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  THE TRUE MEANING OF THE CROSS
  by David Ravenhill
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Summary: The sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding the true
meaning of the cross and how it relates to our lives, highlighting the
significance of the cross as God's solution to man's sickness and the
purpose of creation.

Duration: 1:08:55 Topics: "The Cross", "Surrender"
Scripture References: Matthew 16:24, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, James 4:13-17, 2 Peter 2:1-3

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding the true reason
for Jesus Christ's death on the cross. It highlights the need to
surrender our lives completely to God, not just seeking forgiveness for
sins but also giving Him full ownership and authority over our lives.
The message challenges believers to align their will with God's will,
acknowledging Him as Lord and Master, and living in accordance with His
plans and purposes.

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CONTENT
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Well, thank you for coming out on this sort of stormy night. It's been a
joy to be with you up here in North Dakota. I don't get up these parts
very often.

I want to talk to you tonight on the very center, the very core, the
very crux of our Christian life. I want to speak to you about the cross.
I think there is so much misunderstanding when it comes to the reason
that Jesus Christ died.

Now, you may look at me and say, you know, we didn't come all this way
to hear a message about the death of Christ. We've known that ever since
we were sort of a knee-high to a grasshopper. You know, that's basic to
our faith.

And yet I am convinced after 50 years of ministry that the church really
doesn't understand the reason that Jesus Christ died. We want to look at
the reason what the Hebrews talks about our salvation as being so great
a salvation. So great a salvation.

In other words, the scope of what Jesus Christ has done will never ever
be fully understood this side of eternity. And we have different words
that are used in the process, if you like, of our salvation. One of them
that we are most familiar with, of course, is the word justification.

Justification is a legal term that is taken from the law courts. But
justification is not sufficient to, again, describe the vastness and the
greatness of what God has done for us. And so we have the word
propitiation, which is a spiritual term that's taken from the temple.

We have the word reconciliation, which is a social term taken from
society. We have the word adoption. But we also have the word
redemption.

And the word redemption is a commercial term that's taken from the
business world. And that is the aspect of the cross that I want to focus
on tonight. Now, when we talk about the cross, the cross really is God's
medicine for man's sickness.

Let me say that again. The cross is God's medicine for man's sickness.
Man's sickness, of course, is sin, selfishness, and so on.

If I were to come down in the morning, God forbid, with some sort of
ailment, maybe a hacking cold, a blinding headache, runny nose, and just
watery eyes, and so on and so forth, hacking and coughing and so on, and
pastor says, listen, we need to get you some sort of medication. In
fact, I have a doctor that lives just down the road here, and he's a
good friend of mine. And so he calls me up to the doctor, and the doctor
checks me over, gives me a prescription.

And I take that prescription three times a day for the next ten days,
maybe some sort of penicillin or whatever. At the end of that period of
time, I still have the same symptoms. Blinding headache, runny nose, you
know, all stuffed up, aches and pains throughout my body and so on.

I'm going to come to the conclusion that Pastor Mark's friend is not the
best doctor in the world. Either that, or he misdiagnosed my condition
and prescribed the wrong medication, or the medication came in from
China. And it is not what it should be.

In other words, there is something wrong with that medication, because
if that medication truly works, I should be free from all my symptoms.
Isn't that right? In other words, I would say to people, if somebody
said to me, how are you feeling? I'd say, you know, I'm feeling like my
old self again. I have my strength back, my energy back, my eyes are no
longer watering, I no longer have a blinding headache, my joints feel
great and so on, I'm being totally restored.

That is what the cross is supposed to do. The cross, again, is God's
medicine for man's sickness. Now the problem is, what does man look like
when he's healthy? That is what we have to know, first of all.

Let me put it this way, here's another illustration. If this podium was
taken apart, let's say it's, you know, a little more fancy than this,
we'll take it out of some Baptist church, you know, with these great big
ornate podiums, and I take it all apart, every single piece of wood,
take it out to a carpenter's shop. He has not seen it in its original
condition, but I take in all these plants, all these pieces of wood, and
I say to him, would you mind restoring this for me? I come back in ten
days, I'm surprised because instead of a podium, there is a toolbox or
maybe a coffee table or maybe a bookshelf, maybe a side table, maybe
even a casket.

And I look in horror and say, but listen, that was a podium that came
out of a church. And he said, but you never told me. You never told me
what it was.

Originally, I did the best job I could. I think that's what we've done
with the message of the cross. We've done the best job we could because
we failed to understand God's original plan in place.

You see, you can never restore something to its original condition
unless, first of all, you see it in its original condition. Isn't that
right? And when you see it in its original condition, then you know what
that restoration is supposed to accomplish. It's supposed to bring it
back to the way it was originally.

And so that's what we're going to explore for a little while. But I want
to begin in the epistle of John. We're going to be looking at a number
of scriptures, so bear with me.

The first epistle of John, chapter 2 and verse 12, 13, and 14. John
says, I've written to you, little children, because your sins are
forgiven you for His name's sake. I've written to you, fathers, because
you know Him that is from the beginning.

I've written to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I've written to you, children, because you know the Father. I've written
to you, fathers, because you know Him that is from the beginning.

I've written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of
God abides in you, and you've overcome the evil one. John is not
literally addressing the various age groups in the church. In other
words, he's not writing a letter to the Sunday school department, and
then a letter to the youth department, and then a letter to the AARP
crowd.

He is addressing three levels of spiritual maturity. How many of you
know you can be a baby in Christ and be 99 years of age physically? Or
you can be a mature man or woman of God at the age of 20. So it has
nothing to do with our physical age, but John is saying here, I'm
writing to you, children, those that are just born again of the Spirit
of God.

In fact, he says, I write to you, children, because your sins are being
forgiven. That's where the Christian life begins, the realization I'm a
sinner. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse me and restore me and
so on.

And then as a child, of course, he says, I've written to you, children,
because you know the Father. A child in the natural, if he's born into a
healthy home, comes into a relationship with his Father. The same thing
is true spiritually.

We have a relationship with God. We cry, Daddy, Abba, Father. And so he
begins here by saying, we all began as children.

The wonderful thing about a child is it has no past. Some of you may
have children at home, or maybe they're here. Maybe some of you got
grandchildren.

