What are you doing with your life? In this video, Paul Washer states that you are living for something -- the question is, what are you living for? Are you living your life for Christ or are you pursuing worthless endeavors? What is driving you to live the way you do? To live for Christ, you must be desperate -- you must realize that something must change. You cannot be satisfied with living in sin and worldliness. A desperation for Christ and His ways must drive your live.

2 Timothy 2:15-16 (NKJV) - "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness."

Let's open up our Bibles to Romans chapter 12. 12. When I look at this room. Becomes clear the absolute impotence. Of men.

Of human speech. So many needs. So many you came here for so many different reasons. How can they all be met in a sermon? That is why preaching is one of the greatest acts of faith.

To believe that Christ can take a few loaves and fishes. And actually feed not just a multitude, but a multitude with different needs and desires. So we're cast tonight upon God, not upon a preacher. We're cast upon God. We need the Holy Spirit to work among us.

Nothing will ever be accomplished in your life apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, whether it be your conversion and regeneration, your sanctification. You're strengthening your joy. Christlike character. Everything comes down to this, this person, the Holy Spirit. So let's read our text and then we're going to pray.

Romans 12, one, therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable. And perfect. Let's pray. Father, I praise you and I worship you.

I raise my heart to you. And I ask you, Lord, for the sake of Christ. And because of the great love with which you have loved us. Please encourage your people. Communicate truth to your people.

Do a work, Father, they cannot be done. By any other means than the person in the work of the Holy Spirit. Father, please. Strengthen, transform. Build up, make right.

A people for your son. A people for your son. These young people, Lord. In Jesus name, amen. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice.

Paul is urging. The Romans to do something. And he's urging you to do something. It's not just the reception of knowledge. It's not just a collection of doctrines.

It's not just wearing the right clothes or speaking the right speech. It's not just marrying the right person or acting the right way, something far deeper, far deeper And far more costly. He's urging them to do something, he's pleading with them to do something. I have little space. Little concern for preachers who only communicate information.

The purpose of information is transformation unto the glory of God, and that requires urging. The great pastor, Peter Masters. I read him one time saying this, that if you have preached the gospel, but you do not beg men to respond, you have not preached the gospel. And so Paul has explained much in the book of Romans. And now he comes to this place where he is urging, imploring, begging people to respond appropriately.

He's doing the same thing to us two thousand years later through the written word of God and through the Holy Spirit and through a fallible preacher, not just to hear, not just to understand, but actually to rise up and walk. To make important decisions and stand upon them, He says, therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice to present your body. To present your body. Every part of you, you would think that he would say heart. Or that he might say mind to present your heart to God, but what you have to understand is that in the Hebrew mind, there's no disconnect between the two things.

Your heart functions as though it were the very control center of every aspect of your being. If he has your heart, he'll have your body. If he has your body, it's an indication he has your heart. If he has your heart, he'll have your your mind. Your thoughts.

If he has your heart, he'll have your eyes and your ears and your mouth. He'll have your hands. He'll have your feet. They will be set in motion with a great and holy passion. To respond appropriately to the person and work of Christ.

He's urging you. To do what? Present your bodies. A living and holy sacrifice. Now we'll talk about that in a moment, but first let's look at something.

He's asking you to give away that which is most important to a reasonable being. To lay down every aspect of who you are, every part of your physical being. Every plan, every desire to offer it as a sacrifice to God. He's asking you to do to give the greatest thing you could possibly give. I've said this many times that Satan is a liar.

Jesus says so, but sometimes even though he is a liar, he will say what is true and then, of course, twist that truth. When Job was tested, first of all, it was being tested by all those things that were around him. But then Satan said something that was right. Ah, but touch his body. Touch his body.

The most precious thing to a man, to a woman, to a human being. And that's what Paul is saying here. He's saying to present your body, a living and holy sacrifice to God. Find the greatest thing you are, the greatest thing you possess. And offer it as a sacrifice to God, your entire being.

