Lauren and Krista for the wonderful ministry of music. It's my privilege to introduce to you Dr. Les Olala. If you were here for Sunday school, you heard him expound the word of God from Hebrews 11, 7. And I know that God has a message for you today. God's word does not go out to avoid purpose. God's word always accomplishes the work for which it is sent. And so God has a message for you this morning through the preaching of Dr. Olala. I trust that you'll receive it with an open heart. Let's not merely be hearers, but doers of the word. The word is not given merely to inform us, though it does, but it is given to transform us, to sanctify us. So let God do that work and meet your spiritual need this morning. Dr. Olala has had a great impact in my life. through his preaching and through just been some times in my life when I've just needed some some wise counsel and Dr. Ola has been one of those men who really helped steer me right spiritually and scripturally in some decisions that that Chris and I needed to make and so we're very thankful for their personal ministry the blessing they've been to us I know that he'd be a blessing to you as well preaching not only this morning but in our 530 service so already make plans set your alarm clock to wake up from your nap This afternoon, so you can be back here by 5.30 for our evening service. And then 7 o'clock on Wednesday night, make every effort to be here to be preaching again then. And of course, Dr. Gordon Dixon will be preaching Monday and Tuesday night. He also is another mentor and friend of mine. You won't want to miss those. If it's at all possible for you to be here tonight through Wednesday night, please be here. Every service you miss will be a blessing that you miss. Dr. Goldman. Well, thank you, Pastor. I just am very humbled, and I don't say that out of emptiness. I say it out of sincerity. We're very humbled to be here, to be able to open God's Word to speak. I've appreciated the Sabinski families for so many years, and remembering them from tots on up. and to see the faithfulness and consistency, and what a thrill to be here. My wife is in the back. I introduced her in Sunday school. She can wave her hand, as I mentioned. Then we've been in the trench, ministry trench, for the last 57 years together, and we are just praying that God will give us strength as we continue to go on from there. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter five, The text that we, that pastor read for us is going to be the passage. My main text is going to be verse nine, for we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. So if I were to title the message, it would be labor to be accepted of him, which literally means be ambitious to bring pleasure to him. Let's pray as we begin. Father, we commit the time to you. I pray that your word would be effective, that I would be able to communicate it accurately, that our hearts might be attentive and stirred. Help us, God, in this age to be salt and light, to indeed be ambassadors of that message, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. As Paul was speaking to a very carnal church, the Corinthian church, as you know, that church was filled with carnality. People saved out of that background. when you see the listing that Paul's given, and he says, such were some of you. It's a great reminder of the age in which we are living now, and the direction that our country is going, that these people were right in the midst of the lifestyle that we are seeing growing at a breakneck speed in our country. And Paul says, such were some of you. Remember what Christ did in you. But now we see Paul is talking about putting off this earthly bottle, putting off this earthly temple, and that we are to be living our lives with ambition to bring pleasure to him. The question is, according to the King James text, that we may be accepted of him. Obviously, we cannot labor to be accepted of him. in the sense of what we would normally see as being accepted. But when we look at the actual depth of the Word, in that we are to be ambitious, to bring pleasure to Him. How do we do that? We're born in sin. We are encircled by perpetual temptations. When we come to know Christ, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. How then do we live? Paul said we are soon going to put off this temple. that we have. And he said, confident, I say, willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So Paul is saying that, you know, my preference would be to go home. Have you ever felt that way recently? Lord, I just want to go home. I just want my promotion now. But yet when we stop and look at the time, we're just waiting for the trumpet sound. But until that time, how are we going to live? Then see wherefore we are laboring. And that word there is not just the labor that is ergos, an energetic labor, but it is a death-producing type labor that we would enter in this process. How do we do that? Number one, I want to look at Paul's motive. What was his motive when he made this instruction? First of all, we see in verse 10, for we all appear, must appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. So first of all, Paul's motive was realization of accountability at the bema. Paul lived his life with the realization that he was going to give accounting of how he lived after he became a believer. And that accounting would be, when