Something to Live for 1976

I just want to read one verse from 2 Corinthians 5, verse 15. And he died for all that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raped. So often we hear believers proclaiming, and it's no doubt true, that outside the kingdom of God, those people who have never seen the mercy of God in the face of Jesus Christ actually have nothing to live for.

And even though they may be all excited about getting rich or famous or traveling around the world, one day they're going to wake up and they're going to be depressed. All right, that may be true. But is it only those who are outside the kingdom of God who have nothing to live for and get depressed? Can we honestly say that people who are in the body of Christ, as far as we can tell, and say that they know Jesus, are always living purposeful lives, that everybody in the body of Christ is really heartbent and wholly sold out for living for God and doing his will, that they get up every morning praising God, and that they face all their obstacles and problems with confidence? Now, maybe it should be this way, but we all know very well that it isn't.

In fact, a very, very high percentage of people in the body of Christ, after they have passed their honeymoon stage, are living lives which are less motivated than those who are outside the kingdom. They're not getting up in the morning praising God, and they're not facing their problems with joy and gusto. They don't even know where they're at.

They're all confused, terribly discouraged, don't even know which road to stand on. And almost every place you go, you see them standing around, gazing into space, all confused. And then some little fanatic comes chomping down the road, full of joy and enthusiasm, and it makes all these other Christians sick.

You just wait. You'll lose your steam. Pretty soon, you'll be like the rest of us.

The only problem is that they don't realize this little guy who's been jogging down the road so full of joy, he's been at it for 25 years. What I'm trying to say is that there are people, praise God, who go year after year, in season and out of season, and they are full of joy. Now, if we could get all of them together, all these people who never seem to wear out, they're always alive in God, and they're always right at it.

They get up every morning praising Him. They still believe that prayer is the basic work that they have to do every day, and they never tire of speaking of Jesus, and they still go on serving even though they don't see great results and response. If we could get all these people together and find out the truth, what it is that keeps them going, we would discover that it's an extremely simple thing.

The one thing all these joyful ones have in common is that they have a relationship with Jesus, which is fresh and clean and new and satisfying and growing every day. I have never yet met, and I'm sure you haven't either, one person who has this ability to keep going with joy, who isn't absolutely obsessed with how wonderful Jesus is. Just can't get over how good Jesus is.

I don't normally speak about people like this, but I'm sure she won't mind. Let's take, for instance, even if she would be here. I don't think she is, but if she would be here.

Sister Lee, 84 years old, 85. I don't know how old she is. Maybe she doesn't.

You know, yet this woman in her 80s is going around with the energy of a young lady. Why isn't she home in a rocking chair, for goodness sake? Is she beside herself? Sure, she's beside herself. Talk with this woman for five minutes, and you'll find out that she's beside herself over Jesus.

She's just so full of Jesus, it has to come out. She can't get over how good Jesus is. Can't stop talking about him.

So tonight, she'll be down at the county jail, hanging on to the bars, preaching to the prisoners about Jesus. Thursday night, she'll be down at the catacombs on Third Street. And all week long, she'll be chugging around with a little briefcase and making sandwiches for the men, praying over everyone.

What's the matter with this woman? You know, she's got something to live for, that's all. And if you ask her what it is, she'll tell you in a second it's Jesus. A spiritual awakening began in my own life.

One winter morning back in Nova Scotia, I must have turned the clock radio to the wrong station. 6.45 instead of hearing about Dr. Ballard's dog food, I hear this raspy voice selling maps of Palestine and canned milk to the children of Algeria. Dr. Michelson.

You know, and after the long commercial, he finally talks about Jesus. But a minute and a half hearing Dr. Michelson talk about Jesus, and it gets right through to your heart, at least it did for mine. This is a man talking about a Jesus that he knew.

And then you wonder, well, you know, maybe this guy's a phony. It sure wasn't Christian radio in its normal sense, and it certainly wasn't slick. It was rough, and it was frank and blatant.

1958, shortly after we came to Detroit, he was speaking on the east side of town. So Jean and I, and I guess the girls too, went over to hear him. And here comes this little old man with two club feet and canes hobbling onto the platform of this church, sits on a stool.

You know, and the whole time he's there, he's talking about Jesus. He needs a ride back to the Pickport Shelby. Not the Cadillac, not that it matters.

