In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of prioritizing the spiritual over worldly achievements. They highlight the idea that the dream or desire for something is often more fulfilling than actually attaining it. The speaker encourages young people to fully devote themselves to God and His commandments. They also mention various biblical figures who demonstrated great faith and endured hardships for the sake of their beliefs. The sermon concludes with a reference to a hymn that reflects on Jesus' sacrifice and poses the question of what individuals have given in return.

And what more shall I say, for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trials of mocking and scourging, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. Of all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, that is, the fulfillment of the promise. God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." Last night we were tracing a commitment down through the Old Testament Scriptures, and we saw some great men and women of God, who showed utter consecration to the Lord. And we could go through the New Testament like that, although strangely enough, I could find more examples of commitments in the Old Testament than I could in the New. But of course in the New you can go back to John the Baptist, you can go to the eleven apostles at least, you can go to some of those great women who ministered to the Lord. Jesus washed their feet with their tears, and wiped them with the hairs of their heads. You could think of Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian Church, you could think of the apostle Paul, and be subdued as you think of these men. I'd like to just move over from the New Testament to the early Church period this morning, to think about some of the committed men and women, and then move on also from there. We can't forget the early martyrs of the Christian Church, like Polycarp. When the proconsul threatened to burn him alive, Polycarp said, The fire you threaten burns but an hour, and is quenched after a little. For you do not know the fire of coming judgment, and everlasting punishment that's laid up for the impious. But why do you delay? Come, do what you will. He said, Boy, I don't have grace for that, neither do I, kindly, but if I needed it, I'd get it. I think that's a good thing for us to remember when we read about some of these martyrs. We don't have that kind of grace. Dying grace for dying days. Really, as thy days, so shall thy strength be. When the soldier began to nail him to the stake, he said, Leave me as I am, for he who grants me to endure the fire will enable me also to remain on the fire unmoved. Without the security that you desire for nails. I think there's something great about that. You know, I would suggest that Christian mothers and fathers could teach the stories of the martyrs to their children. I mean, those are bad. They're so horrible. They see worse than that in television. But I want to tell you there's some iron into the backbones of our young people if they knew more about the heritage of the Christian church and what men and women have gone through in order to preserve the truth to us today. There were the heroes of the catacombs, of course, in Rome. You know, at that time, everybody was required, every year, to take a pinch of incense and place it upon the altar and say, Caesar is Lord. And you didn't have to believe it. It didn't have to be a matter of your heart at all. You just had to say those words, Caesar is Lord. And such a Christian couldn't do that. They would say, Jesus is Lord. I like that bumper story. Because I think of the martyrs of those early churches. The penalty, of course, was death. But they were always given a chance to recant. And the recantation was, Jesus is first. They couldn't say that. They would say, Jesus is Lord. They were faithful to the Savior. And many of them, it cost them their lives. And I want to tell you the pages of history are just filled with the stories of the Waldensians and the Moravians and the Huguenots and the Scottish Covenanters and how proud we are of them today. John Wycliffe, known as the morning star of the Reformation period, he insisted on the right of the people to have the word of God in their understandable language. And to that end, he produced the first copy of the English Bible. He taught that the Bible is the only authority in matters of faith and morals. And he said that the doctrine of transubstantiation was an abomination. But that wasn't the most popular thing he could say. He said it was a blasphemous deceit. And, of course, this brought him into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, with which so many of our evangelical leaders are playing hell today. Forty-four years after his... Oh, he was burned at the stake. That was his plan for taking this stand. And 44 years after his death, his body was exhumed, burned to ashes, and the ashes thrown into the river. And I think if Wycliffe could have seen that from heaven, maybe he did. I think he did. John Huth. John Huth was greatly influenced by Wycliffe's teaching, and he propagated them in Bohemia. And he was insistent on the fact that the people have the word of God. And he fearlessly spoke out against the vices of the clergy. He was hounded for years, and then he was excommunicated by the Pope. For preaching the gospel, he was finally burned at the stake by a church that's drunk with the blood of those saints. By a