it's fire tested, at the judgment seat of Christ. The judgment seat of Christ is not a judgment for sin. When Christ cried on the cross, it is finished. Sin was no longer going to be brought up to us. This is not gonna be us in line, and then it's time now for your movie to come up of your life, and people say, no, no, I didn't know he did that. No, that sin is gone. But how then will we be judged at the Bema? How will that test happen? I'm not gonna go into 1 Corinthians chapter three, but it would certainly be a worthy thing to examine sometime, because it's gonna be a time of revelation. of how we've lived and what was our attitude in what we did. It's gonna be a time of revelation of how we submitted in the authority of God's word. It'll be a time of revelation how we use the abilities that God gave us. And I think the testing at that time, all of the works that are gonna be tested at that time and what will be revealed is did we serve in a right attitude? It's not am I busy, it's not am I working hard. Why am I busy? Why am I working hard? And when you stop and read 1 Corinthians chapter 13, anything that is done, No matter how laborious, if it is not then done out of agape love, it is going to be a zero at this time. You might be very busy, you might be very sacrificial. Love pulls rank over knowledge. Love pulls rank over study. It pulls rank over sacrifice. And then even though Paul said, do I give my body to be burned? I think referring to people who work with junior high teens. Do I give my body to be burned? If it is not done out of a God-paid love, it is going to be a zero when the fire would test that. So a very serious consideration. It's not only a time of revelation, it's gonna be a time of reward. And the awards will be given during that time and we'll see that very clearly as we look at the whole context of this when we see in verse 10, we all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body. Receive, that means to carry away from that award place. What will we carry away? Things that were done in the body, in other words, while we were still in this flesh. According to that, he had done, whether it's good or bad. Everything we do will be tested, whether it's abiding or whether it is worthless. When the fire tests our works. Sin is gone, remember. When fire tests our works, will they abide and go into a place of reward or will they burn because they were done out of wrong motivation? Whether they're good or worthless. but it'll also be a time of regret. So that time of the Bema is gonna be a time of revelation, it's gonna be a time of reward, and it will be a time of regret, according to 1 Corinthians chapter three. What could have been done with what God had given to me? It's not gonna be we're gonna live in sorrow for all of eternity, but at that point, when things that we have done are burned, We are saved, Paul says, yet so as by fire. Don't we start to think how involved should we be in the goal to bring glory to him? So Paul was motivated by the fact that he was going to give an account of how he lived and what he did and what was the motivation of that during that time. Secondly, I think he was motivated by fear. We see in verse 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. And again, I mentioned in Sunday school that the fear has three faces, one dealing with the character, one dealing with the obedience of his commands, and the other dealing with consequences of obedience or disobedience. And I think this context, we have both applications here. Paul is saying, knowing the terror of the Lord. In other words, those who do not come to Christ, what their end is going to be. but also knowing also that we should live in the fear of God and we should serve with the realization of our heart attitude of worship towards Him. So not as we see the awesomeness of God's character, that should motivate us to go on in obedience to ultimate realization of consequences. And rewards would certainly be those consequences, the reverence. that is involved in our worship. And then Paul was motivated thirdly in the text by love. You look in verse 14. So not only was his motivation, I'm gonna give an accounting of how I lived after I'm saved. Not only am I gonna live in the fear of God, but also I'm going to live in love. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. So Paul is saying I am literally boxed in by this love. And this is not talking about Paul's unshakable love for Christ, this is talking about Christ's unshakable love to us. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, nothing. No thing, no person, including ourselves, can ever separate from His love. And what a thought that is. That should motivate us to go into selfless sacrifice for God's glory. And literally, when you're boxed in by that love, you realize how perfectly we are loved. Ever just stop to think about that, that you are loved with a perfect love? I think that is so beyond the height and the depth and the breadth. I think it is so far beyond our comprehension. All we can do is, by faith, accept it and bask in the fact that we are loved with a perfect love. And then, that love that should be flowing through us, that we might be reflecting the character and the likeness of what God is like in his communicable attribute of love. So it is a selfless type of a thing. So we see Paul's motive. How do we live to