If that baby, let's say there's a little three-day-old baby, and it is
screaming its head off in the middle of the night, and Mother goes in,
honor to whom honor is due, Father's a tone deaf at night time. Amen.
Thank God for honesty here, or I'm not a poor waiter.

But if that baby could articulate what it is feeling, and the mother
walks in and that baby is able to express itself, the mother would never
hear that baby say, Mommy, the reason I'm crying and screaming my head
off tonight is because of all those horrendous things I did years ago.
They've come back to haunt me. Another wonderful thing about a child is
it has no past.

If any man be in Christ, all things are passed away. Every single thing
becomes new. And so he begins to talk here about little children.

As wonderful as a child is, if that child remains a child, it is one of
the greatest tragedies that a parent can face. Isn't that right? And
Paul faced that. He said to the Corinthians, you know, I've got to give
you the bottle all the time.

I'd love to take you out to the outback. My translation. I know what the
outback is.

I don't think there is one here. Or anywhere close by. But anyway,
that's another matter.

But in other words, he said that, you know, you should be able to digest
a good steak, but instead you need the bottle. And so if we develop the
way God intended us to develop, we become young men or, if you like,
young ladies. And he says, I write to you young men, because you've
overcome the evil one.

It isn't too long after we're born again to the Spirit of God, we begin
to mature. We realize we have an adversary. That adversary is out to
sabotage, if you like, everything that God has done in our life, to
undermine the grace of God and so on and so forth.

And we've got to learn to overcome the evil one. And so he says, I've
written to you young men, he repeats it twice, because you're strong,
the Word of God abides in you, you've overcome the evil one. If I were
to put that in what I think is a more logical sequence, I would put it
this way.

I've written to you young men because the Word of God abides in you.
Because the Word of God abides in you, you're strong. Because you're
strong, you can overcome the evil one.

He's not talking here about physical strength. He's not talking about
these young men that are working down at the gym and, you know,
expanding their physique and so on. He says you are strong because the
Word of God abides in you.

Because you know who you are in Christ, you're able to overcome the evil
one. And then he says, I write to your fathers. I write to your fathers,
he says, because you know Him that is from the beginning.

And then he writes again, verse 14, and he says the very same thing.
I've written to your fathers because you know Him that is from the
beginning. I have to admit that for many, many years I was sort of
disappointed somewhat in John's revelation here.

He is, if you write, if you plot this on a graph, I write to you
children, your sins are forgiven. You know the Father, I write to you
young men, you're strong, the Word of God abides in you, you've overcome
the evil one. I write to you fathers because you know Him that is from
the beginning.

In other words, what's the difference between knowing Him that is from
the beginning and children that know the Father? He seems to be saying
the same thing, he's sort of a little redundant. Well, there's a vast
difference, of course, between the way children know a father and the
way fathers know Him that is from the beginning. Those of you who are
parents know that you exist for your child's sake.

Isn't that right? Daddy do this, Daddy do that, Daddy buy me an ice
cream, Daddy push me on the swing, Daddy read me a story, Mommy, when's
dinner going to be ready, and so on and so forth. Yes, darling, what can
I do for you next? And as the child grows up, the toys get more
expensive. Daddy, I'm off to college, I need a Honda.

Sorry, Chevy. And I'll put it in the culture here. But, you know, we
live and we look at our father from a very selfish point of view.

Daddy, you're there to take care of my needs. And thank God that, of
course, Daddy is there to take care of my needs, but not only that. But
he says, I've written to you fathers because you know Him that is from
the beginning.

Fathers see the big picture. If I were to take one word to describe
these three levels, the first word would be the word conversion or
regeneration, because they'd be born again, I write to you children. The
second word would be maturation, because they've begun to develop and
flex their spiritual muscles and take care of the enemy, resist the
enemy.

They're strong, the word of God abides in them, they become mature. But
if I were to describe this little statement here, I write to you fathers
because you know Him that is from the beginning, I would use the word
consummation or culmination. In other words, a father sees the big
picture, he sees the overall plan.

Fathers, children live in the immediate realm, don't they? You give them
a toy, they're happy, brother or sister takes it away, they're bursting
in tears and so on, maybe they're fighting with each other. You know,
father comes in with a little bit of discipline and so on, he's thinking
big term, he thinks if I don't do something about this rebellion that's
going on, there's going to be a greater problem down the road. And so
he's constantly thinking of the big picture.

And I've said all of that to get to this one word, the word beginning.
The word beginning. The beginning of things gives you a totally
different perspective.

Isn't that right? And John, more than any other writer, talks about the
beginning of things. He begins his epistle, what was from the beginning?
What we've heard and seen, our hands are tangled. He begins the gospel,
in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.

He gave us the book of Revelation. And he talks about Jesus Christ being
the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end. And John uses this word
beginning, as far as I know, more than any other writer like I just
said.

But the beginning of things is what we need to understand. The beginning
of things gives us a totally different perspective. Let me give you an
illustration.

Jesus is standing in front of the scribes and the Pharisees. They were
always trying to embroil him in some sort of controversy, you know,
should we pay taxes to Caesar or not, and all of these sort of things.
And on this occasion, of course, they raise the issue of divorce.

And they say, listen, you know, even Moses gave us permission to divorce
our lives, and, you know, what do you say about it? And Jesus took it
out of the present situation, and he went back to the beginning, and he
says, in the beginning, it was never God's intent. You see, the
beginning gives us a totally different perspective. Divorce came in
because of your inability to forgive, because of your hardness of heart,
and so on and so forth.

And so Moses was given permission to allow you to divorce your wife for
the sake of peace because you weren't big enough and man enough to
forgive and forget, and so on and so forth. But in the beginning, it was
not so. Now, if we're going to understand the cross, we need to go back
to the beginning.

In other words, man is sick now. Man is full of sin and selfishness and
rebellion and so on. But what was man like originally? Because that is
where we need to get back to.

So let's go to the book of beginnings, if you will. And that is the book
of Genesis. And I want to look at man in his original condition.

You see, from Genesis chapter 3 on, we live in a distorted world. The
Bible calls it a crooked and perverse generation. In other words, it's
like looking through somebody else's glasses, and they've got a
different prescription than you, and so everything's sort of out of the
kilter, everything's a little fuzzy, and so on.

