Joseph Carroll emphasizes that understanding sin is crucial for true salvation, as many today have a distorted view of sin and seek Christ for selfish reasons rather than for true repentance and transformation. He explains that true Christianity is about living for Christ, not for self-gratification, and that genuine repentance leads to a new life in Christ where one's desires align with God's will. Carroll warns against the dangers of a superficial faith that seeks personal gain rather than a deep, abiding relationship with Jesus, urging believers to examine their motives and live wholly for Him.

If we're wrong on sin, we're wrong all along the line, obviously. If we don't know what we have to be saved from, then we don't know what salvation is, and therefore we don't experience it. Now this is one of the great snares of the enemy in our day. He's fooled people as to what sin is. And therefore you have people with a profession but no performance. Where there is life, there's a manifestation of that particular life. And Christianity speaks of a dynamic life because it's the life of Christ in the individual. And Christ happens to be God himself. Therefore people have a wrong conception because they have a wrong estimate of sin or a wrong definition of sin or they don't really know what sin is. Therefore they're not saved from it. Now Jesus Christ came to save his people from their sins, to save them. So where did he come to save you from? He came to save you from selfishness. Self-ish-ness, self-ish-ness, self in the centre. That's where he came to save you from now. In our modern day, very often people, they think they come to Christ, but what do they come to Christ for? To get somebody or this person who offers himself to them to get them to heaven and to save them from hell. And when they're in trouble, to answer their prayers, to help them to live their own life. That's what it is. That's not a bad deal. Is somebody going to get me to heaven? And if I'm in trouble, he'll answer my prayers and he'll help me to fulfil my plan for my life. That's not a bad deal. From a viewpoint of a sinner, why not? Just a little straightening up here and there, a little reformation. One drink as much or one drink at all, go to church maybe a couple of times a week. Looks like once a week now with most people, even with a lot of our people here. Sunday morning glories. I mean, that's it. That's what they believe Christianity is. Believing that a certain person is the son of God and that he died on a cross bearing the sins of the world. Well, the devils believe all that. We've heard it a hundred times. That's nothing more than the devils believe. But the devils do not repent. That's the point. The big issue is repentance. Faith is simple. Who wouldn't want to go to heaven if all you need to believe is Jesus is the son of God? I'll buy that any day. Thousands of Japanese bought it, but you know the percentage we got, don't you? Maybe one percent after a year. Maybe a half a percent after two years. Sure. Japanese shrewd people, they'll accept that. That's a good deal. Jesus will get me to heaven? Fine. I'll take him. Anybody else, too, that can help me. You see the point? In other words, Christianity is something for me. It's all me. Well, it's the same old trap. It's selfishness. Something for me. It's the same trap. The real heart, that is, the fallen nature, isn't dealt with at all. Why? Because there's no new nature. But that old life isn't dealt with at all. It's just taken a new course of action. It's become somewhat religious. Somewhat. But not too far. But underneath it all is this vicious thing that wants what? Self-gratification. That's the enemy. That thing that desires gratification. In other words, my life for my sake. Now, that's your enemy. That is what sin is. That thing within you that wants self-realization, self-gratification, doesn't matter what form it takes. Now, there's only one way that you can be delivered from that, and that is by repentance, true repentance. Not a half-hearted repentance. Not a conditional repentance, an unconditional repentance. It's the only way it can be dealt with. Now, when that takes place, when the true repentance takes place, and there is a submission to Jesus Christ as Lord in their life, the wonderful thing happens, you experience new life. You experience it. And everybody else sees it. You experience it. But let's be clear about it. Now, the desire is not self-gratification, but the knowledge of the will of God that you might do it. That's the new motivation. Actually, self fades into the background. Now, it's always there. We'll admit that. It's always there. It's latent, if not patent. It's always latent. Let's be clear about that. But the more Jesus Christ comes to you, becomes to you the less power that has, until it has very little power. The more Jesus Christ becomes to you, the less power that old life has to assert itself, that old nature. So I find it very necessary, very necessary, to say every morning, Lord Jesus, I set myself apart today for your sake and for your pleasure and for your glory. Every morning. I'm setting myself apart, Lord, by an act of my will for your sake, for your pleasure and for your glory. Now, that's my daily repentance. I make up my mind first thing in the morning, I'm going to deal with this thing right now. And just audibly tell the Lord, I'm setting myself apart for you. I'm sanctifying myself for you, for your sake, for your pleasure and for your glory today, Lord. Now that's essential, that's absolutely essential. You never cease to repent. Repentance is an act followed by an attitude. It's an act of renunciation followed by what? A taking up of