Paul is saying nothing less than what Christ said when he said the greatest command is this, you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. He is not using that terminology and in order to divide up the human psyche. He's doing something very Hebrew, he's piling one term upon another in order to let you know that you're to love God with everything that you are. Nothing is left out. Because nothing is sacred now.

If you have believed in Christ, if you belong to Christ, every thing belongs to him and everything is holy. Whether it be something physical, whether it be a thought, whether it be a moment in time, it belongs to God And we are to offer it to him. It is the most precious thing we can do. But then again. Is it?

What do I mean by that? Of course it is, But let's think, let's put it in its proper context. You're young and strong. You will soon be old and weak. You may possess many talents, death will take them from you.

You may have many resources on this planet. Death again will snatch them away. You're going to lose your life. You're going to lose it. But are you going to lose it for something worthy?

You're going to sacrifice your life for something. But is it noble? One of the things in philosophy is that a rational being. Will always be driven by the highest motive. Are you driven by high motives?

Are you giving your life for something that is worthwhile? Or for something less. Something temporal, something passing, something you can not hold on to. You've got to offer your life as a sacrifice to something. I suppose living for nothing is offering yourself to that nothing.

But if you know Christ. You're called to give your life to him. Now, here's a question. We need a motive. We need an engine.

We need something to drive us, because every one of you, if you are a believer, you will say this. Yes, I should give my life to Christ. I know I should give my life to Christ even to some degree. I know how to give my life to Christ. That's not my problem.

I wish preachers would stop talking about it. It's not my problem. What is your problem? That which I want to do, I seem unable to do. I seem to lack the motivation, the strength of will, the power.

To do it. Well. Paul tells us what that power is. Because he tells them. Present your body as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

He tells them how. This is by the mercies of God. But this is key. And every person I've ever studied in history, this has been the key that set them apart from the herd. When you look down through 2000 years of Christian history and you read those biographies, marvelous biographies about men and women who were willing to live and die for Christ.

You look at them and you see so many differences in personality. In denominational affiliation, Even in some cases, differences in doctrine. But as I studied their lives, I found certain things in common. And above them all was this, all of them were driven by the mercies of God. You say, well, what are those mercies of God?

First of all, they are mercies and they're not mercy. That's very important. Paul wrote in Greek, but he was a Jew. He says mercies when a Jew wants to say that there's a small body of water, they say water when they want to say it's a large body of water, they say waters. When Paul uses that word mercy, he doesn't even know where to go with it, I think sometimes he uses the word mercy and then throws it down with disgust because the words just not big enough to describe what he's talking about, the multifaceted mercies of God.

Where are they? They're everywhere. But if we were to point at one particular place, Where are they? Where is the greatest revelation of the mercies of God? It is in the person and work of Jesus Christ And those saints who seem to have an ongoing fire.

An engine that persevered and persevered, that drove them and drove them even to ruin their own health. As Robert Murray McShane said, God's given me a message and a horse and I've killed the horse. Driven by what? A vision of Christ. I would submit to you that any other Motivation.

Any motivation other than Christ. If set first is nothing more than idolatry. Our motivation is Christ. Now, I want you to look at the preposition, therefore, therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of Christ, this is Paul's dividing point in this epistle. It's also Paul's dividing point in Ephesians.

Here in the Book of Romans, what has Paul been doing? This is the closest thing we have to a Pauline systematic theology. What is he doing? First three chapters, the radical depravity of the human race and its rightful condemnation without any hope whatsoever in itself. And then at the end of three, four and five, What do we have?

Christ, Christ, the gospel, the savior, the elder brother, the singular hero in the story of redemption, Jesus Christ. And then from there. Christ and the gospel applied in chapter six and chapter seven, we get to chapter eight. Our victory, our future glorification in the person of Jesus Christ, Then we get to nine, 10 and 11. And what do we have?

The history of Israel. Why would he throw that in there? It's not so much he's not so much doing it for eschatological reasons, He's doing it to demonstrate the faithfulness of God. He's saying everything I said about God in Christ in chapter eight is true and you can bank on it. And then he goes nine, 10 and 11, because God has always been faithful to his people.

