to his wife unlike anything you have ever seen. He is passionate about her. He is faithful to her. He serves her. He is an extraordinary, extraordinary. He has an extraordinary love and devotion. When you see that man with that extraordinary devotion, what do you think? What do you think? You think, what a wonderful man. What a wonderful man to be so devoted to a woman. He's a wonderful, wonderful man. Maybe that's not the case at all. Maybe he's a normal man. As a matter of fact, maybe he's a sub normal man. Maybe he's not extraordinary at all. Maybe it's his wife that's extraordinary. And the extraordinary beauty and the extraordinary virtue of his wife is so powerful that it draws the affections out of that subnormal man. That man is the way he is because he's been acted upon by an outside force. Now you're going to get to the true nature of piety now. We are idolaters. Calvin said the heart is what? It's a factory for idols. So you see a man or a woman, an Amy Carmichael, someone like that, a George Mueller, a Hudson Taylor. You see a Jonathan Edwards. You see someone that's passionate about God, passionate about Christ, given their life totally. And what is the first thing that comes into your mind? What an extraordinary individual. Am I not telling you the truth? You look at them and go, they're extraordinary. Maybe they're not extraordinary at all. Maybe they're less extraordinary than you are. But they've been acted upon by an outside force. They have seen something you haven't seen. And what they have seen is so powerful, so beautiful, so mesmerizing, so all controlling that it has utterly and completely captivated them. They're not better than you. They've just seen something you haven't seen. You see, that's it. That's it. And that's what Paul is talking about here, he says, therefore, I urge you, brethren, to do what to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, what's the motivation by the mercies of God? I was sitting in theology class, I don't know if it was my second semester of theology or what it is, and the professor came in and he said, now, students, just give me attributes and I'm going to write them on the board, attributes of God. And so he wrote about 20 some attributes on the board and he turned around and I don't know if I was just had that strange look on my face, but he goes, Washer. And I go, yes, sir. He goes, what's the problem? I said, what do you mean? He goes, you look like you got a problem. And I said, well, I do have a problem. He said, what is it? I said, we've said nothing about God. He goes, what do you mean we've said nothing about God? I think he knew where I was going. He goes, we have 20 some attributes up here. What do you mean we've said nothing about God? Well, sir. Those terms mean nothing unless we define them biblically. You wrote the word holy up there, but these 30 students could all have different definitions, quite contrary definitions of holy. So it means nothing until we do what? Until we define that term biblically. You can say God is love, but until you define that biblically. To be absolutely meaningless, you say, well, when I say that the motivation is the mercy of God, you may be able to turn it into a song, but it's not going to do much to help you tomorrow morning. Get up and love Christ in a greater way. What does he mean by urge you to do this by the mercies of God and what he's saying? I urge you to do this by your understanding of the first 11 chapters. And what are those first eleven chapters? He reveals to us that we're utterly condemned. Utterly condemned, a perverse and dislocated people under the wrath of God, not only us, but our children. That we are condemned by the law and we cannot save ourselves. But then there's the entrance of Christ and Christ's work on Calvary. Christ, the incarnate God, who as a man lived the perfect life, we could not live. Do you know how astounding that is? Do you have any idea how astounding? Never one. There's never been a moment. in the history of all humanity. that anyone in humanity ever loved the Lord, their God, with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. You realize that not one person since Adam has ever for one moment loved the Lord, their God, with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. But Christ loved the Lord, his God, with all his heart, soul, mind and strength every moment of his life. He obeyed the law. He overcame every temptation. And then he goes to Calvary. And on Calvary, he carries your sin and the full force of all the wrath of God, all the holy hatred of God against your sin. Your evil fell on him and crushed him. And by this, he made atonement. And on the third day, he rose again from the dead. And 40 days thereafter, he He ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God for you. And now he ever lives to intercede for you. Now the love of God toward you is immutable. It is fixed. He cannot love you more because his love is already perfect, he cannot love you less because he has covenanted. It's fixed in Christ. Our elder brother did it all. The only thing we contributed to our salvation is our sin. And he did absolutely everything. We failed in everything. He succeeded in everything. And when the deeper and deeper you go into this thing that he did for us, you understand the mercies of God and you know what those mercies do. They draw out your affections. And those affections drive you. You can see it in a young man who's apathetic about life, apathetic about career, and then all of a sudden he sees his beauty. He sees her. Maybe their eyes meet across the room. He's captivated. He's enthralled. The next day, he's out looking for work. He's actually brushing his teeth. He's no longer spending