bring pleasure to him? Our motive. Then secondly, notice Paul's ministry. We go down to verse 18. All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now that we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ that be ye reconciled to God, for ye have made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness, of God in him. So we see, first of all, in verse 18, that God is the author of our reconciliation. So Paul had the ministry of reconciliation. We were at odds with God. We were enemies of God. Now we have been reconciled to him. And so he's saying, so God authored that. All things are of God. That's the genitive of source. And secondly, it is a, Realization that Christ is the agent of that reconciliation. All things are of God, the source. Who hath reconciled us to himself, how? By Jesus Christ. That's the agent of our reconciliation. And hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now we are ambassadors of that message. What an awesome responsibility. When you stop to think, yes, God authored this. Christ was the agent to make this happen. Now we are the ambassadors of that ministry. You have been saved, you became a believer. Now you have the ministry of reconciliation. The same thing that motivated Paul. Paul is saying we need to live, whether present or absent, that we may be anxious and diligent to bring pleasure to him all by fulfilling that ministry of reconciliation. There's a lost world that is separated from God. They need to be reconciled to God, how? Through the ministry of the gospel. And when we think of our salvation, there are four prominent words that come to play. One is propitiation. Propitiation is the satisfying, the character of God. See, God's perfect love and God's perfect holiness were intention when Adam crashed the human race into sin. When they stepped in disobedience, instant death. Death is not cessation of being. Death is separation. When a person dies, he does not cease to be. He is separated from loved ones. When Adam and Eve sinned, they did not physically drop over dead. They were instantly separated from God. Described in Ephesians chapter two, we have been quickened. We have been made alive again. In other words, when death separated us from God, that reconciliation brought us back to life, quickened by the Holy Spirit of God that we might be saved. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually. They were separated from God. And there is the death that is spiritual death, separation from God that had to be brought back through Christ. Then you have physical death that happens. As for one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin. So death passed upon all men. So when man sinned, death was introduced. into the world, physical death, but it never is cessation of being. And then according to Revelation 20, there is eternal death. When finally Christ will make the declaration, depart from me, I never knew you, into everlasting damnation. And that is the eternal death, but it's never cessation of being. It is separation, now separated from God forever, from any potential of that love. That's why we have to be ambassadors of the message of reconciliation. So propitiation, what is it? God's perfect holiness and God's perfect love or intention. How was that tension going to be solved? And you look through the Old Testament, right after Adam and Eve sinned, God put a plan of the shedding of blood. The animal skins covered them. And what was becoming known as atonement all throughout the Old Testament, the role of the high priest who would go in one time a year to make atonement, but never a removal. So atoning is a covering. If I had a quarter on here and I put my Bible over that quarter, it's atoning. But when Christ came, that was removed. But until that time, the shed blood, the sacrificial system, you read through the book of Leviticus and it wears you out. But it had to be done. Why so much detail? My wife and I were talking about this on the way down when we were listening through the Bible on disc. And I said, I think the reason there was so much detail in this, they had to be obedient and that detail protected them from any intrusion of falsehood coming into that system of atonement. But then you get to the book of Hebrews and you finally breathe a sigh of relief once for all. I mean, can you imagine the relief once for all? I told Charlene, even the goats were more relaxed. Not only should we be, but it was finished once for all. And so what happened? Christ left the right hand of the Father. became born in a feed trough, left the Father's throne to be born in a feed trough. What was happening here? Verse 21, for he hath made him to be what? Sin for us. Who knew no sin? A purpose clause, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. How does that happen? It's called propitiation. Holy love, intention, Christ left the throne, came to the trough, and then lived that perfect sinless life for the 33 plus years. Came to the Upper Room. If you want a great side study for the rest of this year, study the Upper Room Discourse. John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. These are the final words that Christ gave to the disciples because he was now on his way to Gethsemane and less than 24 hours on his way to the cross. And what is he doing? He is pouring his heart out to his disciples. And you'll find what he was