the cross, in order that that old nature might be dealt with and kept in its place. Now, when you keep focusing on the Lord, there is what we have called, and you've heard the illustration before, the law of counteraction. Switching the light on in the room and the darkness departs, but the darkness is latent. Switch it off and the darkness will come back. It's always latent there. Whilst the light is switched on, then the darkness just is not manifesting itself. There's light there. In other words, a law of counteraction. That's a law. But you turn the switch off and the darkness comes back immediately. Now, it's the law of counteraction that deals with that old fallen nature of yours. The law of counteraction. The more Christ becomes to you, the less power the darkness has. But you must ask yourself, am I truly saved? What is my attitude to life? Is it to be lived for Christ, or me, or both of us? Some for Christ, some for me. Or, I'm trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm living for him today, but I know he will bring to pass in the future that which I really desire for my life. It's not very subtle, is it? In other words, if you've been saved, there was a time when the Spirit of God revealed to you that you were a sinner. You were the sinner. That sin is not something that people do and act something out here. It's something that's always attached to an individual. You are sin. Altogether sin. That's the point. In other words, you committed a sin out here, and a sin out here, and a sin out there, and it's something that's separate from you. It's not something that's separate from you. The Word of God never speaks of sin like that. It's always something attached to a person. So you see, it's impossible for a person to get into heaven with sin. Sin doesn't enter heaven. You've got to get rid of it. It's something that's attached to you. And that's a terrible thought. There's no way you can enter heaven with sin attached to you. That's not possible. So what is Christianity? Well, Christianity is everything for Jesus Christ. That's what it is. Everything for Jesus Christ. And if you begin to falter a little bit in your submission to him, you might add, Lord Jesus, you set yourself apart to the cross for me, I set myself apart to take up the cross for you today. You did it for me, I'll do it for you. Right? That's the only thing that's going to work. Because you've got that old nature ready at any time to rise up and take over. So the only answer is to concentrate on Jesus Christ. To set yourself apart for Jesus Christ. I don't care what words you use. This is the statement that helps me. It works for me. Because it makes me conscious early in the morning of my Lord. And I need that. I need it first thing. And you need to continue with that. Then with that comes an increasing consciousness of your oneness with him. So that he's not somebody out there seated at the right hand of the Father and only there. He's somebody who's within you. That's very important. It's somebody who's within you. And increasingly you become conscious of your oneness with him. You are one. He's within you. And there's a consciousness that he is within you. That's the point. It's not something that you believe with your head. It's something you experience in your life. Of course you believe it with your head. It has to come through your head. But it only starts there. And it's this consciousness, I am one with him, that lifts you above things. Do you see that? So it's not my trying to be somebody. It's the inspiration of the consciousness of oneness. And it is an inspiration that I am one. He is within me. I am one with him. We are inseparably, eternally one. And you know it. You know it. You see it's an experience. It's a conscious realization that you are one with him. And so you walk together. He's not out here. He is out there, but he's also in here. He's in your heart, by his spirit. And you know it. You know it. That's the point. Now, that makes life really worthwhile, doesn't it? Sometimes you get a young fellow who thinks in his life, well, if only I was with Susie Q today, I'd feel a lot better. Forget Susie Q. The Lord of Glory wants to make you his very own. And he wants you to know that you are his very own, and he wants you to walk with him. That doesn't beat Susie Q. I don't know what life's all about. You see the point? There can be no consciousness of oneness with the Lord Jesus until he becomes everything to you. That's obvious. That's obvious. So let's get it clear now. There's going to be a crisis of repentance, which is a 180 degree turn. It's a right about turn. You're walking in one direction. What? Self gratification is the aim of your life. It might be veiled, and it might be subtle, but that's what it is. Something for me. In this life, there's going to be something for me. And I know it's going to be in the will of God, but it's going to be for me, and it's what I want, and it's what he's going to provide for me, because he's such a gracious, loving, tender Lord who loves to give. Give what? What I want. No. What he decrees. He gives what he decrees, not what you want. He's not that... Well, what do you say? The Lord isn't foolish. Foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. He gives what he decrees, not what you want. And as soon as you begin to have wants for your sake, you're on the devil's territory. As soon as you have a want for your sake, you're on the devil's territory. Let's get it clear this morning. All right? Self-gratification. That's sin. Seeking that is sin. Why? It begins with Satan. I will be like the Most High. Self-gratification. I'll be like the Most High. I will ascend. I