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Give us a mind, O God. Give us a mind. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and being found in human form, became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Let this mind be in us, O God. Create this mind in this room right now, I pray, in Jesus' name, amen. So the USA has the headlines. They're alive. They're not alive. Dead. All of them, except one, and he's in critical condition. Fifty-two dead in Iraq yesterday. Thirty-two of them at a funeral. Floods in California. Fires burning houses down across the Southwest. And what phone call did you get yesterday? If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. Thank you for the cross. His and ours. Matthew 10.21 Brother will deliver up brother to death, and father his child. Children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and they will be hated by all for my name's sake. The one who endures to the end will be saved. John 16.1 The hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. Every radical Muslim believes that when he kills a Christian. Romans 8.16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and children of heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him so that we may be glorified with Him. I count the sufferings of this present time unworthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed. It's coming. If you haven't had it yet, it's coming. If you walk with Him. If you walk with Him. Philippians 1.29 For it has been granted to you that for your sake you should not only believe but suffer. It's granted to you. It's given to you. It's a gift to you with a big bow that you will suffer. 2 Timothy 1.8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or me, His prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel, for the power of God. One more. Acts 5.41 They left the presence of the council, Peter, John, they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to be shamed for the name, the purpose of God in creating the universe is to display the greatness of the glory of His grace supremely in the suffering of His Son. That's yesterday. Today, the summons. Will you join the Son in displaying the supreme satisfaction of the glory of grace in joining Him on the Calvary road of suffering because there's no other way the world is going to see the supreme glory of Christ today except that we break free from the Disneyland of America and begin to live lifestyles of missionary sacrifice that looks to the world like our treasure is in heaven and not on the earth. It's the only way. The prosperity gospel will not make anybody praise Jesus. It will make people praise prosperity. Of course I'll have a Jesus who'll give me a car. Who wouldn't want a Jesus who gives me health, a car, a fine marriage? I'll take your Jesus if the payoff is right. That's not the way you're going to win your campuses. Dressing the coolest, driving the coolest, typing on the coolest. It's not going to get any praise for the suffering Christ. He calls you in this service, in this conference, in this life, in this world, in that newspaper world. He calls you to another way. Isn't it the good life? Isn't Christianity the good life? And if it's a delusion, it doesn't really matter. We're gone. So who cares if it's a delusion? It's the good life. Wrong! It's not the good life. Paul could not possibly have said, if we have hoped in Christ only for this life, we are most to be pitied if this is the good life. Oh, how wrong we've got it in America. It's really hard to be a Christian in America. Really hard. It's about the hardest place in the world. So he says two things. I'm in peril every hour and I die every day. I choose, I make so many choices to magnify Jesus in hard places, it hurts me every day. I would not choose this if it weren't true. If I couldn't expect a resurrection from the dead, where everything would be paid back to me a thousand fold that I have laid down in the service of Jesus, I wouldn't go this way. Christ died for millions of people all over the world. People on your campus, people in the unreached peoples of the world. Their debt has been paid. And they don't know it. They can't taste it. They can't feel it. They can't sing that song. I thank you for the cross, my friend. I thank you for the cross. There's something missing in this suffering. It's not showing up. It's not showing up in 639 unreached people groups, over 100,000 in the population that have zero testimony from the people in this room or me. It's not connecting. There's something lacking in the sufferings, namely the presentation of the sufferings. It's an amazing statement. And just think about the history of missions for a moment. If you have any inkling of how we got to where we are today with 1.3 or 4 billion people professing faith in Jesus Christ when it started from 12, how did we get there? You know what the answer is? Suffering. There never has been a breakthrough into an unreached place or people without suffering. If you're going to be a missionary, mark it down. Pain. Loss of a child. Malaria. Marital strife. Tensions on the team. Demonic opposition. Martyrdom. It's going to come. Don't think it's strange when it comes. It's the price. He paid His life for our salvation. We join Him in that suffering to display the nature of it. How are they going to see how satisfying He is in us if we look like it's the computer toy that is really satisfying? It is wonderful, I think, that Paul in this verse says, Now I rejoice in the sufferings for your sake. I'm not summoning you to a miserable life. I am summoning you to a painful life. But in this pain, all over the Bible, you find Christians rejoicing in tribulation. Rejoice in tribulation. For tribulation works patience, and patience works a provenness, and a provenness works hope, and hope will not put us to shame because the love of God is poured out in our heart. You want to experience the deep joy of knowing yourself loved by God. Lay out your life for another person. Take a risk with your body. Take a risk with your mind. Take a risk with your money, your schooling. What an amazing thing God calls us to do and to be.