You're not seeing things clearly. From Genesis 3, everything in the
Bible, again, is distorted. Why? Because the fall took place.

And even though this countryside is beautiful, you know, it wasn't this
way originally. There were no thorns and thistles and so on and so
forth. You know, it was radically different.

But man was radically different, too. And so let's look at the way God
planned man to be. In Genesis chapter 2, and verse 15.

And the Lord God took the man and placed him, or put him in the garden
of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. Let me break that verse down for
you into three words. The word submission, the word location, and the
word vocation.

First of all, the word submission. The Lord God took the man. Notice
that it's God, not just simply in a generic way, but God as Lord, as
Master.

And he has total control over his creation. Again, there's no fall,
there's no rebellion. The enemy has not been sort of let loose and so
on.

This is man in his pristine condition, and he is subservient, totally
subservient, to God as his Lord. So much so that the Lord took the man.
No rebellion, no objection.

We don't have heel marks all across the garden of Eden where God says,
I'm bigger than you, and man says, I really don't want to do this, and
God says, you've got to do it. No, man is completely compliant,
completely submissive to God himself. The second thing is that God
placed man in a location.

In this case, he put him in the garden of Eden. God had a place that he
intended man to function. He did not give man a personality test.

He doesn't give man options and say, listen, I'm going to give you a few
little tests here, and if you happen to have a green thumb, why do I
ever have a garden? It is magnificent, it's got fruit trees and roses
and every conceivable thing. You'll be just absolutely delighted. It's a
horticultural paradise.

On the other hand, if you're sort of artsy, I'll give you a digital
camera and some oil paints and I've got this villa down on the beach and
the sunsets are magnificent, but we'll see how the test comes out. God
says, this is where I want you. And in that location, he reveals his
location.

This is what I want you to do. You're there to serve my interests. I
place you here because I have a job for you to fulfill, a mandate.

Now that was man originally. That's man before he got sick. I hope
you're understanding where I'm coming from now.

This is man in his original condition before he got a headache, if you
like, because of sin and watery eyes and aches and pains and all the
things that sin brings to us, so to speak. This is man originally. Now
we're going to try and explore this for a few more minutes.

If you turn with me to the book of Colossians, and what we're doing now
is trying to get into the mind of God as it pertains to the beginning of
things. Let me say that again. We're trying to get into the mind of God
now as to his original intention, his original purpose.

So Colossians chapter 1, verse 16, For by him all things were created,
both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or dominions, rulers or authorities. All things are being created by
him. Let me pause there.

Most of us don't have a problem with that. Most of us embrace the fact
that God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. We don't buy into
Darwinism.

We don't believe that we evolved out of some little slime ball, you
know, 10 million, 20 million years ago, whatever. We believe that God
created the heavens and the earth. Almost every page of the Bible tells
us that.

And most of us don't have a problem with that. Because it's sort of out
there. It's just a sort of a general statement.

But notice that Paul says something else. Not only were all things
created by him, but all things were created for him. That changes
things.

Now I realize that everything that God created was created specifically
for himself. That includes your life and my life. We're not here by
chance.

We didn't just sort of evolve, so to speak. And, you know, there's no
purpose for my life. And so on and on.

All things were created by him and for him. That little phrase at the
end there, for him, changes everything, doesn't it? It makes it
personal. It makes it a challenge to each and every one of us.

Then we go to the book of Revelation again. We're just touching on a few
verses here. Revelation chapter 4. Used to be a song that we sang years
ago.

Revelation 4 and verse 11. Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to
receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things.
Once again, a declaration that God is the creator.

And because of thy will they existed and they were created. The King
James says, and for your pleasure they were created. In other words, God
created the earth for his pleasure, for his will.

He didn't, he wasn't just sort of bored one day and decided, you know,
I'll do something. You know, just spoke the world into being, gave it a
good spin and said, you know, I'll check back with you 6,000 years from
now. In fact, no, God had something in mind.

He created man again for fellowship, for relationship, for his pleasure,
for his will, for his purpose. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 10. For it was
fitting for him, speaking of Christ, for it was fitting for him, for
whom are all things, oh sorry, yes, for whom are all things and through
whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory.

So, let me just go back. It was fitting for him, for whom are all
things, and through whom are all things. Let me put that in the order of
these other verses.

It was fitting for him, through whom are all things. In other words,
everything came into being by him and then for whom are all things. So,
God created everything again for himself.

That's important that we understand that. Now, let's go to the book of
Romans. Everybody knows, I'm sure, if you've been saved any length of
time, you know Romans 12, verse 1. It's the verse that I think most of
us end up memorizing or hearing so often.

I could teach you there for forever, no matter the verses of God, you
present your body, your living sacrifice and so on. How many of you know
the verse preceding that? Most people don't, but it is the link, it's
the foundation of Romans 12, verse 1. Keep in mind, originally, there
were no chapter divisions, no verses here, so let me read verse 36 of
Romans 11. For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever. Amen. Because there's an amen there, I
think whoever was dividing the chapter up that day, thought he'd have a
coffee break and come back and start a new chapter.

I don't know. You know, chapter divisions were not inspired. They were
put in by some monk or monkey somewhere back in history and help us to
sort of navigate and get around, but this is one of the worst chapter
divisions in the Bible.

This is one of Paul's greatest revelations. He said everything comes
from God. From him are all things.

Not most things. All things come from God. So he is the creator of all
things.

Not only is he the creator of all things, he is the sustainer of all
things because in him we live, we move, we have our very being. So it is
from him, it is through him that you and I live. The very breath that we
breathe and so on is given to us by God.

So it is from him, through him, and then Paul says, therefore to him are
all things. In other words, everything belongs to him. If it came from
him, if he sustains it, then he is also the consummator.

He is the creator, he is the sustainer, he is the consummator of all
things. This is one of Paul's greatest revelations I personally believe
in. I believe everything that he taught, all of his theology obviously
was God-given, but it stems from that sort of revelation.

Everything comes from God. Everything is sustained by God. Everything
belongs to God.

Therefore, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to give back
to God that which came from him, that which is sustained by him, that
which belongs to him, as your reasonable offering of worship. See,
Romans 12 doesn't make sense without it. Once you've got that
foundation, that revelation, the least you can do, Paul says, if
everything came from him, everything is sustained by him, everything
belongs to him, the least you can do is give back to him what he owns.