But he needs a ride. So we're going down there, and he gets in the car. Now's my chance to find out whether this guy's real.

I couldn't get a word in anyways. This guy's cross-examining me. You know, I can't cross-examine him.

What are you doing in the Lutheran church? You love Jesus? What are you doing for the Jews? What are you doing about this? What are you doing about this guy? He's just exuding, you know. An energy and a commitment and a fire for the Lord. It was like being in a Volkswagen with the Apostle Paul.

You can say what you like about that man. But I'll never forget that drive in all eternity, I'm sure. Or you open your New Testament to the Epistles of Paul.

You know, what makes this guy go? For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. I count all things lost for the suppressing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. I count everything as garbage.

King James Version says, done, that I might win Christ and be found in him. I'm crucified with Christ that is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. He's just full of Jesus.

No wonder he can go through shipwreck, stonings, beatings, imprisonments, and go on praising God. He has something to live for and that's Jesus. In every case, these people who keep going and never give up, they never wear out.

I don't care how old they get, they're still full of them in God. We find that the thing that drives them is a burning love for Jesus. It's there.

You can't wear it out. They're far beyond trying to get some kind of spiritual gain for themselves or spiritual fame, whatever that is, or spiritual pleasure. They're not trying to build some ridiculous little kingdom around themselves.

And they're not trying to make some kind of silly name for themselves. All they want is Jesus. That's all they want.

They're obsessed with him. Okay, now, what often happens, of course, is that our reason gets into action here and says, well, I don't want to be obsessed with anything. I want to be balanced, as I keep saying.

I want to be able to function so that I'm not just all wrapped up in Jesus and get nothing else done. But consider for a moment, before you're afraid to be obsessed with Jesus, consider this. It is absolutely impossible to be close to Jesus and have a dull and boring outlook on life.

It's impossible to be close to Jesus and bored with life. Now, there may be people in our midst right now who may be Christians, and yet you know very well you get up in the morning and you're bored. You look at the day and it looks so dull.

Sometimes we perhaps even feel like we want to go right back to bed and never wake up again. But if that's the case with anybody in this room, you can be sure, you know, that that's a sign that something's wrong in your relationship with the Lord. Because when you come into a relationship with him that's real, the first thing he gives you, you know, is a sense of adventure.

He takes the dullest routine you may be involved in and turns it into an adventure. And if you happen to be married to a man who keeps you in a cage every day and he only lets you out for three minutes to feed you, you know, and it seems kind of dull in that cage. And there are women who are in situations like that.

Christian husbands, you know, let Jesus even turn that into an adventure. Tell him, I want to get out of here, Lord. He'll get you out.

I don't mean out of the marriage, I mean out of the cage. But he'll work it out. No such thing as being close to him and bored.

It's like coming out of death, out of darkness, out of whatever it may be that you're into, out of a sleep. And there are people among us, no doubt, who once experienced that joy, you know, that adventure of knowing him and you lost it. And you're running all over the world trying to find adventure.

And you try this new teaching and that new doctrine and this new kind of Christian community and this thing over here. Nothing satisfies. Of course, it won't.

Because all you need is to get back to what you lost. And that's that relationship with Jesus. All you have to do is pursue it, seek it.

You're going to find it. It's impossible to have a close relationship with Jesus and be uncertain of your call. People who are uncertain of their calling are always people who are uncertain of their relationship with Jesus, always.

Because when you are in relationship with him, immediately he makes you to know you didn't choose me. I chose you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. When you lose that, it's because you've lost him.

Here's a woman who for the last six months on the job where you may be is walking around all confused. You know, her mind just doesn't come together. She can't seem to function.

People have to do work after her and redo things. What's wrong with this lady? Then one Monday morning you come back to work and she's changed. Suddenly this woman is together.

She knows exactly what she's doing. She can handle the phone calls. She can keep track of things.

And you say, what happened to you over the weekend? And she says, my husband and I came back together. You know, when that relationship was healed, everything changed. And how you multiply that by a million and you have some sense of what happens when your relationship with Jesus comes alive.

Immediately you know where you're at. It's impossible to have a close relationship with Jesus and not be aware of specific work for you to do. Now what we have in the United States particularly, perhaps Canada too, is an army of people.

It's not right. It's a defeated army. You know, who go to their churches, their fellowship meetings.

