it is a great privilege for me to be here with you today let's open up our Bibles to Second Corinthians chapter 5. second Corinthians chapter five verse 6. therefore always being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight we are of good courage I say and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be home with the Lord therefore we also have is our ambition whether at home or absent to be pleasing to him for we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad therefore knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade men but we are made manifest to God and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences we are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart for if we are beside ourselves it is for God if we are of sound mind it is for you For the Love of Christ controls us having concluded this that one died for all therefore all died and he died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf therefore from now on WE recognize no one according to the flesh even though we have known Christ according to the flesh we now yet now we know him in this way no longer therefore if anyone is in Christ he's a new creature the old things passed away behold new things have come pray father we come before you in the name of your son we give you praise and honor that your virtue draws from us All Things are from you and through you and unto you oh dear God so many words so little power so many sermons but oh God help us today that this might leave a mark oh God on eternity please for the honor of your son for him for him Lord do this thing in Jesus name amen verse 6 Paul says therefore being always of good courage people are so wrong about how God uses people you see a man or a woman who willing to seem to fight hell to go anywhere at any time for the cause of Christ you see someone with exceptional seemingly exceptional piety or devotional life do you automatically attribute it to something within them something about them one time I was in in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru we were surfing I was attempting to serve and it was a Red Flag Day and I was I got out there and I realized I was way over my head but I heard someone behind me coughing it was a young man about that big he was on a boogie board and I he was drowning and so automatically I thought I'd go over there and then right when I was about ready to reach his his Board Road I realized if he grabs a hold of me he'll kill me we'll both drowned and so I paddled over and called some Surfers about six other men it took about 25 minutes to get him into the coast those experienced Surfers they were they were they were scared now I outweighed him by 85 pounds on land or anywhere else I could have taken him out with one arm what was going on in that water he could have drowned many of us from where did his strength come was it physical no was it strength of will now what made him so dangerous so strong it was sheer need he knew he had nothing he knew he had no strength no hope he knew he was going to drowned he knew he was going to die and it was that realization of his utter and absolute weakness that would have caused him to cling on to another man a man three times his size with such strength that he would have drowned him that is true spirituality when you see men or women who are strong or Pious or seem extraordinary you automatically attribute it to something and them some strength and that's not at all the case they have recognized their utter weakness their utter inability to please God they're under inability to serve God they're under utter inability to stand against sin they have absolutely nothing except the wisdom of God's word and the power of God's spirit and that's what causes them to walk so close to Christ it's not their strength it's the recognition of their weakness and if you sit there and say well I don't walk so close maybe you have not recognized your weakness and your need of strength I have served him for almost four decades every year I have a greater recognition of my weakness it's my inability I have nothing I have contributed nothing to my salvation except my sin I have no wisdom I have no strength I have no power it is only Christ and Christ Alone when you look at Paul or Peter I think these magnificent statues and examples of faith of discipleship you see for Peter to lead up that Apostolic band in God's Providence he had to fall or he could have never LED Peter learned that day he had nothing but the blood of Christ and the intercessory Ministry of Christ that was it Paul when you meet Paul in heaven I think the first thing he will probably say to you is why did you not believe me why did you not believe me when I told you I was the weakest do you think I was speaking in metaphor do you think I was just overly pietistic take me at my word I really was the weakest but you seem so strong you don't get it you don't understand to the degree that God will use you he will break you I used to sing a song to my children when they were little and wouldn't go to sleep from Keith Green my son I am weak and I'm trembling for the Lord I am always remembering for what a strong Shepherd holds you in his arm he will break you and make you his own the famous preacher jawit wrote a book School of Calvary to the degree that God uses a man or a woman they must suffer and they must suffer in order to recognize their absolute need of him that you have nothing but him and then in that weakness God shows himself strong now in verse 6 Paul says therefore always being always of good courage so when we think being always of good courage we're thinking of this manly viral type of Courage fearlessness I want you to think more in the terms of encouragement I want you to think in the terms of Hope I have lived this life a long time and I have bore with many things and I can tell you the greatest of all enemies is hopelessness and hopelessness comes from either taking your eyes off the God you know or not knowing the God you should it is Hope hope that every Sanctified desire will be met in him every wound every weakness every sin will be done away with in him it is that that propels a man or a woman to serve