You go into 1 Corinthians chapter 8, and Paul says the same thing. Verse
6, Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things,
and we exist for him. One Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and
we exist through him.

Paul mixes it up a little bit, but nevertheless it's the same thing. It
is from him, through him, and for him. You see, Paul can't get away from
this sort of revelation.

It's something that sort of permeated who he was and who he taught. He
had that revelation. Now, we've got into the mind of God now for a
little while, I trust, and we've begun to understand God had a plan.

Everything was created by him and for him. Now, the problem is the enemy
came along. As we well know, the enemy deceived Eve into believing that
she was better off doing her own thing, basically.

Isaiah summarizes our condition, every single one of us, this way Isaiah
53 and verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've gone astray
from God's original plan, God's original order. All we like sheep have
gone astray.

We've turned everyone to his own way, his own way as opposed to God's
way. And the essence of all sin is selfishness. Isn't that right? The
foundation of every single sin is selfishness.

And we learn it from the, almost from the get-go. The moment you are
born, almost literally, that little hard drive begins to get programmed.
Here a baby comes, emerges out of the womb, it's been in hibernation for
nine months, and in the darkness comes out into the marvelous light sort
of thing, and all of a sudden, it's surrounded by a fan club.

Uncles and uncles, brothers and sisters, if there are any and so on,
everybody's doing it, isn't she cute, isn't he cute, can I have a hold
and so on, let's assume it's a home birth, and this baby thinks, wow,
this is amazing, everybody loves me, thinks I'm the greatest, and so on
and so forth. And after being passed around for a little while, that
baby gets exhausted, and mother puts the baby in the back room, turns
off the light, baby's all swaddled up, it wakes up about an hour later,
two hours later, thinks, I'm back in the womb, I'm all swaddled up, it's
dark in here, where's my fan club, let's have a battle. All of a sudden,
the fan club arrives, the music begins, the rocking chair is dragged
out, and so on, and the baby thinks, ah, I get it, all I've got to do is
ring the bell, and I get attention.

And so, you know, here it is, middle of the night now, the baby's not
hungry, the baby's not wet, but the baby's missing all the attention in
the fan club. So again, let's have a battle, and mother goes running in,
to train up her mother in the way she should go, and when she's old,
she'll have to pop out. And so, that baby learns to get its way, and
we're all like that.

We learn to, you know, con our way into getting the biggest piece of
cake, and getting out and doing the dishes, and blaming our brother or
sister if we've got them, and we develop a selfish lifestyle. What's in
it for me? What's in it for me? The problem with that selfish lifestyle
is that when it comes to the cross, what's in it for me? What has Jesus
Christ done whereby I can benefit? After all, my whole life has been
about selfishness, about my feelings, and so on and so forth, so there's
got to be something in this whereby I can benefit. And of course, the
message comes, Jesus Christ died on the cross for you, David, for you,
Mary, for you, Tom, so that you don't have to go to hell.

You can go to heaven. That sounds pretty good. I like that.

I don't want to go to hell. Doesn't sound like the best place to spend
eternity, so, you know, I'll volunteer, you know. And that basically
becomes the message of the gospel.

And yet, really, it's a very man-centered view of the cross, isn't it?
Now, I'm going to give you an illustration. I've used it for many years,
but I will back this up in a moment with a number of scriptures so that
you can see this is not just an illustration. It is rooted and grounded,
hopefully, in the Word of God.

Let's suppose that my wife and I are going to be married for one year.
We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary last year, so this is purely
an illustration. And let's suppose that when we got married, we had a
number of debts.

And we sat down together, and we said, listen, as soon as we get
married, we are going to do everything we can to pay off all the debts.
And I get two jobs, and my wife gets two jobs. We live a very Spartan
sort of lifestyle.

We do without transport. We are part of some sort of carpool. We don't
need our own car.

And we live as simply as we can. We don't go out to eat and so on. Every
penny we make, we put into paying off our debt.

We come to the end of our first year of marriage, and we have been
successful. We paid off every single debt. We don't have a single debt.

In fact, we now have $1,000 in the bank. We are finally in the black,
out in the red, and into the black. And I say to my wife, let's go out
and celebrate.

And so she said, that would be great. We haven't eaten at all all year.
And I say, well, McDonald's sounds pretty good.

But anyway, we sit down, have a meal, and I say to her, darling,
wouldn't it be great if we could have our own car? I mean, we've gone an
entire year without a car. We've been relying upon people to pick us up
and take us to church and so on, and they've been great about it. But
imagine the liberty we would have, the things we could do if we had our
own car.

And she says, darling, we are not going back into debt. You promised me
that we would not go back into debt. And I say, well, listen, we've got
$1,000.

She said, you think you can buy a car for $1,000? I said, yeah. I said,
I think I can get a car for $1,000. She said, okay, if you think you can
buy a car for $1,000, you go ahead, but not one penny more.

I said, okay, this is my department, you pray, and so she goes into the
closet to pray, and I scatter around all the used car places, and
finally I stumble across an old car, 20-plus years old, body seems to be
in pretty good condition even though it's filthy. Runs smoothly, and so
I buy the car, $995. $5 left over for gas.

I drive that car home. Now let's also assume by way of illustration that
my wife and I during that year together, we've established a reputation
in the little community we live in. We are known as Mr. and Mrs. Clean.

Everything about our lives is immaculate. Even though we don't have
much, the wards are always beautifully manicured, the windows are always
windexed, you come in and the floors are highly polished and everything
is neat and squeaky clean and so on. We have that reputation.

It's gone around the community. There's Mr. and Mrs. Clean. And I drive
home in this filthy car, and I drive it around the back of the house,
and I immediately get a great big five-gallon bucket of water, fill it
with soap and water and plenty of suds, and I begin washing that car.

It takes me quite a while to get all the muck and mire and dirt and
everything off it, and after I do that, there's still some residue of
things, and so I take some solvents and some rags and I remove, again,
all the residue that is not budged by the water. After that, I come and
polish it. And after about three or four hours of work, that car begins
to take on a brand-new appearance.

It looks like showroom condition. The luster comes back in the paint. I
do all the homework and so on.

But I don't stop there. I tackle the inside of the car. I'm a fanatic.