It's about Christ. It's about Christ. It's about Christ. Now. This is where the difficulty in preaching comes in.

This is where preaching becomes an impossibility. If I were to stop right now. And you had any sense about you. You would leave here angry, angry at me. Because if I just leave you with this, I've left you with a theology of glory.

Big words. But how can it help you? How can it honestly help you? OK, it's all about Christ. So I go out, it's all about Christ.

What does that mean? I need to look for Christ. What does that mean? What does it mean? There is both a natural and a supernatural aspect to this.

And the only way you're going to make any Progress. Is if you're utterly desperate. If you see no hope for yourself, that something must change in your Christian life. That's the first time you begin to feel strength. Now, let me explain to you.

Years ago, I was out in the Pacific and. Was trying to surf In Peru, it was a red flag day. You don't go out in the water on a red flag day. And so I was out there and I got very afraid, very afraid, I was caught in current, I wasn't a good surfer. I was scared.

I heard something behind me, something sound. It sounded like a sea lion. Then I got really afraid because they can be pretty angry sometimes. And I turned around and it wasn't it was a young man on a boogie board, small surf board. His eyes were about this big around.

He was only about this big. He was terrified. He was drowning. And I naturally just swam over to him. I paddled my board over to him and right when I got ready to grab his ankle line.

I realized, no, no, no, no. Now, I weighed about 230 at the time, he probably weighed one hundred and thirty pounds soaking wet. But I pulled my hand off his ankle, his ankle line, and I thought He'll kill me. He'll kill me. So I yelled at several other surfers that were on down and I said, come, come help.

And they came over, They were expert surfers, about six or seven of them. I don't quite remember the number. Took them about 30 minutes to get him in and they were terrified. Now these surfers were young men and they were great athletes. So now here's the question.

How is it that I am almost twice the size of this guy? Then there's seven other athletic young men terrified to get near him. Why? Because if he grabbed you, He would drown you. Matter of fact, he could drown a couple of men at one time.

Now, here's the question. How? How could a guy that small transform himself into someone who could take down someone like me and two others. Was it strength of will? Was that it?

Was he disciplined? Was that it? There's only one thing. Need drove him. He knew.

That if he did not grab a hold of somebody, he knew if something didn't change, he knew if somebody didn't grab a hold of him, he was doomed, he was doomed, He was doomed. So it wasn't strength of will that caused him to grab a hold of those other surfers. It was need. It was desperation. It was fear.

It was weakness. And that is what I have found in every man and woman of God that has ever been mightily used of God and that has gone on when everyone else has stopped. It wasn't their strength. It was looking in the mirror. And knowing if I do not have Christ.

I die. Or if I do not have Christ, more of Christ, something worse than death. My life just continues on in this monotony, monotony, monotony. Never experiencing true joy in Christ, in God. Never having great confidence.

Never being moved by a power greater than myself. All those people that I've talked about that laid down their life. It didn't happen because of their strength of will. It happened because of desperation. That's the first step.

The second step was this. When everything else failed. They went and looked for Jesus. Not laws, although the law is holy. And good.

Not a certain way of life or an ethic, even though Christianity has a certain way of life and an ethic, that's not what they went for. They went for him. I must see the master. I must have a greater view of Christ. And that's what Paul's doing here in Romans, he is setting before them everything God has done for them in Christ.

And he's saying now, now that you've seen this, how can you not lay down your life? As a sacrifice. To him. To him. To him.

I want to point out a text. I learned this from the Edmond Hebert, it's in First Thessalonians chapter one. Paul is talking about his entrance into the life of the Thessalonians, and he makes a remarkable statement here in verse nine and 10, he says, for they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you and how you turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God. Now, in Greek, not always. You have to be careful.

But it's consistent in Paul. Word order is extremely important, and I want you to look at this word order here. He says you turned to God from idols. Do you see that he didn't say you turned from idols to God, but you turned to God from idols. And I believe that the Edmond Hebert, the Greek scholar, is right when he says this, here's what's going on.