his money on video games, he's trying to save for rent and insurance and everything else. Why? It was her. Wasn't his virtue. It was her virtue, her beauty. That drew out his affections. And now constrain him to do whatever, ever he has to do to return that affection. The greatest need of God's people is to know God. And to know God through his son, to know God through his son's gospel work, to know God through the word. I want you to look for a moment at Ephesians just for a second and you'll see the same thing. Ephesians chapter four. Verse one, therefore, again, therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you. Do you see that? What do we have over in Romans 12 one? I urge you, I beseech you. Now he's saying, I implore you. To walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. As a preacher, I implore you. I beg you. I beseech you, I urge you. To walk in a manner worthy of the Christian calling. It seems like yesterday. I was nine. It seemed like a few hours ago I was 20. It seemed like this morning I was 40. Midnight approaches and I will die. Life is so fleeting. As we were driving here, My brother showed me this gigantic piece of land that a wealthy, wealthy man owned. That he's well known, he's powerful, he's he's all these things, and I looked at my friend and I says, but does he know Christ? Because if he doesn't know Christ, it doesn't matter the length of your fame, it will end. It doesn't matter the length of your strength or the length of your beauty. It will end. Do you not see that? Can you not hear that? For what are you going to live? Think about it. You're never going to be the most famous person in the world and the most famous people in the world. You have forgotten them already. You're not going to be the richest. Yet when the rich die, you don't mourn. You're not going to found a country. And yet you think little about George Washington. Look, our lives are minuscule, they're specks. I love astronomy and I love physics and I love to look at mathematicians and different things. And when you start looking at the universe, you go, what am I? I'm nothing. Think of the character and the intellect, the brilliance of the men who founded this country, and then what would they think now if they looked at this country? They would think I invested my life. Some of them would say I died with a musket ball in my heart for this country. And now it's fallen after only a few hundred years. Really think, man. Think about the investment of your life, what matters, you and I will perish in a moment. But you and I have been given the opportunity, the rebels, we have been reconciled and not just reconciled as servants, reconciled as sons and daughters. And now we have the opportunity to live our lives for Him and enter into glory. But it's not just a glory, it's a permanent glory. And it's not a static glory, because with Jonathan Edwards, I believe that once we enter into heaven, it is from glory to glory. It just keeps going. And the treasure gained here is never lost. The accolades never rust. Do you see that? Just think about the two portfolios in front of you. You're offered the world. And the contract is made with a demon. A liar, father of all lies, a murderer. So he offers you a contract of a little bit of success. For this, this quick. And he signs it with a deceptive signature. And you buy it lock, stock and barrel. And you look around you as you grow older and you see your friends who signed the same document and they die and they die and they die. And you look in the casket and don't even realize that soon they'll be looking at you. You gained the whole world and you lost everything. Think about that. There's another portfolio, another contract. Signed in blood. By the son of God. Who offered his life for years, a sacrifice for sin. He is an eternal king. Who has an eternal kingdom. Its glory will never fade and the glory of those who are in that kingdom will shine like the expanse of the heavens. The smallest saint. If you could catch a glimpse of the beauty. The future beauty of the smallest, weakest saints, you know, if you could catch a glimpse, the beauty, future beauty of that saint would kill you, it would fracture your mind. And you're going to trade that. For this. You trade that for this. If we truly believe his word about the kingdom that comes. Is it not most reasonable to offer our lives as a living sacrifice? Is it not most reasonable to serve him in whatever calling and occupation that he has given us to serve him? Is it not? But then there's a greater motivation, and it's the one of which Paul speaks here and in Romans. It's not what we get in the future. It's what he did in the past. You see, in Ephesians chapters one through three, we have unfolded before us the mystery of Christ. There's probably not three chapters in all the Bible that go deeper than these three chapters. Paul gloried in what's there. It's worth a lifetime of study. These three chapters, it's all about in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, every spiritual blessing in Christ. Election. Justification. Glorification, everything in Christ, Christ has done it all. And so he gets the four and said, based on what I just showed you about him. I plead with you, live for him. Live for him. Live for him. If there is still breath in you. Live for him. I learned a great lesson when I was 17 years old, I talk about it much because it transformed my life. My father was we we raised Charlotte cattle and quarter horses, he was a is my height, but much bigger, much stronger. He was a brilliant man. He was well respected, man, I wanted to be like my father, I feared him, but I wanted to be like him. He was something. And he and I were out on one of