I vacuum it. I take the seats out. I shampoo the rugs and the carpets
and, you know, do all the armor, all the dash and take the upholstery
cleaner and do all the upholstery and so on.

Not only that, I skim-clean the engine, vacuum out the trunk, and by the
end of the day, that car doesn't have a trace, not even a smidgen, as
our president would say, of dirt on it. The car is clean. It's
immaculate.

And then I go into the house and I take into the house with me all the
filth that I've taken from that car. I mean, I've got dirty rags. I've
got paper towels.

I've got sponges. I've got a bucket of absolutely filthy water. I've got
a vacuum cleaner.

I dump all the contents of a vacuum cleaner out of the canister. Here's
this great big, huge pile of dust. And then I call my wife from Britain.

And I say, Darling, come in with it quick, quick, quick. I'm all
enthusiastic. And I say, Look at what we got for a thousand dollars.

I bet you never dreamed your prayers would be that effective. Look at
all this dirt. I mean, there's got to be 80 acres of dirt there.

Look, you know, she said, Darling, don't do that. We've got a
reputation. Stop that.

What are you doing? I said, well, look, if we got all of that for a
thousand dollars, aren't you impressed? And she looks at me and she
says, Do you feel alive? You told me you were going to buy a car. Now,
what was the reason for my payment? Why did I spend my entire life's
savings? Was it to get a car, or was it because I relished all the dirt?
You see, we've made the atonement about the dirt. And about the car.

Yes, the car got clean. But that was not my intention. My intention was
I had need of a car.

I went to purchase a car. Because I missed a clean, that car had to come
up to my standard. Because my reputation is at stake.

If I drive around in a filthy car, people are going to say, Hey, you
know, that guy doesn't really mean that, you know what he says. Look at
the car he drives. No, that car has to represent me.

It's an extension of who I am. Therefore, it has to be holy, if you
like, as I am holy. But what I'm really interested in is the car, and
not the dirt.

In fact, I'm going to get rid of the dirt as soon as I can. The dirt is
going to go out in the garbage. The dirt is going to be flushed down the
drain.

And God does the same thing. He's not interested in your dirt. My Bible
says, as soon as He gets your dirt, your sin, He takes it as far from
the East as from the West.

In another place, it says He buries it in the depths of the sea. He
doesn't relish your dirt. He's of purer eyes than to behold iniquity in
the Bible.

Isn't that right? Your sin cannot do anything that is beneficial to the
Kingdom of God. Your sin cannot testify. Your sin cannot prophesy.

Your sin cannot teach a Sunday school class. Your sin has no value and
therefore God gets rid of your sin. You see, God does not have a sin
collection in Heaven.

I don't know how many of you are into collecting baseball cards or
something like that or stamps or coins or whatever. You know, God
doesn't have a sin collection. He doesn't have these great big leather
volumes that every once in a while when there's peace on Earth, He
brings one out and He says to His angels, see that one there? There's
only two of those in the whole world and I got both of them.

See this one there? This is the rarest sin that was ever committed back
in the 15th century by an old man up in the mountains of Tibet and I've
got it. And this one here, I've been after this for years. I just got it
on eBay the other night.

God is not into collecting sin. He's not interested in your sin in that
sense. Your sin again has no value.

What He is interested in is getting back what He created. Now let's look
at some scriptures. Hopefully I've got your attention there.

Romans chapter 14. All of these verses deal with the atonement, deal
with the cross. Romans 14 verse 7, 8 and 9. For not one of us lives for
himself, not one of us dies for himself.

If we live, we live for the Lord. If we die, we die for the Lord.
Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.

Let me say that again. Whether you're alive or dead, we are the Lord's.
For to this end, that's important, underline it.

For to this end, for this reason, Christ died. That's a very important
message. For this reason Christ died.

That He might, and lived again, that He might be Lord of the dead and
the living. Now notice my Bible does not say for this reason Christ died
and lived again, that He might be Savior of the dead and the living.
Yes, He is Savior, but He's also Lord.

Remember in the beginning it was the Lord God. Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. If we confess with our mouth Jesus
Christ as Savior, no, as Lord, we shall be saved.

You see, we don't want the Lordship side because that infringes on my
selfishness. I don't want anybody telling me what to do. And so we sort
of maneuver the scriptures around and repackage it and reshape it and so
on.

Then it loses all of its power. But He died in order that He might be
the Lord. The book of Titus.

Find the book of Timothy. Titus chapter 2 and verse 14. Let me back up
to verse 13.

Looking for the Blessed Pope and the appearing of our great God and
Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us
from every lawless deed. Let me pause there for a moment. He gave
Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed.

We have here a cross. Imagine, if you like, the left side of the cross
represents what God has done for man. The right side of the cross
represents what God gets out of the cross, so to speak.

This is the side of the cross we're familiar with. He gave Himself for
us that He might redeem us or cleanse us or free us from every lawless
deed. Sin is a transgression of the law.

In other words, on this side of the cross, this is the side of the cross
we are familiar with. Jesus Christ died to take away my sin. I come as a
sinner.

I see Jesus Christ as my Savior. I ask Him for forgiveness. I repent of
my sin.

And immediately, I'm taken out of the kingdom of darkness, brought into
the kingdom of God's dear Son. I have peace with God. I have the peace
of God.

I'm reconciled with God, and so on. We are familiar with that because
99% of us, I'm sure, in this room have experienced that. But notice what
it says here.

Paul goes on to say, He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from
every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own
possession. You see, what the blood cleanses on this side of the cross,
the blood claims on this side of the cross. Let me say that again.

What the blood cleanses on this side of the cross, the blood claims on
this side of the cross. He gave Himself for us, thank God He did, in
order that He may have for Himself a people. In other words, He was
after the car, not the dirt.

For His own possession. God wants you as His own. Why? He created you
for Himself.

And He redeemed you for Himself. It's important that we understand that.
He wants to purify for Himself a people for His own possession.

Let's look at another verse. 2 Corinthians 5. Again, all of these
Scriptures deal with the reason that Jesus Christ died. 2 Corinthians 5,
verse 15.

He died for all. The day who live should no longer live for themselves.
Alright, now here we're getting to the very core, if you like, of why
Jesus Christ died.

He died for everyone. But He died that those who live, and that's most
of you, a few of you on your way out. The day who live should no longer
live for themselves.