We read this passage and we think that the Gentile world, the pagan world was finished with their idols. They were disappointed in their idols. They had no longer any use for their pagan religions and idols. They were sick of them. They were tired of them And they were looking all over for something else to take their place.

And they saw Jesus. The Jesus Paul preached. Hebert says that is not what is happening here. And I agree with Hebert. They were like us.

They were content with all their idols. Even Christians can be that way to some degree. They were content with their nonchalant lack of devotion. They were content in their Christianity. They were content in their apathy, we could say about ourselves.

But with regard to these pagans, they were totally fine with their temples, their doctrine and their gods. What changed? Paul walked into Thessalonica. And what did he do? He gave them a course.

No, he didn't. He preached to them the crucified and risen savior, and when they saw him. When they saw him through the preaching of the gospel, through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, they looked at him and they saw their idols in light of him and they said, no more. These things are sick compared to him. Now, what can we draw from that?

You, your greatest need. Your greatest need. And I can say this biblically, I can say this also as one who participates in the same need. Our greatest need is a greater vision of God and primarily A greater vision of God in Christ, in the gospel, in Gethsemane, and on the cross, and in the tomb, and on Easter morning, And then seated at the right hand of God, that's what we need. That's what we need.

We need it doctrinally. Many of you languished because of an ignorance of God and an ignorance of his son. You may be saved. Truly saved, but you have not pressed on to know the Lord doctrinally. But now I'm going to say something that also gets me in quite a bit of danger.

Not just doctrinally. Experimentally. We need to know him in his word. And we need to know him in prayer. I'm not talking about intercession, I'm talking about seeking him, seeking his face, communion with him, diving into both wells, the well of the word, the well of prayer with one great purpose to know Christ.

To know Christ. To know him. To know God. To know God. Do you know One of the worst things you can ever say as a Christian.

It's this. I'm just so worried and I'm just so confused because I don't know what God's doing. You're on borderline blasphemy at that moment. You've also revealed a lot about you. Just just jump over for a moment to the prophets, look at Daniel, chapter 11.

And then Before we go there, let's just apply this. Let's just... Look, I know what it's like to be 30, 31, not married, serving Christ, some far away land where there's no way you're going to. Ever find a bride. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

I know what it's like. But I want you to know, and I'm not saying this out of some stupid cliche or rhetoric. There is nothing impossible for God. And there is nothing impossible for those who will wrestle with Him in prayer, who will cry out to Him and not give Him peace. He will answer mightily.

Oh, we have doctrinally sound people. We have knowledgeable people at times. But who actually believes that nothing is impossible for God? Who actually believes nowadays that the more I shut my mouth and quit telling people my needs and the more I lock myself in a room and cry out to only God, I will see his hand, because the more you trust in the arm of the flesh, the less you will see the power of God. That's the rule.

That's the rule. So when when all this started happening politically and the covid and everything else, I heard people just saying, I just don't know what God's doing. I just don't know what God's doing. I need to know what God's doing. Brother Paul, can you tell me what God is doing?

And I said, well, are you holding God hostage somehow? Are you telling him you refuse to have peace until he speaks forth? And tells you and explains to you everything he's doing. Let me give you a parable. I have a dear friend in Peru.

We served together for years. There couldn't have been anybody more faithful. One time we were going across the desert in the back of a cattle truck and I couldn't drink the water and he ran like a kilometer and a half, found a cactus, cut it up and was sticking it in my mouth, he would do anything to keep me alive. He was faithful, faithful. If he walked in right now and said, Pablo, Domenico Chavez said, Paul, give me the keys to your Jeep.

I throw him the keys to my Jeep. And you say, well, why did you give him the keys to your Jeep? You don't know what he's going to do with your Jeep. And I say, I don't have to know what he's going to do with my Jeep. Why?

Because I know who he is. I know the caliber of person that he is. Now, look at Daniel, look at chapter 11. Verse 32. Most likely talking about a time of great trouble for Israel, many think it's the dealings of Antiochus Epiphanes, a very wicked man.