will be like the Most High. Self-gratification. Eve. Why did she fall? Why did Adam fall? Self-gratification. It was good. Got you. Self-gratification. Do you see that? You must examine your motives. And you must be ruthless with yourself for your own sake. I mean ruthless. You have to be ruthless. As soon as you detect something, well, this is for me. This is not for the glory of the Lord at all. This is for me. This is something I want for me. You're in trouble. You're on the devil's territory. So that's why it's of vital importance when there is that experience of repentance and you can't avoid that initial experience. It can't be avoided. When you turn 180 degrees to live not for yourself and not for your own gratification but for the glory and the satisfaction and pleasure of Jesus Christ alone. In other words, you gave yourself away to him and you're not taking yourself back. That's repentance. Now, that's the end of all self-will. It ends there. Now, I'm not saying the potential isn't there but there's been a drastic alteration of direction and a drastic change of motivation. And it's drastic because it's placed a sentence of death upon what you formerly lived for. The sentence of death is upon that now. That's a crisis. That's a crisis. Very few people come to that crisis. What are they after? Well, they're after loaves and fishes. That's what they're after. And what did our Lord say, or what was the reaction of the people when our Lord told them that's exactly what they were after and that's where they're following and they left him but he didn't say a word to them to come back. He let them go. I've always been very impressed by that. The Lord never pleaded with one of them. They left, so he let them leave. It's not the slightest use pleading with such people. He knew their heart. They wanted him for what he could provide for them to give them satisfaction. He said, well, all right, away you go. It's rather solemn, isn't it? Well, why do people, most people come to Jesus Christ now and why do they go to the church? That Jesus might, what? Give them what they want in this life. Some insurance concerning eternity, heaven at the end of the road and a life lived here with his help. That will satisfy me. It's not that at all. It's Jesus Christ, not me. I've no part in this at all. I've no say in it and I don't want any say. I've lived long enough to know that if you give me the say and I take it out of his hands I'll sure make a mistake and I'll pay for it. Now, I've lived long enough to know that that you pay for your mistakes and I mean you pay. You don't come out until you've paid the uttermost farthing. I mean the uttermost farthing. You not come out of it. God is a righteous God. You deflect from his will for it and you pay for it. Every time. So the 180 degree return must take place. What does it mean? I am no longer going to live in any sense by the grace of God for self-gratification. That's what it means. Now let's get it straight. I'm not going to live for that. All right? How do we follow that? That's the crisis. It's followed by the process, the daily cross. You must become Christ conscious. And the first thing in the morning use any words. The thing that works for me is Lord Jesus, I now set myself apart for you today, for your satisfaction, for your pleasure and for your will to be done in my life. Every morning I must say that. First thing, get a good start. And then increasingly there comes that consciousness that you are one with Jesus Christ. That you're really one and he's within you. He's not somebody you have to cry to wave up there in heaven. He's within you and everywhere you are he is inseparably yours. What a tremendous thing. I mean, what an overpowering thing. There's nothing on earth that can compare with that. What is there on earth that can compare with that? I suppose the closest you could get to it is two people who really love each other. They don't love themselves. They love the other person. They really love each other. You find it is very rare. It's almost, well, very rare indeed these days because of these false concepts. But you get two people who really love each other. Say the Brownings. I don't know if you've read of the Brownings but anyway the Brownings. They had the real thing. Now that's about as close as you can get to it but it's like a mud pool compared with a sparkling rippling stream. Do you see that? This is an experience of love. Oneness. That's what love's all about. Oneness. That's what love should lead you to with another person. Oneness. It's rare, isn't it? Of course it's rare. But when people experience it they experience true love. Well the Lord wants you to experience that. He wants you to experience your oneness with him. He'll manifest himself to you. A continual manifestation. Not simply coming and going but it's there. But if you get off track if the devil comes along with some bait and you fall for it then you're going to suffer. And you're going to lose the consciousness of oneness. And when you lose that consciousness of oneness you lose your buoyancy. You're not buoyant any longer. You're not floating. You're gasping for breath and sinking beneath the waves and saying, help me. But you're in fault. How do I know I've been there? It's not very pleasant. It never pays to deflect from the will of God. You say, well what will happen to me? I don't know. I don't know but I know life will be glorious if you let the Lord make it glorious. I know that. I've experienced that. So you must ask yourself, what is my motive? Say your motive in being here. Is it to learn more of Christ? And is it that I might more intelligently and consistently devote myself to