saying in pouring his heart out to them, preparing them for what they would face in this world. He said, I'm going to my father, but this is what you are going to face. And in the high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, men might have been praying that as they went towards Gethsemane. Judas knew where he was going, knew where he would be. When he went out and left the upper room discourse in the midst when he had been identified between him and Christ, he left to plan the betrayal. Then after, They get to the garden. Christ told Peter, James, and John, come with me. My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Come pray with me. And he went a little further and prayed, and then he came back and the disciples were asleep. He said, could you not watch with me one hour? And then he goes back and sweated where great drops of blood saying, Father, if there is another way, what way to what? To solve the tension between his holiness and his love. If there is another way, let it be done, but if not, not my will, but thy will be done, Father. So tense under such stress that it were blood pouring out of his pores. comes back to the disciples again and they're sleeping. And he gave the only command the church has fully obeyed, sleep on now and take your rest. That's the command we love. And he settles it, not that he was going to sin, not that he was going to disobey, but he was modeling for the fact, God, if there is another way, Father, that I do not have to be separated from you. And then Judas plants the kiss of betrayal, identifies there with the darkness and the torches that were being held and realized what he had done, goes back to the priest that I've sinned and that I betrayed, innocent blood. He said, that's not our business, you go and take care of that. Christ goes on his way to the cross, falls beneath that load, nailed to those beams, planted in the ground, Can you imagine, in 50 minutes from now, this world going completely dark at 12 noon? I mean, nothing, no lights, no glow, nothing, blackness. From 12 till 3 o'clock, earthquakes. No wonder even many of the priests became believers at that point. And the centurion said, surely this is the son of God. Where was God at that time? God was right there. You know what happened? Three hours pouring out his wrath on the son. Why? Because the holiness and love had to be brought into one. And the only way it could be done is described in verse, he became sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. There was no other way. He was pouring out every single sin was paid for at that point. Now it's up to that individual to receive that message, to receive that gift, because it's all paid for. Propitiation. And finally, When Christ cried, it is finished. Guess what? Salvation's work was done. That's propitiation. The satisfying of God's holiness. So we could say John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but everlasting life. If I die in my sin, if you are here as an unbeliever, you die in your sin, you will pay infinity. You will have an endless payment because we are finite. Christ was the infinite one. And in a finite period of time, he satisfied the holy demand of a holy God. And in that three-hour period of time, he satisfied the holy demand of a holy God because he was the infinite one who, in a finite period of time, paid my sin penalty. And we will never face our sin again as believers. We will be judged, as I mentioned at the Bema, for how we lived, whether there will be reward or loss of reward. That's propitiation. God brought that satisfaction through the person of Christ. What a message we have to give. Are we doing that? You know what would be a blessing if one year from today, One year from this Sunday, another person were sitting next to you who is not a believer now, who has become a believer during that time. And by the way, what a time to witness. What a time to give the gospel because people are wondering, is this world coming to an end? People very quickly will engage you in conversation that in times past were not because people are beginning to live in fear. What a chance to give the gospel. You have that, you say, well, that's what I hired pastors for. That is not why you hired pastors. We are, every single believer is an ambassador of that message. Every single believer is responsible to give that gospel message. And just think, one year from now, you pray and you invite maybe a family in for supper, or try to engage them, or a coworker, and you try and say, put that name on a prayer list. And one year from now, that new convert is sitting next to you, now being mentored and growing for sanctification. You say only one, that's not much of a goal. Maybe there's one more than you did last year. Or have we grown too indifferent? Have we grown too careless? Propitiation, that's ceremonial, that takes place at the altar. Then the next word is redemption. That's a marketplace term, that's commercial. We have been bought back from the marketplace of sin. And then there's justification. We have been declared, judicially we have been declared righteous, according to verse 21, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Let's suppose that you had been accused of a crime. You are in court, the trial is going on, finally the jury issues an edict, not guilty. The judge drops the gavel. Not guilty, you're free