And it says by smooth words, he will turn to godlessness. Those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action, not the people who know exactly what God's going to do or what God is decreed or what God has planned for the nation of Israel or the United States or for you as a single person. We're not strong because we know what God is going to do. We're strong because we know who God is. And Whatever he does with our lives is going to be right.

It's going to be right. Even now, after all these years, something will pop up in my life and I'll say to myself, that can't be right. And then here it comes again. When have you ever been right about it can't be right? Never.

Never. Painful, yes, frightening, Absolutely. But he's always been right. He's always been right. So the more I know him.

The more I know him. What's going to happen? The stronger and more confident I become in life. Well, do you know what he's decreed? No, don't have to.

Because I know whatever he decrees will be right. Because he is right. Now, I want to go back to this. We've been talking about motivation, but I also want to talk about love. This is so very important.

I shared this just a few days ago in another church in Grand Rapids. I see people, young people all the time, old people, everybody in between people, I see them all lamenting the fact that they don't love God as they ought to. And I hear preachers telling them they don't love God as they ought. But what's the solution? I mean, what's the solution?

Go to some wild acquire the fire conference and get all wound up like a little toy soldier for three days, and then you just Wind down again and you're more angry than you were before. One more failed attempt at loving God. What do we do? I'm going to give you a physics lesson. I'm on the platform, I'm laying on my back, I've got both hands on my belt and I'm pulling with all my might.

You walk over and say, Brother Paul, what what are you doing? I said, well, isn't it obvious? No. I'm trying to get up. You say to me, well, did you ever take physics in high school or college or anything like that?

Why? Well, because In order to get up that particular way, you have to be acted on by an outside force. Someone firmly established outside of you with a strength greater than your mass must grab you by the belt and pick you up. You can't do it to yourself. Guess what?

You can't make yourself love God more. You can't. No matter how many worship songs you listen to. You're not going to be able to do it. Will you say then, how do I do it?

I. I've been married for it's getting close to 30 years. I'm not the guy she married. I've gotten old. We were so young.

Batman and Robin, that's who we were. Oh, I'm in a home school convention, I can't say that, I'm sorry. We were something. In the jungles, in the mountains and. Man, she's a beauty.

Now we're slower, grayer. Now we're slower, grayer. I left her today at home and I was sad. More sad than when I used to leave her 25 years ago to go to some weird, dangerous place in the jungle. Now, the moment I tell you that I love my wife more now than I did then.

I know what you're thinking, because you're not really that. But you're not very biblical. You're thinking, oh, what a wonderful man. He's such a wonderful man. I mean, do you hear the things he's saying?

He loves his wife now more than he did when they were young and married. He loves her more now. He's such a wonderful man. Well, maybe not at all. Well, not maybe, I can assure you, I'm not.

I'm just a normal man. You see, when you see a man with an extraordinary love for his wife, Maybe the man's just normal. Maybe it's his wife who's extraordinary. And she draws out his affections, even though his heart is almost like a stone or a piece of clay. But her virtue, her beauty, Her godliness can even draw affections out of that clod of dirt.

When you see someone who loves God with, you know, just seems like they're on fire And not just when they're preaching, but I mean, they're just going and going and going and going. What do you automatically think? Oh, what a wonderful person. There you go again. You're wrong again.

I've read all those biographies or a lot of them, none of them were very wonderful. Then what was it? They had a wonderful God. They had a beautiful God. And the beauty, the virtue and the wonder we could just go on and on and on of their God drew out their affections.

Yeah, but. I thought I had a God like that, you do. Well, then what's the difference? They see more they saw more of him. Then you do.

Why? Let's go back to the guy in the ocean that's drowning. They needed him. They tried all kinds of different fountains in their life, most of them. And all of them were either dry, cracked cisterns or polluted and left a stench on their lips.

They knew that he alone has life and the words of life. He alone can animate the heart. I mean, if there's anyone who can draw out your affections. It's got to be him. I am.

I. I knew that. My mind years ago, I knew that it was not exceptional. I knew that I wouldn't be a Renaissance man who would be able to just. Cover everything that's here.