him therefore being always of good courage he says in knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord what you need to understand is this is not it this is not it this is not the end this is not the thing to live for you need to recognize something the reality is we are here and we are not yet home we are not only not home we are Behind Enemy Lines not only we are we beyond Behind Enemy Lines we're in a body that sometimes acts as a body of sin that fights against us so so don't think it like uncommon or unusual when everything everything is coming against you not just from the outside but from the inside not just human but demonic it's all coming against you realize you are in a war zone this is a battle I remember listening to a preacher one time he's talking about someone who was telling him you know the devil's doing this and the devil's doing that and the devil's doing this and the devil's doing that and he looked at me said that's exactly what he's supposed to be doing that's who he is the world's coming against me it is supposed to My Flesh Rises up against me that's what it is but this is not our home this is not our Ultimate Reality there is something waiting for you Beyond the Veil if you are in Christ that is so extraordinary if you were to catch a glimpse of it right now it would fracture your mind and destroy you so yeah I can hope I can hold on and go forward one thing I try to communicate I'm so sick and tired it just what's coming I don't know the fraction of it and what I know is an older Minister I can't even begin to communicate it and that's the pain of the preacher there's a limited vision of my mind my mind from scripture of what's coming but even that I can't communicate to your young minds it is so big so glorious it is worth dying ten thousand deaths to catch a glimpse of it and that's what you need to see your problem is not that you're too passionate or too wild the problem is you're just dead inside you play video games you watch other people live you live your life vicariously you were never supposed to do that you were made in the image of God and if you're a Christian you were recreated in the image of God what are you doing with your life to go on with him to serve him to love him it's not a morbid Trail of Tears I I love what Michael Card writes there is a joy in the journey there's a light we can love on the way there is a wonder and wildness to life and freedom for those who obey that's what I'm talking about I was telling the class previously I said if I was standing before all the professors of every Ivy League school in New England they said give us an Evidence of God the thing I would tell them is my dissatisfaction if I was evolved if I simply evolved I would have no dissatisfaction I would have no sense that there's something out there that I was made for that is not now and it causes me to long for it to dream about it not a church service but a new creation Paul had this magnificent Cosmic view of the new creation a magnificent glorious view of the reigning Christ the beauty the joy unspeakable and full of glory and that is the thing that drove him therefore he says being always of good courage but I'm also recognizing that this is a matter of hope I'm still in this body I'm away from the Lord I'm away from my home I'm not where I'm supposed to be he says for we walk by faith and not by sight faith faith just let me for a moment now Faith is the Assurance of things hoped for in the conviction of Things Not Seen I can turn this into an absurdity if taken out of context faith is the Assurance of things hoped for I've always hoped to fly unaided to fly so faith means I have the assurance that I can well I I think I can fly so I go up to the top of this building and I jump off I have the Assurance I Can Fly and I act on it is that faith conviction of Things Not Seen I've never seen anyone fly never but I have the conviction that I can and so I climb up the building and I jump off again and I die is that Faith No that's presumption faith is an absolute impossibility apart from the revelation of God faith is an absolute impossibility apart from knowing what God has said in the scriptures do not kid yourself faith is not some philosophical leap Into Darkness it's not even some philosophical leap into an undefined light faith is standing upon what God Said and the only way you're going to make it through this Christian Life the only way you're going to be able to serve him as he ought to be served is if literally like John Bunyan when they cut you you bleed the Bible it's the word of God and not just the principles of an ethic Christianity has an ethic but it is far more than an ethic and a morality it is a person it is a relationship it is life it is life we walk by faith and as you grow older and as you know God in his word and as you experience his providences I can assure you that little by little the world this world starts to fade a bit the other side of the veil becomes clear scripture scripture don't tell me that you're like the man on the surfboard and you're utterly dependent upon Christ if you're not utterly dependent upon Christ's scripture for we walk by faith not by sight we are of good courage there it is again I want you to know that the greatest battle that I believe you'll have as a Christian is discouragement discouragement discouragement and the only way to Triumph not tolerate but triumph over that is the word of God and communion with God In Prayer remember this always the greatest Ministers of Christ were not only excellent theologians they were men of Prayer Bethany said of Martin Lloyd Jones you'll never understand my husband is an evangelist if you do not first understand him as a man of Prayer Whitfield was a man of prayer Wesley was a man of Prayer Amy Carmichael was a woman of Prayer we have a lot of young theologians today are little more than parrots repeating what they have not experienced but what's been taught them if your theology is going to become real it's going to become real on your knees in prayer he says we are of good courage and I say prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be home with the Lord here is a man who had caught a glimpse