church that's under the curse of God. Today, they're preaching another gospel. I think it's really, really amazing to think of that. His ashes, too, were thrown into the river. William Tyndale. He gave us the first printed version of the Bible. And when his friends and others started to read the word of God, the clergy became alarmed at this threat to their authority. Cardinal Wolsley defended the church against the pernicious heresy of the Bible. The pernicious learned clergyman tried to convert Tyndale. Tyndale said, if God spares my life before many years, I'll take care that a plow boy shall know more of the scriptures than you do. Good for you, William Tyndale. He spent the last 17 years of his life in captivity, and then he was strangled and burned. Friends, men paid a price for the liberties that we enjoy with the word of God today, didn't they? Count Zinzendorf, he was a leader of the Bohemian Brethren, and one day he stood before a picture of Christ crucified, and underneath it said, all this I did for thee. That broke Count Zinzendorf's heart. What have you done for me? That searching question caused him to submit his life to the Lord Jesus Christ, his wealth, his life, his talents, everything he had for the cause of Christ. Latimer, the great Protestant bishop, he said, if I see the blood of Christ with the eye of my soul, that is true faith. And of course, that was heresy to the established church. And when both he and Ridley were being burned at the stake, Latimer said to Ridley, be of good cheer, Mr. Ridley. By the grace of God, we shall this day light such a candle in England that shall never be put out. I did one of my famous, one of my favorite martyrs, Thomas Cranmer. He was put under tremendous pressure because he can't be safe. One day he put a pen in his hand and he signed that he can't be safe. And as time went on, he realized what a terrible time it was. And he went to the authorities. He said, my hand signed it, my heart. They said, you'll be put to death. You'll be burned at the stake. And he said, get on with it. The day he was to be burned at the stake, he was taken out there with his hands tied. They said, do you have any last requests? He said, just one time. And he walked over to the burning fire. He held his right hand that had signed the repentance into the fire. And he said, perish this tongue of yours. He wanted it to be the first part. Perish this tongue of yours. The Scottish Covenanters were people who, in early days, resisted the power of the established church, signed covenants of their loyalty and allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. There were two women at that time. One was named Margaret McLaughlin, and the other was named Margaret Wilkins. And they were both condemned to be drowned by the tide. One was 60 years old, and the other was a younger woman. One was 63, and the other was 18. And their parents, their relatives, their loved ones all got down on their knees and begged them to give in. And they wouldn't do it. And so the elder Margaret was taken, and she was tied to a post as the tide was pretty far out on the sand. And then the younger Margaret was tied to another post further toward the shore. The idea is when this younger woman saw the older woman die, she would faint. She would break. So the tide came in, and it came up onto the elder, the 63-year-old Margaret McLaughlin. It came up to her knees, up to her thighs, up to her breasts, up to her mouth. And as the water was indulging her mouth, she was afraid to say, I am persuaded that neither life nor death can enter the principality of power. Tight was that sink pressure facing her. Tight was that renewal of faith. That caused that younger Margaret to change her mind. She said, if God can give grace to an older woman to die for him, he can give grace to me as well. And she was not weakened in her resolve. The tide came in and covered her, and she went home to be with the king, John Brown. I remember when I was a boy, my mother used to feed us the tales of the Scottish Permanenters. And there was a calendar on the pantry door in our house. There's a picture that I'll tell you right now. There's a man there named John Brown, faithful to the Lord Jesus. He couldn't spend much time at home. He spent most of his time, as we read in Hebrews 11, out in the cave and then trying to escape from those who were going to kill him. But every once in a while he had to come home for food and for clothing. And one day when he was there in his house, his wife was there with a baby in her arms. And Lord Flaverhouse came. I don't know whether we ever got the word Lord, but anyway. Lord Flaverhouse came, and they stood there in the kitchen, and the calendar had this picture of Flaverhouse and his men standing there in the kitchen. And he ordered his men to shoot. They looked and they saw the face of an angel, and they couldn't see. Flaverhouse himself took the gun. And right before Mrs. Brown, he shot John Brown in cold blood. And he turned to her and he said, what do you think of your husband now? And then Brown stopped. He said, I always thought I gave you a hint, but I never thought more of him. And he said, it would be justice to lay you beside him. He thought it would be a just thing to kill her and let her lie down beside him. She shot back, if you were permitted, I doubt not that your cruelty would go that length, but how will you make answer for this morning's murder? One day you're going to get an