I made a decision. That I would try to read the whole Bible all the time, but that I would study one thing. To seek the cross in the word, to seek the cross in prayer, the Christ of the cross. I get so angry at preaching and writing Because he's so big and beautiful. All these words are stupid.

He's beyond anything. Have you ever gone outside and seen a sunset or a sunrise and you walk out and you call your wife or something? You've got to see this. It will take your breath away. It will take your breath away.

That's Him. I'm not trying to be pious. It's really true. He really is this way. But listen to me, young people, this isn't this knowing him, it could start this evening, but it can't start and finish this evening.

It is a lifetime of tracking out who Christ is. Just going back, he says. Present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice. A living sacrifice now where I'm from, preachers are very common of saying that's the problem. You know, dead sacrifices stay on the altar.

Living ones tend to want to crawl off. That's not the point here. The point is, this is not only a matter of right knowledge. This is. A work of the Holy Spirit who regenerates us.

Unto salvation. But then it's it's also it's this continual relationship with the Holy Spirit. Do you know what's wrong with us? Many of us, we've been robbed of our inheritance. I will tell you that at the risk of being criticized for it.

We have been robbed of our inheritance. When I read the Puritans, When I read the reformers, when I read the early Baptists in the early Presbyterian, the Dutch reform guys, the early guys that didn't have to deal with so many heretical movements about the Holy Spirit, they could talk freely about the Holy Spirit and the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit. They could talk freely about the manifest presence of Christ in prayer. They could talk about all the things we're afraid to talk about because of our inheritance had been robbed from us. By all these false movements that borderline on blasphemy with regard to the Holy Spirit, young person, listen, You can't live the Christian life just with Bible study, you need prayer and prayer is more.

It's so much more than intercession. Most of you, many of you, when you pray, it's all about the intercession intercession. You need to divide your prayer time in two different stages. Prayer with your boots on and prayer with your boots off. Prayer with your boots on is you interceding, fighting down in the trenches, crying out to God.

There's nothing fun about that. And if that's all you do in prayer, you'll never be a person who prays. You need to pray with your boots off. Communion. Crying out.

Constantly. I will not back down on this. You need to cry out constantly for greater and greater and greater manifestations of the power and life of the Holy Spirit in you. To live a godly life unto God. And that's what's lacking.

Even people who have great knowledge cannot apply that knowledge even though they can write it on an examination. They cannot apply it because it's a work of the Holy Spirit. It is more than material. It is more than knowledge. It is organic.

It is life. It is power. And you need to seek Christ in the Word of God, but you need to seek Christ on your knees. Never contrary to the word of God, but on your knees. To know him, his life, his power.

To know him. To know him. And then he says a holy sacrifice. A holy sacrifice. One of the greatest things that has helped me with regard to the holiness of God.

Is realizing the relationship between holiness and love. Holiness and love. Now, let me explain. There is a kind we can make two divisions in holiness, there is a kind of a moral aspect of holiness, then there is a magisterial aspect of holiness. And you must understand the magisterial in order to understand the moral.

In its most confined root, Holiness means comes from the idea of to cut. And then to cut and to separate, as though my wife, when she's cutting vegetables like this and then after making several cuts, then you see or take the blade and go like that and separate, cut, separate. The idea is separation. So when the Bible says that God is holy, First of all, do not think of it in terms of moral. Don't even look at it, first of all, in terms of sinlessness.

Look at it, first of all, in terms of separateness, It's not that God is like us, just bigger or God is like the archangels, just bigger. The idea is God is not like us at all. He is in a completely distinct category. There is no God in country, there's no God and king, it's God. The only time God belongs in a conjunctive relationship is when it is God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Any other time? No. He is in a category all to himself, and it is the highest category infinitely above every other category. That's the first thing you need to understand. You must understand that.

All right, then where do we go from here? Remember, I think I mentioned this, that one of the requirements of being a rational being. Is that you select the highest motivation for what you're doing, you have a reason for what you're doing and that reason should be the highest, for example, if you see me in my pajamas standing out in the rain about 100 meters from my house. And you say, Brother Paul, why are you standing outside in the rain in your pajamas at three o'clock in the morning? And I say, I don't know.