to go home. You get home and a prosecuting attorney calls you and says, it's not that simple. You must reappear in court, the case is not closed. You go back to court the next day and the judge is saying, why are you here? Well, the prosecuting attorney said that the case had not closed. I had to be back in court. He said, no, you were declared not guilty yesterday. Go home and enjoy your freedom. You go home, say, well, amen. Phone rings again, prosecutor calls. You must reappear, goes back, said, let me give you a suggestion. The judge says, every time the prosecutor calls, be on the line with your defense attorney. He'll get a busy signal every time he calls. And boy, the accuser comes pounding at you, you're not saved. It's not that simple. Stay on the line with your defense attorney. He won your case. I mean, that should make a Presbyterian take a running fit when you think on it enough. Justification. And then reconciliation, that's personal, that's family. We are now reconciled to God. I mean, think on that, meditate on that. And Paul's ministry then was a ministry of reconciliation. And as we see, what else was Paul's motivation? Not only was his motivation, realization of accountability at the Bema, his motivation, was the fact that we had a ministry, reconciliation, and then let's look at Paul's mindset. Go back up and we look in verse 15. And that he died for all. that they which live, underscore this, underscore Paul's mindset, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Paul's mindset was Christ-centered, not self-centered. Boy, how easy is it to get self-centered? A good test. of the sincerity of the heart of a Christian. When COVID came, some Christians, oh, praise the Lord, we don't have to go to church. Oh, thank you, Lord, for being so good. I told some pastors, I said, meet in the back of Walmart. Have your congregation meet you back by the meat department and have a service there because they're open. Oh, no, no, no. I go to Walmart, but God forbid that I would go to church. And by the way, we can't watch Walmart on TV. We can watch church on TV in our pajamas. Well, same thing as people go to Walmart. What's the difference? You know what I'm saying? I mean, they were so highly dressed. Some have real nice pajamas too, nice ones. And that's just not redneck, that's all over. Some of you know Mike Harding. Pastor Mike Harding almost went home to be with the Lord in the last month. I talked to him. They gave him 10% chance to survive. They told me to call my family in, so the family came in. Mike said, I had 21 days. He said, it was just agony. He said, I was really believing. He said, I've never been closer to the Lord. I have never had a greater passion for him. If God spares you, I've never had a greater passion to preach with boldness the word. But he thought, it's probably going to be my end. And he said, boy, you get a different mindset when you know you have maybe days before you're going to be home with the Lord. He sent this, I got the text from him, and I think several other pastors may have gotten this text. He said, my wife, Jenny, now this is Mike's wife, beautiful musician, that whole family of musicians. He said, my wife, Jenny, buried her mother on Thursday, who died from COVID. Her father died on Friday from COVID and pneumonia. Her husband, speaking of himself, Mike Harding, her husband is very sick at home and almost died from COVID, of whom she must care for. In other words, Jenny now had to, she did not only have to deal with the funeral, and you know how funerals are today, where you cannot even hardly have gatherings together. She also, Mike said, had to take care of me, who was dying. It is six degrees above zero, actual temperature. It is the day of the Super Bowl. If anyone had an excuse to skip church, it would be my wife. But she will not skip church because she believes church is very, very important to God and to her. She will be at the nine o'clock worship this morning. He's writing, yes, from home. Still very weak. She will be at the morning worship at nine this morning. She will be at the Sunday school hour at 5.30 tonight. She is not the kind of person who looks, underscore this, who looks for excuses to not go to church. I think how many people regularly miss church for any and all reasons? I see in contrast an example of an incredible, faithful, and due diligence in my wife. Not only is she a strong Christian, but she is an excellent example of a pastor's wife, of whom the Bible says in 1 Timothy 3, faithful in all things. Preston, this will be a good thing to share, speaking to one of the staff members. Good thing to share with the congregation in both services today. I'm feeling strong and I'd be able to go up and down stairs now. I plan on preaching February 28th, which would be today, the 36th anniversary of our coming to Troy, which is First Baptist of Troy in Michigan. The last weekend of February, 1985, he came. Did I mention that we live 20 minutes away from the church? I know some pastors' wives who haven't been in church for almost a year. And they use the flimsiest excuse not to come, even when they only live a few minutes from the church, and in some cases, only a few feet from the church. Faithfulness is a matter of character, not convenience. People basically do what they really want to do. What a statement. People basically do what they really