a glimpse of Christ he had caught a glimpse of future Glory and that is what propelled him he longed for it he longed for it you're going to learn sooner or later students listen to me that there if you are this is Puritan saying if you are truly converted then your heart has been enlarged in such a fashion that if you were to gain the whole world it would leave you empty and if you were to lose the whole world it would affect you not and I can tell you young people you can you can even in the ministry have success and it will not satisfy you you can marry the most beautiful woman most brilliant man it will not satisfy you if you are a Christian I hear people say all the time you know your husband compliments you your wife compliments you if your husband fulfills you your husband completes you your wife completes you if your husband or your wife can complete you you're lost you're not a Christian only Christ can complete you and furthermore if you put that burden on another human your marriage is going to fall apart no one can satisfy you your heart's too big but know this you can even be in a good school but if you're not practicing personal devotion that bigness of heart even if you're a True Believer will start to shrivel some Paul was inflamed with what was coming so far beyond what your little brackets have created it's not clouds and harps it's not Eternal church services it's life and joy and completely sanctified wildness and it's what propels us or should Propel us he says in verse 9 therefore we also have as our ambition whether at home or absent to be pleasing to him now I want to give you two lights to motivate you and I want you to understand that just like in creation there was a greater light and a lesser light I'm going to give you a greater light and a lesser light I'm going to give you the Lesser light first what you know we always see someone who's converted you know and for the first six months they're like a wild man or a wild woman they are just running everywhere witnessing and talking about Christ and wanting to risk it all but what does it take for that to not only continue on to grow into the 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s until death what can make an old man more passionate about the Christian Life than when he was a young man in newly converted I'm going to show you first of all the Lesser light he says in verse 9 therefore we also have as our ambition whether it's home or absent to be pleasing to him everyone in Heaven all they do is thinking about they think about pleasing Christ and they do please Christ and you may say to yourself I can't wait to get there no no no Paul says I want that now I want to be pleasing to Christ now and he said it's my ambition you see so many people have this idea that when they become a Christian they should lose all ambition no you should have more ambition than anyone on this planet it's just ambition for the right thing there was a text I shared with the class listen to it if if I changed it a little bit kept faithfulness to the Greek but changed it just a little bit so it would be difficult to recognize and did not give a bunch of preachers the text I was citing they would think I was quoting from some Spartan manual he says who will render to each person according to their deeds to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for Glory and Honor and immortality have you ever looked at your Christian Life that way you see athletes just fighting for you to see boxers and baseball players and this and that and Olympians you see people chasing after wealth and they're just chasing and chasing and chasing it's their ambition their ambition Paul was ambitious he was far more ambitious than any secular mind you could ever imagine but he was ambitious he was seeking for glory honor and immortality before Christ to stand before him one day knowing like CT stud when his daughter visited him and he went into the little Hut where he was living she had visited him and she was now newly married and he sees her and he runs into the Hut and he and he comes out and he looks a little distraught and he said I I I went in my Hut to give um I wanted to give you something for your wedding but I gave everything to Christ years ago I don't have anything can you imagine think about it man some of you want to stand on podiums and you want to be honored here and there think about it standing being able to stand because of his blood because of his justification be able to stand before him and he looks at you he looks at you and you imagine can you imagine he looks at you and he says well done well done well whatever what else you want what he what well done well done well done really yeah well done of course we we all know what's going on there he knows I know that if there was any well done it was he who did it he's such a great he's such a gracious God he tells you to do something he does it through you and then rewards you for it this is a win-win so we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ I don't I can't figure out theologically and I'm not sure anyone else can how this actually works because you will lose your mind if you look in the mirror of God's word and you see yourself as you are and you think that you would be judged in any way with regard to your works we have to look at this passage knowing that we stand before God perfect not just forgiven but righteous because of the life and death and resurrection of his son we must look at this passage in light of that as Believers and yet somehow as Believers we will stand before him and be judged and rewarded and I don't know how that works but I can sleep at night because of this not because of me or my Ministry but because of him and his ministry and we must hold these things in attention that we are responsible for the grace that has been given to us we are response you are responsible and the greater the gift the greater the responsibility and you need to think about that not just lost people need to think about the Judgment but we need to think I mean really think about it let's say you're the most beautiful person physically That Ever Walked the planet that's going to last until what you're 