That's irrational. There's a problem. But if you say, why are you standing out here at three in the morning in your pajamas, in the downpouring rain? Because my house is on fire. That's rational.

So. Here's what you need to see. God's love is tied to his rationale, his his reason. His omniscience. His truth.

God recognizes that he is infinitely above all other categories. God also recognizes that above all other beings, he is deserving of love. That he has the highest value, God recognizes that he has the highest value above all beings and God recognizes he is most deserving of love. And in that category, you can say that above all things, God loves himself. And if it was any other way, he would be irrational.

God is holy in that he is separated from all of his creation and his love is upon himself and rightly so. Now, what does it mean for you to be holy? It doesn't just mean you obey the rules. What does it mean that you are holy? It means that you recognize the same thing God recognizes.

You recognize that God is in a category all to himself, infinitely above all categories. God is the most worthy of esteem and God is the most worthy of love. And God is the most worthy of me laying down my life as a sacrifice. That's what it means to be holy. And then Everything that our brother said previously falls in line underneath that.

Holiness begins with recognizing who God is, and the greatest revelation of who God is, is in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The more you know the gospel, the more you know who God is. The more you know who God is, if you are a believer, you will recognize that He is infinitely above all other categories. He is worthy of all esteem. He is worthy of all your love.

And then everything else flows out of that. How is a man holy? How is a woman holy? They recognize God's infinite worth above all other things. They recognize that above all other beings, God is deserving of love.

And so when they give themselves to God, they are only doing, the King James is wonderful here, they are only doing that which is rational service, reasonable service. It is not reasonable to lay down your life for a man. Even if you lay down your life for a nation. And make it strong for an entire generation, wicked men will come behind you and destroy what you have built. It's not reasonable.

There's only one. True reason. There's only one pure logic. That is to lay down your life. For him, for God, for Christ.

But don't go out that door. All wound up like a toy soldier. Go out there, that door committed to seeking his face. I'm going to end just by. I would love to get to verse two, but we're going on quite long, but.

But. I have studied the scriptures since I was converted, and that ranks above all books. If you spend more time in other books, you're in trouble. This is the book. This is the book.

But but I can I can actually tell you? It's funny because. Dr. Beaky asked me about if I knew about, you know, if I'd read anything, I think this afternoon about Ernie from Ernie Rising or whatever, And I just didn't have time to answer him, but I just it was. I just kind of chuckled inside because he was where the journey began.

And what I'm trying to say is I have studied scripture, but wisdom was not born with me. Wisdom will not die with me. This book is is bigger than a thousand lifetimes of Paul Washer. If the greatest scholars, if if 70, it's be like the Septuagint, If 70 of the greatest scholars that ever lived all came together and studied this book for 200 years, they wouldn't even scratch the surface. So not only do I need to study the scriptures, I need my brethren, because theology is always to be done in the context of the church.

I need my brothers and sisters in Christ. I need people to talk to me about the Bible. Not anybody, but those who have a passion for Christ and truly believe that the Bible is the infallible, inerrant Word of God. And so when I was a young man, had read nothing but basically liberal people and modern people because of the seminary I went to, and then in Peru came across today's evangelism by Ernest Reisinger. Read it.

Struck me to the core. I realized that what he is, as a matter of fact, without being dramatic, I remember just laying on my face after reading that book on this old dirty floor in Peru. Thinking, oh, Lord, spare me and I promise I'll never preach the gospel the way I've preached it again. And then it was Ernie Reisinger and then it went from there to Spurgeon And then someone sent me the Holiness of God from R.C. Sproul.

And I remember putting that I had a little TV set about this big with one of those big cassette players at the bottom of it, you old guys know what that's like. And I remember sitting in this old plastic chair and I was sitting back, it began, then I found myself on the edge of my seat and then I found myself on my knees. And then I watched that thing either looking at it or on my knees, looking at it and on my knees. I had never seen God as R.C. Sproul laid him out in the holiness of God.