the pastures building a fence and rolling out wire. He had one side of the pole. I had the other. And we're walking with a roll of wire, spreading it out. We're talking about so many things that day. I was 17. It was October. It's beautiful. And then all of a sudden he screamed. And he dropped his end. And I leaped over the wire and I caught him and he stumbled and he fell and I fell with him. He was face down. I turned him over. He was dead. Massive heart attack. You see, here was everything I knew I would never reach him. I knew I would never be the man that he was. Not his strength. Not his brilliance. Everything I wanted to be was dead. So what did I learn that day? If you're strong, you become weak. If you're beautiful, you lose your beauty. If you fall in love, you die. And so does she. And all the poetry in the world can't cure that. All the positive thinking in the world can do nothing about that anymore. It's just gone. I hated that I was a thinking being. I hated at that moment that I had self-awareness. I wish I had been an animal driven by instinct that knew nothing of A future that it could not escape. Everything at that moment became absurd. Virtue, absurd. Good grades, absurd. Accolades, absurd. Relationships, just painful. Because they're going to end. It's all going to end. Do you see what slaves we are to sin and death? And he freed us. I will live forevermore. As a matter of fact, I don't even know what life is compared to the life that's coming. If you could catch a glimpse of the glory that is coming. Would kill you. It would fracture your mind, it would explode your heart, you wouldn't be able to bear it. Like when someone says, did you see that sunset? It took my breath away. What are they saying? It killed it. It almost killed me. It jolted me. The beauty of it stopped my heart. That's what's coming. You see, if you're a Christian. The Puritans used to say your heart has been so enlarged that if you gained the world, you would not be satisfied. It'd be like a little marble bouncing around inside. If you lost the world. You would have lost nothing. Because your heart is so big, the world can't satisfy it. As a matter of fact, if you're a Christian, there's nothing that can truly satisfy you but him. Sometimes I hear these marriage counselors and they tell you. You know. Your husband completes you, your wife completes you, if your husband or wife can complete you, you're lost and not a Christian. And quit putting such a big burden on your husband and your wife. No one can complete you. No one can satisfy you but Christ. Every relationship, every person, everything will just be a disappointment if you have that kind of standard. You see. There is something coming that is so extraordinary and so beautiful and so powerful and so full of life, not just simply by us, but so the very essence of life. And there's no way the mind can even comprehend it. I believe that's why why prophets are something of madmen, because they catch a glimpse of something on the other side and they'd be willing to die 10000 deaths to get back there. And then they come back and they want to tell God's people this is what's coming. Stop it. Stop looking at all this. Look up. Serve him. Because what's coming is worth dying 10000 horrible deaths to see for a moment. And then look back. What he did on that tree. What he did on that tree for you. And that's where I want to end this now, I want to go to another passage where Paul does a similar thing, go to Second Corinthians. And look what he says. He's going to give us two lights, a lesser light. The moon, a greater light, the sun. And its motivation. First of all, Paul says the lesser light. He says in verse nine of Chapter five, the second Corinthians, therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. Is that your ambition? No, be honest with yourself, please. Please. Just stop listening to preaching the way you normally do. Don't just think it's true. Don't just think it's correct. Ask yourself. Does your life line up with it? We're not up here reciting poetry. Our desires care less about eloquence. Paul says. We have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. That's my ambition. That's it. That's it. And this applies to minister and janitor. and lawyer and artist and physician and welder and mechanic and housewife and teenager, all of us moving in our different circles, all of us quite different. All of us with different professions and gifts. All of us living in different economic levels, no matter where God has put us in His providence. Our goal ought to be able to say, I have as my ambition to be pleasing to Him. Whether a man by God's decree Has a humble life or whether a man by God decree is wealthy and owner of great lands. I don't concern myself with those little divisions. Both of them. Are to live in a manner that is pleasing to God in the station that God has put them. Is that your ambition? Be honest right now, be honest with the Lord, is that your ambition? Are you playing games? Is that your ambition? To be pleasing to him now, he gives us some motivation as to why it should be our ambition, verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. There is a tension that must be held with this text because I want you to know something, believer. If you are truly in Christ. A wide berth has been opened for you, a wide door in heaven because of your champion, Jesus Christ. You'll look in the mirror, all of us, and you'll see your failures, I see mine. You see so many things wrong with you. I understand that, but I do not want that to drive you to condemnation or to drive you to despair. I want you to look to Christ because I can assure you that Jesus Christ did not die on that tree and rise again