In other words, prior to the cross, I live for myself. Oh, we like sheep
of chemistry. We've turned everyone to His own way.

I live for myself. I make my own decisions. I use my money the way I
want to use it.

I did whatever I wanted to do. But the Bible says when Jesus Christ
comes into your life, that whole aspect of life is to change. We should
no longer live for ourselves, but for Him.

But for Him. Who died and rose again on our behalf. In other words, the
cross is to revolutionize our reason for living.

We're not in this world just for self-gratification here. We're in this
world now for the pleasure of God. Jesus said, I do only do the things
that please the Father.

Paul says, I have as my ambition, whether at home or abroad, to be
pleasing to Him. Isn't that right? Now let's go to the book of
Revelation. If I haven't convinced you so far, this one will.

I hope. Revelation chapter 5. John sees the Lamb standing as if slain.
And then he sees the great choir of heaven, if you like, begin to erupt
in song.

Verse 9, And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the
book and to break its seals. For thou was slain. Speaking about the
death of Christ, it's His death on the cross.

Let me read it again. They sang a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to
take the book and to break its seals. For thou was slain and didst
purchase for God.

That's important. Purchase for God with thy blood men from every tribe
and tongue and people and nation. What was it that He purchased? Men.

And who did He purchase men for? For God. You see, the cross really is
not about you. It's about God.

It was God's means of bringing men back. The Father wanted to restore
the prodigals. Man had been deceived and went his own way and Trinity
came up with a plan.

The Son, I'll go, I'll give my life, and so on. And I will bring them
back to the Father's house. And so Jesus came and He shed His blood.

Again, He purchased for God with His blood men from every tribe and
tongue and nation. Yes, they were washed. Yes, they were set free from
sin and so on.

But the ultimate purpose was God was looking for a people in Him.
Because of the fall and because of His deception of the enemy and so on,
man was led astray. But the cross again is to restore us back to God
Himself.

To reconcile us to God. So that once again we are in God's property. We
belong to Him.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. While you're turning to that,
let me give you a brief testimony. I was raised in a Christian home.
Some of you are familiar with my father's ministry.

My father was a hellfire preacher at times. These days we don't ever
mention hell. But I know there is one.

I was dangled over it more than once. Felt those flames. But I refused
to accept Christ.

Oh, I never went into any gross sin. I often thought of applying to a
Guinness Book of Records. You know, I never smoked a cigarette in my
life.

Not that that's the world's greatest sin. Never did drugs in my life.
Never drank alcohol in my life.

Never slept with anybody outside of marriage in my life. Never went to a
dance in my life. And so on and so forth.

You know, I was the epitome of perfection. Good preacher's kid. Yeah.

But I was a sinner. And I knew I was a sinner because my father made
that very real through the preaching of the Word of God. I was a self-
righteous sinner.

The worst sort of sinner that you can have. But I also had one longing
in life and that was to go into the field of graphics. I had two
brothers, an older brother, a younger brother, and a middle child.

And they were gifted academically. They had straight A's every time, you
know, the report cards came home. My brother sort of aced everything.

They were the top of the class. I was always the one that supported
them. Gotta have a foundation somewhere.

And I brought home F's on my report card. I struggled all the way
through school. I just hated school.

But I excelled when it came to art. I always got straight A's in art.
And I wanted to go into the field of graphics.

That's what I had. My brothers didn't have that ability. And so it gave
me a sense of feeling that I had some sort of value.

They were gifted one way. I was gifted another way. And I could not wait
to get out of school and go into the realm of graphics.

And from the age of about 14, around 13, 14, God began to deal with me.
Now I may have accepted Christ as a child. I have a very poor
recollection of things in my early years for some reason.

But when I became of age in the sense of understanding the gospel, I
began to resist the call of God. And years went by, age 14, 15, 16, 17,
until finally at the age of 18, I'd made my way forward. And I knelt at
the altar.

Prior to that, I would literally shake under conviction of sins hundreds
of times. Not even able to hold a hymn book when they were saying, you
know, just as I am or whatever it is. Knowing God was wanting to draw me
to Himself and refusing.

Oh, did I want to be saved? Yes, I wanted to be saved on my terms. I
wanted to have peace with God. I knew there was the hell.

I knew I was going there. And I wanted to make sure that I had the
assurance of salvation, that I had peace with God. But I also wanted it
on my terms.

You see, I had plans. I had dreams. I had goals.

And God was not going to interfere with them. Finally, at the age of 18,
I came forward in a meeting with Bethany. Knelt down.

Long before anybody came to talk to me or counsel me, my prayer was
something like this, Lord, you know that I'm a sinner. I began to
confess whatever sins I could think of. But I said this to Lord.

I said, Lord, I am not just here to give you my sin. I'm here to give
you my life. And Lord, I give you everything all my plans, all my goals,
all my dreams, all my ambitions.

I lay it at your feet. Here I am. Take it.

You see, I'm convinced that in the average church, 90%, if it's an
evangelical church, 99% of the people claim to be born again. They've
given God their sin. But I would also say that 90% of them have failed
to give God their life.

There's a big difference. There is a big difference. We give God our
sin.

We want to be cleaned up, but we still continue to do our own thing and
go our own way. And we have a salvation based on man's terms, from man's
viewpoint, instead of understanding what God really accomplished there
on the cross. He purchased a people for himself.

I went home the next day, or the next day rather, and I opened my Bible,
and my eyes came to this portion of Scripture, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19
and 20. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit
who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorifying God in your
body. I want you to look at that verse.

Do you not know that your body... You see, God is after a body. He's
after a car. It's not your sin.

It's your body that God wants. Your body is now my house, my property,
my temple, whom you have from God, and you are no longer your own. You
have been bought.

In other words, everything that we own, we've purchased, or as it was a
gift. Isn't that right? There is an exchange that takes place whereby,
because of the payment, that thing becomes yours. It's your property.

And if I were to take that from you, what am I doing? I'm stealing.
Every pastor here knows that when the coffers get low, we dust off
Malachi, will a man rob God? But you've robbed me. How will we rob you?
In tithes and offerings.

There's a far greater robbery than that. We've not only withheld our
tithes and our offerings, we've held the greatest offering ourselves. We
were purchased, and yet we've refused to give God the goods.