account. Martin Luther saved through reading Paul's letter to the Romans. He was outraged by the sale of indulgences to build St. Peter's Church in Rome. And when he was placed on trial, he refused to bow to the authority of the Pope. I love those words. He said, my conscience, I wish we had more people like that today. He said that my conscience is captive to the word of God. He later championed the three solas of the Reformation, sola fide, faith alone, sola gratia, grace alone, sola scriptura, the Bible. He translated the Bible into Germany, into German, and stood valiantly for the faith. John Calvin, another reformer, someone said of him, he was intent in the service of the Lord to whom he had given his heart fully. Though he was not clear as to the relative authority of the Church and the civil government, he taught that salvation was by faith apart from work, but unto work. And it made him one of the most outstanding figures of the Reformation period. And of course, it was John Knox in Scotland. He was a fearless defender of the faith. He was strongly influenced by Calvin, and he was a tireless foe of idolatry, of the heresies and unbiblical teachings of the Pope. And he said, give me Scotland. One biographer said of him, Knox, a man of unyielding strength of character and a spiritual giant, bolder the thought of an entire nation probably. And Mary Queen of Scots said that she heard the prayers of John Knox. Great people. And that brings us up to people who lived in more recent times and their commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know that some of you know some of these personally. The last century or so. Are the ranks of the committed getting thinner? I don't think they are. God in every age has had those who take a positive stand for him. Anthony Norris Rhodes. Anthony Norris Rhodes, the first man to gloat from what we would think of as being the Testament assemblies to the mission field. He went out to Asia. He was a wealthy dentist. He lived in luxury and ease in Britain, and he left it all to preach the gospel in Baghdad. Then India, putting into practice the principles of Christian devotedness. In fact, he wrote a little book that's called Christian Devotedness, which as far as I know, is one of the earliest publications of the so-called Brethren Movement. He said that laying up treasures on earth is simply contrary to the will of God as it does to you. And it is true, because it's the same Bible that forbids those. He thought that life's great goal is the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we should surrender all we have to this worthy aim. He said that Christians' motto should be, labor hard, consume little, give much, and all. Anthony Norris Rhodes. John Nelson Darby. He was brought up in a castle in England. People walked by and picked up their noses. He said, it's so nice to know the Darby's. And they were people of affluence and people wealth. And he went to Trinity in Dublin, gained honors there, and started out in a legal career, and he left it all. He tramped for months on the mountains, the wistful mountains of Ireland, preaching the gospel, and saw hundreds of Roman Catholics come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he moved over to the continent. He traveled for 26 years on the continent of Europe without unpacking his suitcase. He lived the days at a time on milk and acorns. One day sat in the chief Italian boarding house and sang Jesus, I, my Father, take all for you. He's writing still more than 34 volumes. One of his hymns has been sung here at the concert, and is it so, I shall be like thy son. Many wonderful hymns, and probably no man since the Apostle Paul has had such an influence on the church as John Nelson Darby. His travels took him to most of the English-speaking world. He was here in the United States. He translated the Bible, get this, he translated the Bible into French, German, and English. You know, it's a lifetime work to translate the Bible into one language. He translated it into French, German, and English, and had something to do with the Italian version as well. God used him to revive dispensational theology and also the great truth of the New Testament church, the rapture of the church, the priesthood of all believers. He greatly influenced Wright L. Moody and C.I. Scofield, and Dallas Seminary in the early days was greatly influenced by his teaching as well, and that means that the Bible school movements in the United States felt the impact of Darby's writings. His philosophy was, ah, the joy of having nothing, and being nothing, seeing nothing, but a living Christ in glory, and being careful for nothing but his interest, and on his tombstone, other words, as unknown, as unknown, yet known. George Mueller was a man who was committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's best known for his orphanage in Bristol, England. He started this orphanage. Why did he start it? To take care of the little kids. Well, that was a byproduct of it. The purpose he had in starting that orphanage was to show the people of Bristol, England that there's a God in heaven. And as you know, he lived by faith, and he never made his needs known. If you went there and said, Brother, I have 5,000 pounds. I'd like to put them to work for the Lord. Where is your need? He'd say, you just never make those needs known. It's a far cry from what we have in evangelical Christianity today. One day, Arthur Pearson asked him, Mr. Mueller, what