from the dead. So that when you look at him for the first time and he looks at you, there's a scowl on his face. He did not die for that reason. He will receive you joyfully. Look forward to that. Look forward to it. As one man has said, he will be happier to see you than you will be to see him. So we must hold on to that our salvation is in Christ and not our performance. We are well loved because of Christ and not because our performance. And yet at the same time, we will stand before him. And we will give an account of everything that was entrusted to us, our minds, our body, our time, our talents, our spiritual gifts, our opportunities, everything. And you need to know something, I don't know your economic situation, I don't know your health, but I can tell you this, if you're sitting here today, you're some of the most privileged people that ever walked the planet. What are you doing with your privilege? I used to tell my boys when they were little, one. If we are strong, it's to help God's people who are weak. Two, if we have mighty intellects that are trained, it's to help God's people who've had no such opportunity. Three, if we have wealth. It is for the benefit of God's people and the extension of the kingdom. What are you doing with your talents? What are you doing with your time? What are you doing with your opportunities? We will stand before him. I will stand before him. And sometimes in the midst of this battle with all the enemies and people saying hateful things, I so want to withdraw. But you can't withdraw, I want to take my ball and just go home, but you can't because he's given you certain talents and you must stand. You must go on, because though everyone fail you and everyone turned against you, he has not failed you. He has not turned against you. He's never given you a reason to not serve him. He's never given you a reason to not trust him. Do you see that? And we will give an account. I just have to interject. As an illustration here, I know a man in western Kentucky. Outside of Paducah, Kentucky, a very, very small town, he's in his 90s now. He has possibly influenced western Kentucky for Christ more than any other man I know. If you mention his name in Romania. People all across the country know it because of the help that he has given the church in Romania. He is a used car salesman with a little lot outside of a small town in western Kentucky. And when I think of heroes, I think of him, think about it. Just think he took every, he just. Do you see what he did? With the life that he has and he'll go home to be with the Lord in the next few years, if not the next few months, he'll go home to be with the Lord and there'll be all these people. From Romania, from from southern Illinois, from western Kentucky, all these people. that are there because of what he did. Did you see that? I mean, when you see these great preachers doing great things and everything, that's one thing. Yeah, that's what they're supposed to do. But when you see someone like that. You go, that's what we're talking about here. He made it his ambition with the opportunity and the talent he had. To extend Christ's kingdom. Is it your ambition? Now, I want you to be careful, very careful here. Because I want you to realize that if it is your ambition and that ambition can manifest itself in so many ways. It may be God's decree for you to be a homemaker and to raise your children and to teach them about Christ and godliness. And there is great reward in that. It may be to be a coach, it may be to be, like I said, a doctor, a lawyer. It may be to be a janitor, it may be to whatever it is. So I don't want you to think that you all need to rush out to the mission field or you need to do something that is extraordinary in the eyes of carnal men. But it is finding God's place and it is serving him. With all your heart and if you make this your ambition, he will guide you in what he wants you to do. But now let's go to the greater ambition, something even greater than the knowledge that we will are the greater motivation, something greater than even the knowledge that we will stand before Christ. And it is here. Verse 14. The love of Christ controls us. Now, we have to be very careful with the genitive here and with our tendency to idolize men. When you read this passage, it's possibly the first thing that comes into your mind when Paul says, for the love of Christ controls us, that you're thinking Paul saying that Paul's great love for Christ controls him. I don't believe that's what's going on here. I believe it is Paul's knowledge of Christ's love for him that controls him. And there is a tremendous difference when I look in the mirror of God's word and I examine my love, I find little motivation. And if one day my love seems hot, the next day it may be cold and the next day it may be lukewarm and hot and cold. It's up and down. And if my motivation came from my love for Christ, then my life would be it'd be a roller coaster. Paul's motivation. was not his great love for Jesus, Paul's motivation was the great love of Jesus for Paul. It controlled him. Many, many years ago, there was a young man that all he cared about was. Being wealthy. All he cared about was a great life. All he cared about was his reputation among the worldly. The university, then one day he was told of Christ. And that young man began to go out into the quad and different places where the students would walk and hand out tracks, his friends came to him one day and they pulled him aside. I said, what are you doing? You've become a laughing stock. You're losing everything. You know what the young man said to them? What else can I do? I don't have any options. And they said, why? He died for me. He died for me. I