Imagine if I went into a store, maybe I want to buy my wife something.
I've been away for several days, and I want to purchase something, and I
see a little piece of jewelry, maybe $40 or something, and I take out my
credit card, and I said, I'll take that. And the lady said, well, just a
minute.

She puts it back in the counter, and I think, well, this is a piece that
she has on show. She's going to get a piece from the back. I get the
receipt for the credit card, and the lady comes back, but I see her down
at the counter there helping somebody else.

And I think, well, that's so strange. Maybe she's had to order it in
from the warehouse or something at the back, and, you know, nothing
happens for a while, and I see her helping somebody else, and finally I
go, and I take my receipt, and I say, listen, I just purchased this.
That piece of jewelry.

Remember, I just purchased it. I mean, I've got proof that I purchased
it. She shrugs her shoulders and says, hey, you're in North Dakota now.

I mean, you know, none of us would tolerate that. We would, you know,
demand purchase. We would go to the manager.

If the manager doesn't cooperate, we'd go to the police or whatever, you
know, depending on the value of the thing, we'd make a law case out of
it. We want that which is rightfully ours. We paid for it.

It belongs to us. Jesus Christ paid for you. Not just for your sin, but
for you.

Your body belongs here. You're not your own. You're being bought with a
price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body. It's all about you. It's not about
your sin.

It's about you. That's what God created. He created you for himself.

He's a body now who's prepared for me. I know that's taken out of
context, but in another way it isn't taken out of context. Because we
are the body of Christ.

Isn't that right? Let me take you to two other scriptures, and then
we'll close. 2 Peter. This is a frightening verse in many ways.

2 Peter 2. And verse 1. But false prophets arose among the people. Now,
I was never very good at English grammar, even though I've got six or
seven books there that I've written. Thank God for editors and so on.

But I do know this. That's past tense. False prophets arose.

It's already happened. It's past tense. Just as there will be false
teachers among you.

What is that? Future. In other words, Peter is making a prophetic
statement. We have had a problem in the past with false prophets, but I
am warning you, look out because in the days to come, false teaching
will come into the church.

And he says, these false teachers will come among you, and they will
secretly introduce destructive heresies. In other words, these teachers
will come in, and they will start teaching things that are destructive.
You could put in there, I think, to the kingdom of God, to the purpose
of God.

Now, when something is done secretly, you're unaware of it. My wife and
I were missionaries in New Guinea in 1971 and 2. And we had had a number
of situations. Our car had been stolen, and we made sure at nighttime
that we locked our house.

Our house was built up on sort of concrete pylons, partly to be free
from snakes and also to allow a little bit of circulation with no air
conditioning. And it was about 100 degrees most days and high humidity,
and it was just sweltering hot. And a lady, just two doors down, or
maybe it was next door now, I can't quite remember, but she'd been
raped.

And our car, like I said, had been stolen. So we made sure that the
doors were locked every night. We had two little girls at the time.

And I woke up one morning, walked into the living room, and I noticed
the front door was wide open. And I was flabbergasted. I thought, that's
impossible.

I remember locking that door, and then, you know, your mind does tricks
on you, and nothing seemed to be disturbed. And I thought, well, you
know, maybe the wind blew it. I didn't catch it good enough or whatever.

So I closed the door, went into the kitchen, and the kitchen door was
wide open. And I knew immediately that we had had intruders because
they'd taken out all the louvered windows in the kitchen window, removed
the mosquito netting, and they'd come into the house. My first concern,
obviously, were the two children.

So I ran into the kids' room, and they were fast asleep in their bunk
beds. And then I began looking around. Went back into our bedroom, and I
noticed that a tape recorder that we'd been listening to a tape had been
unplugged just right below my wife's pillow.

I mean, not that far. Gone around to my side of the bed and removed my
wallet from the nightstand. And I realized, again, that's how close we
came.

They were there within a matter of inches of us. And it all happened
secretly. It wasn't until it was too late that we discovered it.

And what Peter is saying here is false teachers will come into the
church. And they will come in stealthily, they will come in secretly,
and they will introduce doctrines that are damnable. And then notice.

Even. Even denying the master who bought them. Even denying.

In other words, they will go to this extreme of denying, not the Savior,
but the master who bought them. In other words, they will tailor-make
the gospel to fit a very selfish clientele, if you like. And they will
deny God the access to the life of the very one that He washed and
cleansed.

Deny the master. That word in the Greek, I'm not a Greek expert, but
I've looked it up. It means a despot.

It's the strongest word for a master. And this teaching says, you can
say no to the master. The very one that bought you.

Now, we don't do it in so many ways. But we deny the master. I'm sure
most of you have seen the film that Mel Gibson produced a number of
years ago on the passion, the death of Jesus Christ and so on.

He didn't portray it as well as the Bible does, obviously, because he
forgot about the fact that his visage was marred more than the sons of
men. When they plucked out his beard, his head was just a bloody mess
and so on. But he did a pretty good job.

But why did man put Jesus Christ on the cross? We know from God's point
of view why God sent His Son. God so loved the world, He gave His only
begotten Son. But why did man put Jesus Christ on the cross? Well, Jesus
told us why, in the form of a story, a parable.

He said there was a certain landowner who went to establish a kingdom.
And after he set things in motion, basically, he left. And the
inhabitants got together and they said, we will not have this man rule
over us.

That's why they put Jesus Christ on the cross. We don't accept him as
our king. We will not have this man reign over us.

And here we go with the gospel. I come along and I'm a sinner. I hear
about the death of Jesus Christ.

I say, Jesus, I need to be cleansed. I need your forgiveness. I accept
you as my Savior.

Come into my life. Wash me, cleanse me. But let's get one thing
straight.

I will not have you reign over me. And we don't say it in so many words.
We just very conveniently forget about the sign of the cross.

But in essence, we're no different than the Jews. He came unto his own,
and his own received him not. He came as king.

For this reason I was born, he said, that I might be king. I might be
lord. I might be master.

We don't want you as our master. We don't want you as our king. We want
you as our Savior.

Let me read it one more time. But false prophets arose among the people,
just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly
introduce destructive heresies in James' damnable doctrines, even
denying a master who bore them. Turn with me now to the book of James,
and we'll close here in a moment.

