Boasting Only in the Cross - Part 2

And look at my boat, God. Look at my boat, God. Well, not for Ruby and not for Laura. Don't waste your life. Don't waste it. I grew up in a home where my dad was an evangelist and he lived for one thing, to make Jesus Christ known among people who didn't know him. And I would watch him leave on Friday and put him on the airplane. He'd go for a week or two weeks or three weeks. And then come Monday and he'd come home and we'd welcome him home. And I loved my dad and I still do because at 81 he's still doing it. And there was on the kitchen wall in our house a little plaque. I grew up with it from the time I was six on and now it hangs on the wall in my living room at home. And it said this, Only one life till soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. 48 years I've seen that almost every day of my life. And I am here to plead with you to make your life count for the cross. I'm 54 years old. And most of you are 17 to 23 or so and some exceptions around. I have four kids your age. Carson's 27. Ben is 24. Abraham is 20. And Barnabas is 17. And then there's Talitha, she's four. So I have four sons who could be sitting out there and nothing moves me today to long and yearn and ache and desire more than the desire that these boys not throw away their lives on fatal success. And therefore I come to you, this came over me like a wave yesterday, I come to you as a father. I'm old enough to be the father of almost everybody on the grass. And I speak to you as the father perhaps that you never had. And I speak to you perhaps as the father that you did have who never had a vision for you. Or maybe the father that you had who has a vision for you and it's all about money and it's all about status. Or maybe, this would be the best of all, I speak as the father exactly what your father has always wanted you to hear. And you never would listen to lay down your life for Jesus and to go to the hard place and do the hard things for the glory of the cross. So hear me as a father speaking to my sons and my daughters this afternoon. I love passion. Passion 97, 98, 99. One day. One of the reasons I love passion is because the 268 Declaration based on Isaiah 26:8 goes so close to the center of what I feel like I'm about. You know what it says? Especially that last phrase. Your name and your renown are the desire of our souls. So here's not just a body, but a soul. And here's not just a soul, but a soul with a desire. And here's not just a soul with a desire, but a desire for something infinitely great and infinitely glorious and infinitely valuable namely the name and the renown of Jesus Christ. And the reason I love passion so much is because my own life mission and the life mission of my church is almost identical with that vision. And it goes like this. We exist, I exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God, the supremacy of Christ, the supremacy of the cross in all things for the joy of all people. That's my passion. And I pray that I could deliver it to you. That I could call forth a generation to take this passion to the hard places. Lay down your lives for it. You don't have to say it like I say it. You don't have to say it like Louis Giglio says it. You don't have to say it like Beth says it. You don't have to say it like anybody else on this platform says it. But you've got to find your way to say it. You've got to find your passion and lift it up and say it and live for it and die for it. And then you'll become like Paul. Don't you just love the way the Apostle Paul spoke about his passions? For example, there's one you may not be too familiar with. In Acts 24-20, verse 24, he says, I don't count my life of any value nor as precious to myself if only I might finish my course and the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus to preach the gospel of the grace of God. Do you hear it? My life doesn't count but for one thing. To make a difference in the world, you don't have to know a lot of things. One thing. Get one thing clear and die for it. Philippians chapter 3. Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I might gain Christ. I love the way Paul spoke these words of consecration. One thing. And so I ask myself this week and weeks gone by, what's the one thing I could say that perhaps would rivet your heart on your passion to go to the hard places and do the hard thing among the hard campuses, among the unreached peoples? And this verse came to my mind and I emailed it to Louis a few days ago and he said, that's it. That's where we're going. It's Galatians chapter 6 verse 14. It's so short you don't need to look it up. You just read it. Galatians 6 verse 14. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world was crucified to me and I was crucified to the world. May I never boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world was crucified to me. Let's say it positively. Boast only in the cross. There's one idea. You don't have to know a lot of things. You don't have to have a great long education.