don't have any options now. He owns me. He owns me. that love, I would run away. I see the way they laugh at me now. But if I try to get through that door, there he is standing, the one who died for me. I have no option, and that is the love of Christ that has driven every missionary into the worst hell holes on the face of the earth. That is the love that is that drip that caused polycarp when they drug that old man out of that chariot and burned him, that he would not recant. That's the love that causes homeschool moms to get up every morning and start again. Do you see that? And that is what controlled Paul, he said, for the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. And then he goes on to say. And he died for all so that they who might live no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. But how can I make you see that even if your motivations weren't pure, this would still be the most advantageous thing to do? Do you not see? If you just looked at it coldly as an investment. It would still be the most rational thing to do. Listen to this passage. I'm not going to tell you at first where I find it. If you didn't see me looking at a Bible, you would probably think that I was quoting some Spartan soldier. Listen to what it says, speaking of God, of Christ, who will render to each person according to their deeds. To those who, by perseverance, talking about Christians. To those who, by perseverance in doing good, in doing the will of God and serving Christ. Seek for glory, honor and immortality. Doesn't that sound Spartan to you? Almost Roman or Greek soldier like, as they would say, I'll die on the battlefield. Why? For glory, honor and immortality. You see how effeminate Christianity has become. You and I, men, you should set the example. Someone should look at you and see in your face this man is living for glory, honor and immortality. You say that's wrong. Jesus never said it was wrong to seek for glory, he just said it was wrong to seek for the glory that comes from men, but the glory that comes from God. is actually a virtue. Think about it, the greatest battle of the ages is being waged around us, do not see this heaven, hell, cosmic, eternal purpose, everything. And for you to sit on the sidelines. Wouldn't you rather? Pass over into the other side, bloodied, bruised, cut up, broken and still swinging when you pass through the gates. And then throw down your sword and look at him. I remember when I used to play basketball, one of my biggest problems in playing basketball, I love to play basketball, is in a game, didn't matter, tournament, whatever it was, man, if I put up two or I blocked a shot or something, first thing I did, where's my dad? Where's my dad? Where is it? Did he see that? Did he see that? I didn't care who saw it, did he see it? When I came home through that door, would he do this? I would have thought I'd have fought anybody to get that look. Can you imagine giving your life for Christ, serving him? And then your name is called. You throw down your sword and you look and he looks back and goes. You stood, boy, you stood. Enter in. Enter in to the joy of your master. And then to walk in there. And to see. All the people. That came to know Christ. Orphans that were helped. The sick healed. Persecuted believers rescued. I mean, who could be given such a privilege as this? This is this is marvelous. Our life now. Let's go back. I'm 17. Life is absurd. There is no meaning. There is no true end. There is no honor. We die like animals. But being human, we suffer more because we know it's coming. And now let it come. Let it come. Come on, death. Because my master prevailed, a kingdom enter into a kingdom with a king that is eternal, a kingdom incorruptible. And that's what is before us, the cross behind us, glory before us. What a wonderful thing. And you say, yes, but Paul, well, you're going to go back tomorrow and be working in missions. I'm going to go back to the mundane. No, you're not. If you're a believer, there's nothing mundane. If you give a cup of cold water in his name, the reward you receive from that will be eternal. Every prayer, every act of kindness, every support of your church and its ministers, every help to the mission field, every encouragement to a saint, every track given, the smallest thing, a cup of cold water. Nothing is mundane. See, Catholicism did a great disservice, as it has in so many ways, infinite number of ways in dividing the world into sacred and secular. For the believer, there's no such thing. Everything is sacred. When my dear friend. Works on a transmission and tells the man about Christ. Does an honorable job. And ask for only an honorable return. That's a miracle. All heaven applauds. Do you see, there's nothing mundane. Nothing mundane. When a homeschool mom goes through those verses with her kids. For the 650,000th time. Every time, glory upon glory upon glory upon glory. This is it. There are two things. That I think need to be brought into preaching. And we've gone on for a while, but I want to take you to a passage that does not talk about preaching. But it makes. For a good illustration, go with me for just a moment to Job. This applies to the preachers, it applies to every believer, because every believer is to study God's word. Now, notice that in actuality, I've said a few things before you. The glory of the cross. The beauty and glory of God and his Christ. Eternity. Judgment, all these things, the life to come, the reward. Chapter 28 of the book of Job. Should be hanging over. The door of every Christian, every minister, the study of every person who uses a certain room to study. Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where they refine gold. Iron is taken from the dust and copper is smelted from rock. Man puts an end to darkness and to the farthest limits, he searches out the rock in gloom and deep shadow. He sinks a shaft far from habitation, forgotten by the foot. They hang and swing to and fro far from in the earth. From it comes food and underneath it is turned up as fire. Its rocks are the source of sapphires and its dust contains gold. The path of bird, the path no bird of prey knows, nor has the falcon eye caught sight of it. The proud beast have not trodden there, nor has the fierce lion passed over it. He puts his hand on the flint. He overturns the mountains at the base. He hues out channels through the rocks and his eyes see anything precious. He dams up the streams from flowing and what is hidden he brings out to the light. All right. That's talking about a minor. searching for all the jewels and wealth in the center of the earth. Look what he's willing to do. He is willing to separate himself from others. He is willing to go down in the deepest and darkest places. He is willing to labor with such intensity that he's damning up waters under the earth. He's literally turning over mountains with his pickaxe, anything to get to those jewels, anything to get to that gold. That should be us. Whatever revival happens, it must begin with the word of God and it must begin with this one to search these things out. I want to know God. I want to know his beauty. I want to know his power. I want to know his holiness. I want to know his goodness. I want to know Christ. I will tear this scripture apart to know Christ, to know this Christ of which this preacher speaks, that it might motivate me. I want to get into the word. I want to know the cross. I want to know it. I want to understand what it meant for him to be shut up in that room for hours and crushed under billow after billow of the wrath of God and that it was for me. I want to know about the great things of eternity and life and death. I want to know that I will stand before the judgment throne of Christ and what it means. I want to know the glory that is about to come. And the more you know these things from the word, the more it captivates you. And you need no motivation because it's the virtue and glory of all this that controls you. Do you see that? As preachers, we labor to bring out jewels and throw them at God's people, look. Look at who he is, look at what he's done, look at what is coming. But it's not enough. God's people. Must look for these things. We must do more, we must know more about him and his attributes, we must know more about his work and revelation in Christ, but we must know more about what is coming. You see, I must finish, but I almost don't even know how to approach this theme. As preachers, we know we shouldn't open up a can we can't close. All these children watching things like fantasies, movies, extraordinary lands, And all these things. Always wanting to see them. They should be seeing greater things here. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what is coming. Young people listen to me. When my boys were little. I don't know if it was Ian or Evan or who it was asking, what do you do? I said, what do you mean? Well, you go off for a long time, you come back, you look all beat up and everything. What do you do? And I wanted to catch their attention, so I said, I can't tell you right now you're not old enough. And of course, now they're following me everywhere. What do you do? I said, I can't tell you, you wouldn't believe me. Now they really want to know. And so I said, OK, I'll tell you, but you must sit down and you must promise to believe me. They sat down. Dad, what do you do? I said, I fight dragons. They said, no. Yes, I fight dragons. I go into terrible places and I fight dragons and I save people. God's people. I go in to pull them out. I serve a king. I have a sword. I'm a marked man of the enemy, boys. And I want it that way. I'm in a battle and I don't even care if it takes my life. Because of the glory of the king, you see, here's one of the problems is that I think our children are beginning to think that the glory that awaits is literally an eternal church service. That's not it. There is a there is a beauty. And a glory and a life and a joy. That is so extraordinary. And that for me, that everything I've ever desired, everything that is impossible here, you and I have never loved. Do you realize that? Compared to the capacity to love that we will have. You and I are blind. We've never seen even colors compared to the capacity we will have to see color there. We have never felt emotion compared to the emotion we will feel there, an emotion that if we felt a bit of it now would kill us. In the same way that you cannot look into the sun without it hurting you, you can't even you couldn't even begin to look at a fraction of the glory that is to come because it would blind you. You will have to be strengthened in mind and body to endure the joy. and the life of discovery, of creativity, of living poetry, of music, of celebration, of dance, everything. And you know why I'm happy? Because I'm 61 and I'm no longer 26. I'm no longer 21 when I first knew him. And I would not go back to 21. My journey is so much shorter now. I'm closer than I've ever been to where I'm going. And it would be worth 10,000 deaths to be there. That's our motivation. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the hope. That was one for us on Calvary, and thank you, O God, for the hope. That is before us. Oh, dear God. Oh, that you might fill this people with hope, with hope, with hope. You might fill them with understanding of who you are and what you've done and who they are in Christ. That they might go forward. In Jesus name, Amen.