want to do. The problem is their wanter. Text from Pastor Mike Harding. It's convicting to read, isn't it? How quickly do we look for any reason? It's almost like Teachers praying for snow days. You live in Atlanta. Oh, God, you could provide it. God, you could bring ice. I don't want to face those maggots today. Oh, God, deliver me. But that's more justifiable. This is not. Mindset. What kind of a mindset do we have? Are we convenience? Paul's mindset was Christ-centered, not self-centered. What really drives us? I mean, we're living in a world right now, we better thank God we can meet like this, not over COVID, but over laws. I never believed, I never believed that my wife and I discussed it. Often, never believed in our lifetime we would see our freedoms, yes. In a law that was just passed this past week, that's gonna come so quickly attacking Christian ministries. We'd better know where we stand and we better know why we stand where we stand. And I do think it's a tremendous opportunity for revival, I really do. Well, if anything, should drive Christians to their knees. It should be the things we're facing now because we may not, for a very long time, be able to get together like this. I met with the Chinese house pastors who come out of Communist China. They come to an island in the Pacific, and I was lectured to them. Brilliant people. And I'm not gonna bore you with the other details, but hearing each one of their testimonies, the beatings they've had, the imprisonments that they've had, and how they came to Christ to begin with. I felt like a spiritual pygmy when I left after meeting with those people. And one said, you know, brother, and through interpreters, we're not looking to be martyrs, but we would be so honored if God chose to take us that way. I get on an airplane, I fly from that island to Guam, and from Guam to Tokyo, and from Tokyo to Minneapolis, and Minneapolis to home. And I'm thinking, am I landing in a country that has the same mentality among believers? Oh, if we could just see God do a revival in our hearts, a revival in commitment to give the gospel, a commitment in soul winning, a commitment to holy living. These churches that are centered in entertainment will just blend in. But those churches standing on preaching basic Bible truth will stand firmly. And Berean Baptist is one of those churches. Thank God for the privilege we have. And then Paul's mindset was internal, not external. Look back to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and we'll look in verse 16. This 2 Corinthians chapter 4 is a chapter years ago when we were still ministering in Roseville, Michigan. I memorized this chapter one day when I was in such throes of distress of What is really happening? Is anything happening in our ministry? And I memorized this chapter in one day because it became so need-beating to me. Look in verse 16, for which cause we faint not. But though the outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. So Paul's mindset was internal, not external. Paul is saying externally, yes, things are happening. But internally, I am being strengthened day by day in the inner man. Are we being strengthened by this? As we covered in Sunday School this morning, is this book precious to us? That we will saturate ourselves with it, that we will saturate our minds with that internal. not external, and then last of all, it is eternal, not temporal. Paul says in verse 17 and 18 of 2 Corinthians 4, for our light affliction, and can you imagine Paul saying light affliction? which is but for the moment works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at things which are seen, but at things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, and the things which are not seen are eternal." Apostle, I'm living for the eternal, not the temporal. And boy, what an investment that is. You know, I received a phone call as I come to a close here. Got home from prayer meeting on Wednesday night. I was in our house. At that time, we lived about a mile from the campus. One of the staffers called and said, Doc, oh, you better come back to campus. There's been an accident. And, you know, your heart kind of sinks. And I got there, and there had been an accident. A van, three cars and a caravan were coming back from Extension Ministry in the springtime, about maybe towards the end of March, when you would get a warm day up there in the big snow banks, and then the snow would melt and run across the road. And then night would come. It would get back down in the 20s, and then that would freeze. And they were going about 30 miles an hour by all testimonies of all the drivers. coming back from, I believe, Stevenson, Michigan. And the van, that was a church van, hit this patch of ice that had developed when the temperature dropped, where the water had run across, went sideways, and then very freakishly didn't flip over, but flipped, and two of the girls were killed, graduating seniors. One was heading to Communist China, and one was heading back to the East Coast. Girls who loved the Lord. And I'm standing there in shock, and I'm thinking. So we had to walk through those steps. We went to the one girl's funeral in New York. We flew out there. We're at her family's place, and her dad comes out of out of Megan's bedroom and says, Doc, go read this. And it was Megan's journal. All of her roommates had gathered up