him? To find out what my role is as his bride in order that I might fulfill it for his satisfaction? Now is that your motive? Nothing less than that will work. Nothing less will work. It won't work. It'll stop and start and spit and splutter but it will not work. Am I on this earth to be a satisfaction and a pleasure to Jesus Christ, my Lord? Is that my motive in life? Nothing less will work. In other words, I'm out, as our dear old friend said, and he's in. Amen. I'm out and he's in. Now what happens when something is presented to you which would mean self-gratification when you refuse it? You see it for what it is. And you turn to your Lord and you say, Lord, you are my satisfaction and you'll be conscious that he is your satisfaction. And you can laugh at these things. You can laugh at them. But that self-will must go. There's no such thing as self-will after that. You can't have two wills. You can only have one. What happened when Satan fell? For the first time in God's creation you had two wills. That's what happened. And that's why you had conflict. And that's always the conflict. What did you have in the Garden of Eden before they fell? Well, you had one will. You had the will of God. All right, when they fell, what did you have? Well, you had two wills so you had conflict and you also had a fall. You can't have two wills. That's conflict. You can only have one will. Just one. And it's not yours. You have the privilege of yielding your will to his will for his sake. And you never think of yourself. What's going to happen to me? Excuse the phrase, what am I going to get out of it? I'll tell you what you get out of it if you don't do it. You get misery ultimately. Absolute misery. I'm dealing with a certain person now and he's sort of oscillating. He's aligned here. He knows he should stay on this side of the line. That's the will of God. But there are certain temptations here where you're right in the middle of the road and if he's going to respond to them he gets a little bit on this side of the road and then he gets clobbered and then he comes back quickly here. Well, you know, I didn't want to do that so he's on this side of the road but he's getting on this side of the road too often. The Lord's going to chastise him. He's like Samson. There's the straight line you walk. All right. You're on this side. On this side. On this side is the self-gratification. This is something of me over here. Well, it's not very much and I'm sure the Lord would approve of this. You can't say he will approve of it but I'm sure he would approve of it. Why don't you ask him? Why don't you ask him? Ask him if he approves of it and mean it. Well, it's something for me. And you see, he gets over here and he's pretty close to the line. Not too far out, you know. Pretty close. He's not wandering out here in the field. He's got more sense than to do that because he knows he'd really be in trouble if he gets over there. The devil would really get him. All right. He's just close to the line but he's not on it. And then the Lord speaks and he gets back again. Goes along a little way and then, oh, just sneaking across here. Just a little bit and then the Lord speaks and, oh, I'll get back. Listen, one of these times he's going to go over there and the Lord's really going to chastise him. Like he did Samson. He's asking for trouble and he'll get it. He'll go over that side of the line once too often and it won't be easy to get back. He might come back with a broken leg or a broken heart. It's much better to have a broken leg than a broken heart, I can assure you. But the Lord may give him both. I don't know. But I know he's in danger. It's the same for you. What are you living for? Just what are you living for? Let's be honest today. What are you living for? What is your motive in living? Oh, my motive in living is serving the Lord within the context in which he has placed me which means I have a very loving husband most of the time. He's most of the time. And I have these sweet children. They could be a little sweeter but I thank God he gave them to me because he loves me. And I think this is a nice little house I have and we have enough income. Isn't the Lord good to me? And then something goes wrong, poor me. Is that your life? Is that what it is? It's not life at all. That's you. That's me, my and mine. What are your prayers about? You're scared to death. God'll take it away from you half the time. Scared to death. Something's going to happen to your husband or something's going to happen to your kids. I'm speaking to married people now because potentially you're going to be married one of these days. That's not life at all. That's temporal. That's of the earth. That's temporal. You'll never enjoy it until you're safe from it. Never. It possesses you. You don't possess it. Anything that possesses you puts you in danger. You should be able to give up anything tomorrow if the Lord tells you to give it up and get down on your knees as Job did and say the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. You should be able to say it and it doesn't matter what it is. Your health, your wife, your children, your career, whatever it is, if He takes it, you say yes for it because you're perfect in all your ways. That's not life at all. That is not life. Christ is life. Now let's get hold of that. We say Christ is life. Yes, but what does it mean? Well, it means just that. Christ is life. And Christ is enough if He's life. And if He isn't that to you, then you're going to have to ask the Lord why. Why? Why is He not that to me? Because you're not conscious of your oneness with Him. Oneness with Christ. Yes. And you'll be able to say yes, I am one with Him. I know it. I'm conscious of it. He is there. And we are one. That's your buoyancy. It lets you have everything. In life, things go wrong with the family, things go wrong with the children, things go wrong with the husband, things go wrong with the career. Forget it. Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is God. Whatever He purposes, as I trust Him, He'll bring it to pass. Nothing in heaven or earth or hell will prevent Him doing that, and I know it. When He determines to do something, He does it. I had a member of my staff come to me recently, and he said, with great conviction, you know, I believe when God makes up His mind to do something, it gets done. And that's right. That's exactly right. Of course He'll do it. He is God. Of course He will do it. When God says He's going to do something, He'll do it. Of course He'll do it. Trouble is, you've got all these roadblocks in the way. And you remove them. He never removed them. You put a roadblock out there of self-realization or self-gratification, He's not going to move it. You're going to have to move it. Whatever it is, whatever form it takes, whether it's an individual or something out here that you want for your sake, that's a roadblock. You can't make progress without that. You've got to get rid of it. It's a surprising thing to me, although it may not be too surprising, that some people that come here think that, you know, well, yes, well, I'm at the Institute and I'm studying there, but if something else happens over here, well, I'll just take a little time out from the Institute to look after this, and I'll catch up on my studies later on. They never work. In other words, this is a secondary thing, you see. There are other more important things out here. If something happens out here, well, I'll just take a week or two off to look after this thing out here. And that's the place, usually, the Lord has in their lives. Do you see that? It astounds me. I can't quite get hold of that. And yet I find it's also true, unfortunately, with some missionaries. And I've been speaking to my staff, well, maybe we have to blame. Maybe we just make it too easy. It's too soft. I don't know. I'm waiting on the Lord for it now, but I don't know where this comes from. I just don't know where it comes from. Is the person not saved? I don't know where that motive comes from. As if you can mix this with this. No man in the war is entangled with himself with the affairs of this life. You don't get entangled with those affairs. You just don't get entangled with them. Why? Because you're not free to fight the battles of the Lord. That's a full-time job. That's a full-time job. Do you see that? You're going to walk by faith in Him or you are not. You're going to trust Him all the way or you're not trusting Him at all. You're going to trust Him in the dark as well as in the light. How can He ever prove Himself to you if He doesn't put you beyond your resources? That's not possible. When you are beyond your resources He'll prove Himself to you. Because He has to. There's no way out with that. Do you see that? He wants to be everything at all times, in every situation. But He can't be that to you if He's not supremely the one you are conscious of. He can't be that to you at all. Because you're thinking and you're diagnosing and you're asking for advice over here and counsel over here until at last you can get somebody to agree with you. Right? And away you go. Instead of being able, it doesn't matter where you are, just to turn within to the Lord and say, Lord, what do you think of this? What is your will in this? Is this your will? Is this your way? Is this your path for me? Is this what you want? Well, Lord, is my attitude right in this? Is that a right attitude? Or is it a wrong attitude? You show me, Lord. Whatever you show me, I will accept it. Whatever you say, I will do. Of course, it would be madness not to. You'd be crazy not to do it. It would be a self-inflicted wound not to do it. So you don't have to run all over the place asking people, but there's sometimes people, I notice this, they don't ask another person because they're afraid the person might tell them what they don't want to know. A lot of people don't come to me for counseling because they don't want to hear what I'm going to say. That's true. I know it. People tell me. But I had one man who came many years ago here in the little office. He limped into the place. He'd been quite an athlete and quite a handsome-looking fellow, very attractive fellow, but his wife knew the Lord and he didn't. He was, of course, he was in a certain church and he was a deacon in the church and he was a big shot in the church because he was a big, healthy, athletic fellow, you know, a big shot. Well, the Lord smote him and he crawled into the office, you see, with his wife. He said, You know why I came to talk to you today? I said, It doesn't offence the idea. He said, Because I know you'll tell me the truth. And I told him the truth. I said, Well, let's pray. So we prayed and I told him what I believed the Lord was telling me. You know what he told me? I said, If you don't repent of this, God will take your life. Now, and I believe that's what the Lord told me to tell him. This was his last chance. He'd been fooling around and fooling around and fooling around and now the Lord smote him. He was almost paralysed. He repented and the whole thing left him overnight. And I really believe in my heart, if he had not repented, God would take his life. He'd come to that point where God was saying, Now listen, this is it. The next time, it's over the line. But the important thing is, he got to that place where he was desperate and