is the secret of the way that God has used you, the wonderful things that God has done for you? And Mueller sat there and bowed his head. It went lower and lower and lower. It was almost between his legs. Then he said, one day, George Mueller, it came in my life today, George Mueller, he said, as a young man, I had a great many ambitions. There came a day when I died of all of those things. I said, henceforth, Lord Jesus, it's not my will, but thine be done. And that day, God began to work. And as we've been talking about in these meetings, there came a day in my life when I died. I gave up all my ambitions, and I said, henceforth, Lord, the thine be done. I've read an awful lot of biographies of men and women who've made history for God. I've never read one where that person didn't have that experience. They didn't have the experience of coming to the Lord and just making a commitment of their life to Him. I like the story of that young woman that was giving her testimony at a college down here in the south, how she had really committed her life to the Lord. She held up a blank piece of paper, and she said, what I did, she thought, I signed the blank piece of paper, let the Lord fill me with His grace. That says very eloquently what I've been trying to say here, just sign the blank piece of paper, and let the Lord fill in the details. David Livingston. It's David Livingston's commitment to the Lord Jesus that accounts for his greatness. He's a poor Scottish boy brought up in a mill there in Scotland. And the world exalts him, of course, as an explorer and a foe of the slave trade. And he was all that, but I want to tell you, it was his life of a savior that really made him famous. His labors for the Lord in Africa are high spots in the history of Christian. If you visit his home there in Scotland today, you'll see a stained glass window, and it has this saying of David Livingston, that I will put no value on anything I hold of the kingdom of God. It means I'm not going to accumulate material things just for my own selfish pleasure. If I can use it for the Lord, I will. Otherwise, I don't. When he was 59, he wrote, my Jesus, my King, my life, my all. I again dedicate my whole self to thee. The word furlough was not in his vocabulary. He once wrote to a missionary society that he was ready to go anywhere on the condition of his soul. One day his African brothers found him on his knees by his bed. They removed his heart and buried it there by that tree. And his body was taken to Westminster Abbey and buried there. When you go into Westminster Abbey, one of the first things you see is a plaque on the floor of the body of David Livingston. The inscription reads, For thirty years his life was spent in an unwearied state. Some of you know the poetry of hymns of Frances Ridley Habergown. At a biographer of hers said she had none of the ordinary titles sustained. What singled her out was the note of absoluteness in her spiritual experience. In her consecration there was no limit and no reserve. She had learned the secret of abandonment, and she yielded herself utterly to God. By virtue of this, her writings reached and moved a multitude of souls with strange penetrating power. And you'd sing her hymns all the time. When she was 21, she saw a painting of Ecce Homo, Behold the Man, in the art gallery at Dusseldorf. She was so moved that she wrote her first hymn, I Gave My Life to Thee. My precious blood I shed that Thou mightst ransom me to quicken from the dead. I gave, I gave my life to Thee, what hast Thou given to me. My Father's house on high, my glory circles prone. I left for earthly nights, for wandering sad and lonely. I left, I left it all for Thee. I suffered much for Thee, more than Thy tongue can tell, of bitter agony to rescue Thee from hell, I've borne for Thee. And I have brought to Thee down from my home above, salvation full and free, my pardon and my love. I bring, I bring this gift to Thee, what hast Thou brought to me. 17 years later, she summarized her autobiography in six verses. Each of, each verse describes some experience in her life. She wrote, Take my life and let it be concentrated toward Thee. Take my moments and my days, let them flow. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet and let them be swift. Take my voice and let me sing always only for my King. Take my lips and let them be filled with messages for Thee. This is complete, this is complete commitment, isn't it? Take my silver and my gold, not of my, but I the soul. Take my intellect and use every power that Thou shalt choose. Take my will and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is Thine own, it shall be Thy royal throne. Take my love, my God, I pour at Thy feet with the greatest joy. Take myself, I will be ever, only, all. Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor is a man who opened inland China to the gospel, the gospel of redeeming race. Founder of the China Inland Mission, now called the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. He identified himself with the Chinese people to whatever extent he could in dress, clothes, culture, and all the rest. His work was carried on in faith. He always said God's work, God's work carried on in God's way, and never lacked God's resources. God's work carried on in God's way, and never lacked God's resources. Interestingly enough, I think it's interesting that George Muller, who himself lived by faith, a man that's orphaned in Bristol, England, is one of the heavy contributors to the work of Hudson Taylor. Really, really well. Charles Adams Ferguson, they call him the Prince of Futures. He was filling large auditoriums before he was 20. Though he was a Calvinist, he spoke out against hyper-Calvinism, against Arminianism as well. It's amazing, his printed sermons still have a wide circulation. His books are widely circulated. I don't know if any of you have read Morning and Evening Readings, The Daily Devotion, one reading for the morning and one for the evening. Marvelous, marvelous book. His set, Treasury of David on Bastogne, probably one of the best set of books that's ever been written on Bastogne. And like so many of the Lord's servants, he was plagued with illness and laid down his Bible for the last time in 1917. C.T. Studd. C.T. Studd was a cricket champ and a member of the Cambridge Seven, well known in England. His father was saved through Mooney, and then C.T. Charlie was saved somewhat later. And there's a book about his life called C.T. Studd by Norman Rudman. C.T. Studd was a fanatic of Jesus. To him, the gospel was real, and the Lord Jesus was heard. His life motto was, if Jesus Christ be God and die for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for thee. Let me say that again. If Jesus Christ be God and die for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for thee. As a young man, he fell in love with a girl, and he was afraid that she might love him more than she loved Jesus. He didn't want that to happen. So he wrote a poem, and he said, I want you to recite this poem every day of your life. The poem was this, Jesus, I love thee, thou art to me dearer than Charlie ever could be. It's good, it's good. When his father died, he inherited a fortune, and he decided to forsake that. Jesus said, forsake all and follow me. So he decided to forsake that fortune as far as he was concerned and follow the Lord Jesus. And that fortune is part of the beginning of the new Bible. But you know, he thought, well, it's okay for me to do that, but what about my wife? And so he set something apart for her. And he told her what he was doing, and he said, Charlie, listen to the Lord tell you. He said, forsake all. He said, let's start our marriage doing what he said. So they forsake it all. And he went out to China, India, and Africa. He was one of God's irregulars. I don't think he'd be comfortable if he was here today. But that's the kind of people who get most of the work done. He founded the world's evangelization crusade. And rather than return home and retire, he chose to remain in Africa and die there. Thank God for men. I'll never forget the day his life motto came to me in Paris, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Jesus Christ, he died and died. It can be too great for me to make that. It flew me. I couldn't answer it. I couldn't wiggle around it. Amy Carmichael. Some of you have read Amy Carmichael's poems. They're wonderful. Amy Carmichael was of Irish stock, and she was a woman's woman, I'll tell you. She was one of the best brothers we have. And she devoted her life to working with boys and girls, mostly girls in India, who otherwise probably would have become pimps across. That's the vision that she had. She had tremendous strength of character and leadership ability. The measure of her devotion to Christ is seen in these words, the vows of God. I may not stay to play with shadows, or pluck earthly flowers, till I my work have done, and rendered up unto you. The vows of God are upon you. I may not stay to play with shadows, or pluck earthly flowers, till I my work have done, and rendered. Another place she wrote some prayer that asked that I should be sheltered from winds that beat on thee, from fearing when I should aspire, from faltering when I should climb higher, from silt and stealth, O Captain, from subtle love of softening things, from easy choices deepening, not thus our spirit fortified, not this way went the crucified, from all that dims thy calvary, deliver us now. Give me the love that leads the way, the faith that nothing can dismay, the hope no disappointments fire, the passion that will burn as fire, and let me not think to be a flawed, make me thy school. William Borden. William Borden was the son of millionaire parents. He attended Yale University, unbelievable, there was a revival in Yale in 1909, and William Borden was part of that revival. God called him to serve him overseas. He was an Englishman that came to this country once and traveled among Christian circles, and he said, somebody said to him when he was leaving to go back to England, what most impressed you in your visit to America? And he said, seeing that young son of millionaire, and the vision down in the valley, with his arms around, and so he did, he used to go down and walk, he used to go down and walk and watch the visions down in the vision in the valley. This impressed the Englishman more than anything he had seen. It was William Borden who said, in every man's heart there's a throne and a cross. If Christ is on the throne, self is on the cross. If self, even a little bit, is on the throne, Jesus is on the cross in that man's heart. If Jesus is on the throne, you will go where he wants you to go. Jesus on the throne glorifies any work of Christ. He got to Egypt, and he traveled to the mission field, and he died there a spiteful man inside of him. But more people have gone to the mission field as a result