30 and then it's just straight downhill from there you're the greatest you're the greatest athlete in the world and one day you know someone will have to help you go to the bathroom you're a wealthy man and you die and you rot in the ground is that what you want are you really that dead is that what you want or do you want this eternal thing you give a cup of cold water and you'll not lose your reward forever it is eternal it's an eternal King an eternal Kingdom I see all these people fighting about politics and I suppose that's important to some degree but it's all for no matter what happens if a good regime comes it will then be countered by another that's bad and eventually the whole thing goes downhill and if you don't believe it's study history I mean there are men and I praise God for them who built the country died for the country and everything but the country's going to be lost sooner or later you can't even live for countries because it's temporal you live for a kingdom that knows no end That Glory only increases it doesn't fade Heaven and the new Earth they're not static they're Dynamic we go from glory to glory so one of the great motivations is yes I will I will give an account for my gifts not just spiritual gifts talents I teach my boys when they were little I would go one and this is what they would say if we're strong we've been made strong to help the weak two if we has had the opportunity of an education we help those of our brothers who have no opportunity three if we have wealth it is for our brothers who have not this is why we live our gifts our talents our opportunities you think when you fluff off in a class you're just fluffing off on a class no you're despising privilege not that a professor gave you or even your parents gave you that Christ gave you do you see that so what is one of the great motivations it is a solemn motivation that we will stand before the Judgment Throne of Christ will be held accountable for our gifts for our talents for opportunities for privileges but now there's a greater a greater light we can't obviously preach this entire text but there's a greater light that eclipses the one that I just gave you that was the moon now we're going to look at the Sun Paul says in verse 14 for the love of Christ controls us we are so in our flesh we're so humanistic so many people will look at this text and say oh yes Paul's great love for Christ controlled him I don't believe that's what Paul is saying I believe it was Christ's great love for Paul that controlled him when I look in the mirror at my love for Christ I don't see a lot of motivation I see me up here and zealous I see me down here and not zealous I see me full of love apathetic I see me cold hot I see all kinds of things I see no consistency and so if I was basing my encouragement upon that I'd have no constant encouragement but what is the encouragement it is not my love for Christ my piety toward Christ what is my encouragement Christ's love for me oh my I've gone I'm so sorry I've gone beyond let me just look this is so important for you to understand I know that on the internet I'm known as the the meanest human being who ever lived this is what I've always known the greatest need of the Christian is to comprehend your greatest need your greatest need is to comprehend how much Christ loves you do you really think he did all this so that the first time you look at him there's a scowl on his face you need to understand he will be more joyful to see you than you will be to see him he finished all that and I want you to know that it isn't judgment it isn't condemnation it isn't that he's going to frown that is not my motivation no that will kill you there is some medicine there's a medicine that is so much stronger it is coming to a greater and greater understanding of the love of God and the more you understand how much God loves you in Christ and what he did for you through his son if you would just grow in that everything else would take its place it's not how much you love him it's how much he loves you and as you grow in that and you see it it begins to take hold of your life and you become a prisoner you have no place to go but to him not because all you love him so much it's because he loves you so much if you see a man who is extraordinary in his love for his wife extraordinary what do you say what do you do how do you respond to that you go oh what an amazing man don't you you're so silly and blind you're missing the point you see maybe he's not extraordinary at all maybe he's even less than normal but what you're seeing the cause of this passion in his life is not that he's extraordinary it's that his wife's extraordinary and her extraordinary beauty and virtue draws out of this ordinary man or even subordinary man and extraordinary devotion do you see what I'm talking about I've tried to study people throughout history you know on both sides I mean you know evangelicals pietists Calvinists arminians and when I put them all together and I find within those circles groups of men and women who love Christ in an extraordinary fashion I see all of them as very extremely weak and subpar but they had an extraordinary vision of the love of God in Christ with regard to the cross all students I wish to be with you for so long and to beat you over the head with this if you will chase it down if you will chase down if you were mine for it as in Job 28 if you'll turn over mountains if you'll go down into the deep if you'll Dam up Rivers if you take your pickaxe and you keep going and going and you begin to see the love of God in Christ the motivation issue is not so much a problem anymore now being young the problem will be a wisdom issue but there will be motivation you don't need to think about becoming a better you because you could do all that in the flesh you need to think great thoughts of him by studying him not just Christian principles Tim look for him I want to see the king in all his Beauty I want to see him make that your passion and the missionary stuff the World Vision the piety everything that will follow suit let's pray father thank you Lord so limited please help these students please help them in Jesus name amen [Applause]