James chapter 4. Verse 13. Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we
should go into such and such a city, spend a year there, engage in
business or make a profit. Now here is somebody that we can all identify
with this.

Somebody just planning their life. Let's say this is a teenager. They're
in their last year of high school, and they have gone and done some
tests.

They've gone to the counselor, and the counselor's given them some sort
of advice. You know, you've got aptitude in this area, that area, and so
on. In this case, you could be a good businessman.

You've got a good mind on your head, you're good at math, and so on and
so forth. And the young man says, you know, that's always what I wanted
to do anyway, and this is confirmation. The tests sort of prove it.

And so, you know, he lives in Finley, and the University of Finley
closed down long ago. And so he has to leave Finley, and he has to go
to, you know, some big place close by in Minneapolis or something. So
here is somebody.

Let me read it in that context. In other words, they're not talking
about doing anything sinful. They're not talking about going to Chicago
and joining the mob.

They're not talking about, you know, going down to Columbia and getting
involved in the cartel and bringing drugs into the country. They're not
talking about opening some counterfeit business and, you know, making
money that way. They're not talking about going to Vegas and opening
some blue joint or anything like that.

They're just simply deciding what to do with their life. In this case, I
want to be a businessman, and every businessman wants to make money,
right? The problem is, let's call him Johnny. Johnny's 18 years of age,
and he gets accepted in the University of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and he
goes to Pastor, goes to Pastor Mark, and he says, hey, you know, guess
what? And he's all excited.

Pastor Mark's got a few other people lining up wanting to see him, and
he says, listen, I can't talk to you right now, but why don't you come
around in the morning? So Johnny comes around, they sit down together,
and Johnny is just absolutely overflowing with joy. Pastor, you don't
realize, you know, all my life I've wanted to be a businessman. I never
thought I'd get into this prestigious school, but I've got a letter of
acceptance here, and I'm going to be leaving.

By the way, next Sunday's going to be my last Sunday. I appreciate you
if you'd pray for me as I go. I don't know when I'll be back, and so on.

You know, every pastor's gone through that. You know, when such and such
a family come up, you know, they're being transferred. Their AT&T has
asked Brother So-and-So to go to their base in Colorado, and Sister So-
and-So's leaving to go nursing, and this brother's doing this, and, you
know, we lay hands on them and bless them.

And so Johnny wants to be blessed, and he wants to be sent on his way,
but Pastor James here, or Pastor Mark, says, hey, hold on a minute.
Verse 14. You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.

You're just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes
away. Listen, son. Johnny, let me tell you something about life.

It's going to be over before you know it. It's a vapor. Before you know
it, you're going to have grandkids.

It's amazing how the months and years go by. Johnny, listen. Life is
going to be over before you know it.

The Bible says it's like a weaver's shawl. It just goes across the loom
of time, and it's gone. It's like a breath that you take.

There is descriptions of the brevity of life in the Bible. And so now
James is trying to put into perspective to this young man who's got his
whole life, he thinks, before him and so on. He says, listen.

It's just a vapor. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills. Let me
say that again.

Instead, you should be saying, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do
this and that. In other words, James looks at Johnny and he says,
Johnny, I haven't heard a single word about the will of God. All I've
heard is that when you were a young man, you had an itch to become a
businessman.

But I haven't heard a single thing about this being the will of God.
Instead, you should be saying, is this God's will? As it is, he says,
you boast in your arrogance. And that sort of boasting is evil.

Therefore, to the one that knows the right thing to do and does not do
it, to him it is sin. To him it is sin. You see, to go contrary to the
will of God is the greatest sin.

No, it is the greatest sin in homosexuality or murder or rape or
anything else because you are denying it. It's very nasty,
unfortunately. See, we really don't understand the cross, do we? Take up
your cross.

If any man, come on, not just a few select, you know, green berets,
spiritually speaking, SEAL team type Christians, if any man come after
me, he's going to die. He's going to die and he's going to take up his
cross. By the way, I'm in charge.

You follow me. I'm not going to follow you. You follow me.

We have a gospel now that says, God, would you follow me? This way,
please. I want to do this. I want to go here, you know.

And we've reversed the whole message of the gospel. Let me ask you this.
Do you belong to Him? Have you given Him a right to rule your life, your
money, your time? Do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're in
the very center of the will of God? That's what it really means to be a
Christian.

Let's close with prayer. Father, we just read that you went to redeem
for yourself a people. A people for your own possession, sellers for
good works.

A people that will partnership with you, a people that would be laborers
together with you. A people that would share your burden, share your
heart for a last and dying world. A people that would be willing to lay
aside their own agenda, take up their cross and follow you.

Father, I pray that both in this meeting tonight for the potential, if
we were to truly give ourselves to you, change our community, change our
world. Father, we don't want to give you just our sin. We want to give
you our life.

If you've never given God your life tonight, here's an opportunity.
Let's just stand together. These altars, there isn't really very much
room here.

I'm going to ask you just to surrender your life to me. It's like
getting married. You don't know if you're going to have children or not
have children, or where you're going to end up, whether it's going to
rich or poor, or better for worse, and so on.

But it begins with, I do. The same thing is true when we accept Christ.
Lord, here's my life.

I give you my life. I don't know what God's going to do. That's His
property.

But over the course of the next weeks and months, I believe God will
make His intentions known. He'll begin to lay something on our heart,
begin to open doors and close doors, and so on. As long as He knows that
He has us in His, us in our entirety, that we belong to Him.

It's His prerogative. And if you've never surrendered your life like
that, you can do it tonight. Say, Lord, here I am.

Take me. It's fearful. I admit that because we're relinquishing the
very, the most precious thing, our will.

We say, God, not my will, but Your will. Let's just take a moment. Let
the Spirit of God have His way.

Because I know there's individuals here, many young people. You've got
your life ahead of you. You should go voluntarily.

What are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with your
life? Simply settle down, get married, have children? Or even say, Lord,
how do I turn into Your eternal purpose? Lord, what are Your plans? What
is Your purpose for my life? Lord, You redeem me to Yourself. I belong
to You. I'm no longer my own.

I no longer have any rights. I'm a bondservant of Jesus Christ. If you
want to transact business with God, come forward here.

Say, Lord, I've never consciously given You my life.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/dYi9_Cg3CCc.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/david-ravenhill/the-true-meaning-of-the-cross/
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