of the book that was written by Mrs. Howard Taylor, Warden of Yale, if he had lived. Eric Liddell, some of you know Eric Liddell, Scottish lad, who had convictions, convictions about the Lord's Day. A lot of things he wouldn't do on Sunday. He said, if you love the Lord, you'll love his day too. Some of you have seen the movie, Chariot of Fire, about Eric Liddell. He adamantly, in the Olympics in 1924, he refused to run in the 100 meter event for which he was qualified. That was his race, but he refused to run because it was going to be on a Sunday. Some called him a traitor to Scotland and Britain. The British athletic authorities were absolutely horrified. If he was unmoved, all of Britain, the Prince of Wales, they couldn't change his mind. So eventually he agreed to run in a 400 meter race, which wasn't his race at all, but it was going to be on a weekday, and he did that. Before the race, the man who gave Eric his rubdown, as Eric was standing there at the starting line, this man went out and handed him a little slip of paper, and it said, End of Honours. And he took off. His running was appalling. His hands were flailing around like a windmill. He gave everything about his race. He won the race. He set a new world record for that particular race. He's an honour to me. I will. He went to China as a missionary and was interned there by the Japanese in an internment camp. He died of a brain tumour. Not through cruelty. They weren't cruel to him. They didn't have medical facilities to take care of him. And you know, when he died, a Scottish newspaper wrote Scotland made her proud. Betty Scott Stam, still a student at Bible School, and one night she wrote down in her Bible, Lord, I give up my own purposes and plans, all my own desires, hopes and ambitions, whether they be fleshly or solely, and accept thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all, utterly to thee, to design forever. I hand over to thy keeping all of my friendships, my love, all the people whom I love are to take second place in my heart. Fill me and seal me with thy holy spirit. Work out thy whole will in my life, at any cost, now and forever. To be delivered, he married John Stam. They went on to China and they sealed their testimony with their blood. The story told of the triumph of John and Betty Stam. Jim Elliott. Everybody who knew Jim Elliott knew that he was like the burnings which he was burning, but not consumed. My own lasting impression of Jim was that he was intolerant of anything that between the soul and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this he agreed with James Denny who wrote, if God has really done something in Christ in which the salvation of the world depends, and if he has made it known, then it's a Christian duty to be intolerant of everything which ignores, denies, or explains it. And you feel something of this intolerance in Jim when you read, he makes his ministers a flame of fire. Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dead as vectors of other things. Saturate me with the oil of the spirit that I may be a flame. But flame is transient, often short-lived. Canst thou bear this, my soul, short life? In me there dwells the spirit of the great short-lived one. Deal for God's house and make me thy shield in the flame of God. Jim Halloway. His philosophy was, he is no fool, but he cannot teach the game that he cannot do. He spoke together with four other young fellows who laid down his life for Christ in the shores of the Keurigai River in commitment. You know, it's one thing to read about commitment in the Bible, it's another thing to see it in living colors in Christ. That's what I've tried to do today, to go over the lives of these people who were sold out to the Lord, Jesus Christ. They saved us all, because it was this they had that they turned to the Lord. I wonder how many of us are willing to take that blank piece of paper and just sign our names with the body of Christ. Blessed God, we just thank you as we think back over these men and women that have made history for you. What a debt we owe to them, some that have died in order to preserve the truth of God for us today. How indebted we are to them. Speak to our souls, Lord. We want to make our lives count for you. We don't want to just spend our lives in underwater basket weaving, but we want to be effective. We want every blow to count from the throne of God. And so we just pray that we might really be serious about this matter, if we've never done it before, day by day, that we might say, Lord Jesus, I just exchanged my word for your word. We asked it in history. For the world's honor of selling it to a bowl of chili. Imagine giving the best of one's life for a ribbon, a plaque, a gold cup. One man who lived for these things said, the dream of the reality was better than the reality of the dream. You got more kick out of the dream than out of the thing itself. The dream of the reality was better than the reality of the dream. Young people who want to obey the first and great command of God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength cannot express their resolve better than the words of Thomas Hill when he said, Lord, in the fullness of my heart, for I runneth o'er each dear delight to thee, should soar my song. I would not give the world my heart and then profess thy love. I would not feel my strength depart and then thy service prove. I would not with swift-winged zeal on the world's errands go, then.