And then it went from there to the Puritans. And they were used to generate, to show me what, Oh, there's so much more to this book than my little contemporary mind could ever grasp. So much more to the beauty of Christ. So I've spent the last almost 30 years of my life doing what? Studying the Scriptures and then tracing them out through the church.

Learning from people. Seeing more and more and more of Christ. So young people, apart from just some magnificent move of the Spirit here tonight, you're not just to be wound up, but you're to start a journey. You're to start a journey. This has been a long, hard journey.

But with every new vision of Christ comes More strength. More strength. More fuel. More desire. More!

More! More! More! From where does passion come? True passion.

It comes from that vision of Christ. The person of Christ. I want to end by saying this. When we talk about going to heaven and we talk about. No, I don't want any of you to think that what we're talking about here is a.

24 seven. Church service. 24 seven. Church service. I love traveling, I don't like traveling, but I like going to strange places.

I love to see beautiful things. I really do. Mountains, jungles. Paintings. Sunrises, oceans.

Paintings. Sunrises, oceans. Marvelous things. I sometimes am angry that I don't live 800 years like the antediluvians because there's so many things I would like to study. But if you take all the most magnificent beauties of this world That most people give their life to see and never see.

Well, how can I say it? The other day I was in California and the sun was going down over the ocean and some friends of mine said. Look at that beautiful scene, And I said and it was it was beautiful, but I thought I would bring them all back to reality. And I said, that's not even God's trash can or heaven's trash can. Heaven will be beautiful, the new heaven and the new earth will be beautiful.

Full of delight and full of joy, but if the creation, if the thing is beautiful, so much so that you would have to be supernaturally strengthened to endure its beauty or it would fragment your mind. If it can be said of creation, then how much more of this glory and beauty emanating from Christ. And the further you go into Christ, the deeper you go into Christ, the bigger He gets and the bigger the beauty and the bigger the joy. I'm talking about wonders. Not just looking at an inanimate thing or even an animate thing, but a person.

A person so wonderful, so magnificent, that everything we have in the best of marriages is nothing compared to one look at him. If I had more years, I would love I talked to a young lady the other day who got her Ph.D. And I said someone ought to get a Ph.D., you ought to get another Ph.D. I said someone needs to write on just the beauty of God. Do you see?

It's not just I don't want you to I saw our brother preaching on holiness and he kept throwing in the word there, beauty, beauty, beauty. But I want you to grasp what he's saying. When he's talking about the beauty of holiness, he's not just talking about, OK, we're all going to do right things. No, he's talking about actual beauty. In a person.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life, everlasting life. This is eternal life. Knowing God. And The Son who reveals Him. That journey began.

Eternal life and that journey to know God and the Son began the moment you were converted. Now, put blinders on. Go after Christ. Study him in the word. Study him.

Among men and women of reputation with regard to their love for Christ. And pray. Pray. Pray. Young people, there is a breaking through in prayer.

Even until now, at times, prayer can be like a bronze ceiling. But there is a breaking through. Where that world becomes more real than this one. There can be a Trisk with Christ. A meeting with him that is so beautiful, you have to say, take your hand off me lest I die.

No more. Now, I'm not saying anything Spurgeon wouldn't say or the Puritans haven't said. There is so much more to knowing Him. In prayer, even His beauty can break your heart. But you said, I tried that.

Martin Lloyd-Jones says, everybody begins well praying. Few persevere. There was an old preacher I knew, and if you ever asked him about prayer. How long should I pray? He'd say this, well.

Pray until you can pray. And then pray until you have prayed. Get on your knees. Say, I will not give you peace. Show me Christ.

Let's pray. Father, please help us, We are very small and very needy. Please, Lord, in your providence, start these young people on a journey to seeking Christ. Bring godly men and women into their path. Bring good books, Lord.

Create in them, oh God, a hunger to know your son. Oh, God. There's too much poverty, God, among your people when there's riches in Zion, oh, God. Oh, Lord, please. In Jesus name, amen.

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