all of her stuff in the boxes and drove them, as they were on their way to the funeral, dropped them all at, Doc, go read this. It was her journal of her last days. In fact, I remember sitting at lunch with students This gal, both of them were very godly girls, but this girl said at lunchtime to her friends, just think what it will be like to see him face to face. That's how she thought. She had given her life already to go to die, if need be, in communist China. And I started reading her last days. I must sell out totally. There is no time for this and no time for that. God, I must sell out. And page after page after page that included the statements that showed that her mindset was eternal, not temporal. It was Christ-centered, not self-centered. Her brothers at the funeral, who were soccer players for us, read statements from her journal. A thousand people, they had to literally use a high school auditorium. When that pastor gave an invitation after the message, over a hundred hands were lifted to accept Christ. You know, her ministry goes on and the other gal the same way. We had their pictures up. They were both excellent soccer players. We had their pictures up going into the gym. I would remind our students that there were two who got their promotion. It's not the duration of your life. It's the donation that you make during that time frame. Why are we living? Paul says at the end of his life, at the end of his time, I have fought a good fight. I have kept the faith. I have finished my course. They're all perfect tenses. In other words, Paul wasn't saying, I have attained perfection. No, he said, I haven't. But that's why in perfect tense, a dot and a continuous line, I have been fighting. I have been finishing. I have been keeping. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown. Henceforth. Right in the middle of that, he says, and Demas has forsaken me. Having loved the present world, I don't think Paul was offended for himself. Paul ached for Demas, that Demas lost sight of the eternal. I don't think Paul was saying, oh, poor me, Demas. No, Paul knew within hours his head would be severed from his body. He was aching for Demas, who surrendered all that he had invested up to that point, because he lost sight of the eternal. How have we viewed the eternal. I remember watching Olympics one day, and it's the 2004 Summer Olympics. And I was watching the race, the marathon that was running its original course from the very first Olympics. And a runner from Brazil named Vanderlei de Lima was running, he was so far ahead that with about five or six miles left, it was evident that he had his gold medal won. And some of you might even remember this because they replayed it. You could Google this, Vanderlei de Lima, a Brazilian runner. And when he was there and obviously knew, and as the crowds were sprinkled along that 26.2 mile route, A maniac came out of the crowd where the people are and tackled de Lima in his race. And he was fighting to get loose. And if you watch the replay, you could see how Delim was fighting. And others jumped in to pull this maniac off. But in the meantime, Baldini from Italy passed him and won the gold. Another one passed him and got the bronze. And Vanderlei got back in the race and got silver. And then Vanderlei got back in and won the bronze medal. I give this illustration. at a men's retreat in Pennsylvania. And the man came up and he said, do you realize, and he had his phone, he said, do you realize that Vanderlei de Lima received the highest award that the IOC gives? It's above gold. Rarely given. They gave Vanderlei de Lima this award above gold, rarely given, and he was honored with that. And the reason was because he got blindsided in the race and didn't quit. And I'm thinking to myself, how many times do we get blindsided? And first thing we think is, I'm done. I'm done with this. But we get up and go again. You get blindsided by something and you say, I can't believe this. And you get up and go again. Dilima got that award. Charlene and I were flying back from South America, came through Brazil. It was the Summer Olympics, actually. And Vanderlei Dilima was the last one to carry the Olympic torch, the light, the Summer Olympic torch in Brazil, 2016. Still being honored after all those years. for not quitting after being blindsided. And how many, even Christians, if that's how God is, instead of saying, God, you're so good, I'm gonna cling to your truth, oh, that we would, as believers, get on fire, say, God, use us for your purpose and glory. Father, we commit to you this time. I pray that you will just Take this truth and take this, even through a flawed servant, somehow stir our hearts to walk in love and to walk in obedience and to not throw in the towel, but that we would love and serve you with all of our heart. While heads are still bowed, and I'm gonna have pastor come and close, but while heads are bowed, how many of you will say, Les, I don't have assurance. I do not have assurance of heaven, but I want to. I want to know. If my heart were to stop beating right now, I don't know that I would be with the Lord. Is there anyone like that who would lift a hand and say, let's pray for me? I'm in that situation. I'm in that case. I don't know, but I want to know. Pray for me. I won't ask you a question of believers. Where do we stand as fast as you would come and close?