he knew he was desperate and he was going to have to know the truth. So he said, Well, you'll tell me the truth. People don't come to some people with cancer and they don't want to know the truth. Why? They're afraid of the truth. It's going to interfere with their plan for their life. They want to know the truth. So what is it all about? It's all about motive. It's all about my aim. It's all about my objective in life. What am I living for? Am I living for a person? Am I living for a person? And that person is Jesus Christ. Now, let's be clear on that. These are just words, but they're important words. Am I living for the sake of a person? How am I doing that? Or am I living partly for his sake and partly for my sake? It must be total. It must be total. There can be no my sake in it at all because that's when I get into trouble. Now, that means I'll do what he tells me to do whenever he tells me to do it and I'll do what is done to him. If he wants me to sweep the floor, fine. If he wants me to wash dishes, that's fine. That's his perfect will, washing dishes, if that's his will. If he wants me to mow the lawn, fine. I have to be very sure if he wants me to go fishing because I never catch anything, but if he wants me to go fishing, fine. That's fine by me. If he's going to test my faith, that's fine. You see the point? Whatever he says, you do it with freedom. With freedom. You're not saying, well, this is beneath me. I picked up a broom yesterday and was sweeping out all the junk we had in the garage with Ted. I had a big time talking to Ted. Why not? Of course, whatever he gives you to do, do it. Well, I'm the dish crew. I shouldn't be on the dish crew. I have the... Forget it. Get on the dish crew, for the Lord. Right? I mean, life is freedom. Life is a person now and I'm not doing things or going places. Life becomes a person. Underline it. Not being a missionary. Now I'm arrived. I'm in France. Yes, you're a first class nuisance. You see that? I'm a missionary. I've arrived. Life is not being a missionary. Life is Christ. And until life becomes Christ, you won't be anything the missionary you should be. In fact, you'll be a nuisance. You'll get in the way. Better that you weren't there. Is Dan nodding his head in the front row? He knows that's true. Life has to be a person. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear. So you must ask yourself, is Christ really my life? And be honest about it. Be very honest about it. Or maybe in your heart, you've got some secret little lying that because you're following the Lord, he's going to give you something that you want. Right? That's pretty subtle, isn't it? Well, not so subtle, really. What is that? That's just the old self-gratification. That is sin. You want something to gratify you. Now, selfishness, that's what sin's all about. Nothing for me. Everything that he provides for you. That's what you ought to have. And don't you think he can do a better job? He never fails. And he never makes mistakes. And you know it, and you're free. You're free. Now, he may bring along an experience to you, you've had something in your mind, or something that has been out there in front of you, and you're looking forward to that because you believe it's the will of God, and suddenly, bang, he smashes the whole thing. For your sake. Why? Because he knows the future. How do you react? Well, you react with worship. Yes, Lord. Now, you're not going to react like that if you're not conscious of your oneness with him. You won't do it. You know what people do? They ask, why? Why do you do that, Lord? So we come back to what? Sin is selfishness. That's the essence of sin. Self-gratification is an end. That's the objective. Something for me. Something will gratify me, fulfill me, on my terms. The Lord will help me to get it. That's what sin is. Selfishness. All right, I see it for what it is, and I take a stand against it. I repent of a life of self-gratification. I'm finished with it once, for all, and forever. Seeking nothing for myself, making nothing of myself. Finished. No will of my own, but to do the will of the one who laid down his life for me. All right? That's a crisis. Now comes the battle. Because you take a stand against what the enemy has ensnared you into, and he'll fight you on the ground. Oh, well. Don't be too hard. Don't be too hard. Don't be too extreme now. Are you sure that that's for your self-gratification? Or is it not the will of God for your life? Doesn't he want you to enjoy all things? Sure he does what he gives you. You see the point. Then comes the big old battle. Now you lay everything on that altar, and then you lay yourself on the altar. Let the fire of God consume the light. Then every day, every day you do the same thing. Lord Jesus Christ, you set yourself apart for me, I set myself apart for you. You went to the cross for me, I take up the cross for you today. You laid down your life for me, I lay down my life for you today. That's what it means. And with that will come a consciousness of oneness with him. And that's an experience of his love for you. A consciousness of oneness. That's the true experience of love. All right, shall we pray? Father, we give you thanks this morning for the possibilities and potential of the life that is truly centered in your son. And we thank thee that thou hast revealed to us that the downward pull of self-gratification, always downward, never upward. We pray that this truth shall find a deep lodging place in every heart there in your presence. And there will be those decisions made which need to be made. In order that you might become all in all to that heart. This we pray with thanksgiving in Jesus' name. Amen.