Boasting Only in the Cross - Part 1

Father in heaven, you know how inadequate I feel at this moment, and so I ask for a very special anointing and help from you in the name of Jesus because of the cross where he died for me. Father, it's a frightening thing to call a generation to die. We sing of it very lightly. We run to this cross, which is where we should run. And it is a frightening thing to call my sons and my daughters to die. And so I pray that you would give me the grace to say what you once said, not say anything more or anything less. I pray that you fill me now with your Holy Spirit. I pray that you'd come upon this assembly with a sense of resolve to walk with Christ to the peoples and to the campuses, with the cross and on the cross. Into your hands, Lord Jesus, I commit these few moments. I pray that you'd guard me from the evil one and that you would grant me a prophetic word that would have a ripple effect to the ends of the earth and to eternity. In Jesus' name, amen. You don't have to know a lot of things in order to make a huge difference for the Lord in the world. But you do need to know a few things that are great and be willing to live for them and die for them. People that make a difference in the world are not people who have mastered a lot of things. They are people who have been mastered by a very few things that are very, very great. If you want your life to count, you don't have to have a high IQ and you don't have to have a high EQ. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to have good looks. You don't have to be from a good family or from a good school. You just have to know a few basic, simple, glorious, majestic, obvious, unchanging, eternal things and be gripped by them and be willing to lay down your life for them. Which is why anybody in this crowd can make a worldwide difference. Because it isn't you. It's what you're gripped with. But one of the really sad things about this moment right now is that there are hundreds of you in this crowd who do not want your life to make a difference. All you want is to be liked. Maybe finish school, get a good job, find a husband or a wife, a nice house, a nice car, long weekends, good vacations, grow old healthy, have a fun retirement, die easy, no hell. And that's all you want. You don't give a rip whether your life counts on this earth for eternity. That's a tragedy in the making. That is a tragedy in the making. About three weeks ago we got news at our church that Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards were killed in Cameroon. Ruby Eliason. Over 80. Single all her life. A nurse. Poured her life out for one thing. To make Jesus Christ known among the sick and the poor in the hardest and most unreached places. Laura Edwards, a medical doctor in the Twin Cities and then in retirement partnering up with Ruby, also pushing 80 and going from village to village in Cameroon. And the brakes give way. Over a cliff they go and they're dead instantly. And I ask my people, is this a tragedy to women in their 80s? Almost. A whole life devoted to one idea. Jesus Christ magnified among the poor and the sick in the hardest places. And 20 years after most of their American counterparts had begun to throw their lives away on trivialities in Florida and New Mexico, fly into eternity with a death in a moment. Is this a tragedy, I ask? It is not a tragedy. I'll read you what a tragedy is. I've got a little article here from Reader's Digest. You don't read Reader's Digest, I know that. But there is a generation who does. But this is a tragedy. Title of the article, Start Now, Retire Early. February 1998. Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball, and collect shells. That's a tragedy. That's a tragedy. And there are people in this country that are spending billions of dollars to get you to buy it. And I get 40 minutes to plead with you, don't buy it. With all my heart, I plead with you, don't buy that dream, the American dream. A nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting shells as the last chapter before you stand before the creator of the universe to give an account with what you did. Here it is, Lord, my shell collection. Look, Lord, my shell collection. And I've got a good swing.