They listen to Christian radio and Christian tapes and Christian records. And they watch Christian television until it comes out their ears. They have everything Christian and all they ever do is sit.

And once in a while they send a check to their favorite evangelist. Or they maybe get off their chair long enough to go to some big rally somewhere. But they're not accomplishing one thing.

The reason is they have everything Christian except Christ. You know, they're busy with all the trappings of Christianity, but they haven't met the one who makes it. When you come into a relationship with Jesus, immediately you know what you have to do.

Go into my vineyard. Go and make disciples. Go out to the streets and lanes of Detroit and bring in the poor, the lame, the halt, the blind.

Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the harvest. If today, during this service, you come back into a relationship with Jesus that's alive, and there will be some here who will. I promise you, you're not going to go out of that door like a jellyfish floating through another summer afternoon.

But you're going to get your hand to the plow and you're going to move forward with your eyes ahead. And you're going to get something done. It's impossible to have a close relationship with Jesus and be afraid of the cross.

And again, particularly in the United States, there is a vast multitude of people who are depressed by the cross. Oh, they want the cross to wash away their sin. But they're terrified of having to be crucified with Jesus.

They're paranoid about the very idea of denying themselves, taking up their cross daily and following the Lord. That sounds like such a negative teaching, even though it was from Jesus. I want to think positive things.

I'm going to keep my mind in the positive. But if Jesus is your Lord in your life, and he says, all right, now I've taken you beside the still waters. I've allowed you to lie down and grieve pastures.

I've led you in the paths of righteousness. Now it's time to go through the valley of the shadow of death. And you're walking with him.

Are you going to turn and run? No, you're going to say, Lord, as long as you're here, there's nowhere else I want to be. And if you want to take me through the valley of the shadow of death, if you want me to carry a cross by your side or behind you, in your footsteps, may your name be praised. As long as your rod and your staff are with me to comfort me, what more can I want? Lord, I want to know you not only in the power of your resurrection, but in the fellowship of your suffering.

I want to be made like you in your death. Finally, there is no such thing as being close to Jesus and having no life to give to those around you. The minute you're close to him, there is life flowing out of you.

But thanks be to God who through Christ always leads us in triumph and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one, a fragrance from death to death.

To the other, a fragrance from life to life. And in both instances, it is the life of Christ that flows out. And whether that strikes a man or woman as death or life depends upon where their heart is.

He that hath the son hath life. And he that hath not the son hath not life. And if you have the son, life comes out of you.

You may not be mentioning the name of Jesus every five minutes, but everywhere you go, people will have their hearts encouraged and their minds alerted and they will be given hope and they will have a sense that something good is here. And they will reach out for something from God and God will answer their cry. Now, is this kind of relationship with Jesus Christ that's so alive, something that's impossible for the average person, if it's, is it so difficult? I was at a meeting last night where at least what I understood a man to say was that the average believer can't expect that.

You know, he's got to be satisfied with some kind of mediocrity where only the super saints can have it. I don't believe that's so. I believe that anybody can have it.

You can have that kind of relationship with Jesus and it doesn't take you 50 years. You can have it in five minutes. Everybody who seeks fire, he who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.

He shall call upon me and I will answer him. One question, if you want that kind of relationship with Jesus, one question, are you willing that Jesus should be no longer your mascot, your good luck charm, your Mr. Fix-It, but that from now on Jesus should be your life for me to fall, to live his Christ and to die his gain. And he died for all that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Am I living no longer for myself, but for him? What else is there to live for? What else makes any sense? Lord, give me the blessing, the liberty, the joy of waking up in the morning, no longer having to live for me, but for you. God, bring us all to the place where we are living no more for ourselves, but for him who for our sake died and was raised. Let's pray.

Help us, Lord God, by the power of your spirit to be honest with ourselves, to admit where we're at. And also we pray, Lord God, that by the same spirit, you would open our eyes to a vision of what glory we can do now have. And help us, Lord God, to just be bold enough to believe that that could be ours and to settle for nothing less than a relationship, Heavenly Father, with your son, which is alive and fresh and new and satisfying and disturbing and stimulating every day.

Lord, we want to be with you. We want to be able to be so with you that we can even share your cross. And your death, Lord, that we might rise up out of the grave with you into a life that will bring something of the redemptive healing grace of the Father to those troubled lives around us.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.