Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Cross Pt.6

Amen. It's good to hear everybody sounding better. It sounds like all the coughing now is at least in harmony, controllable, so praise God for that. Let's turn to Matthew. We want to take a couple of minutes to look at some of the passages we've been dealing with, as we're spending time on the study here, concerning what really is the central theme of this great message of all of ours: that's the power of the cross.

This is the message we're to bring to the world. Paul said, "Christ sent me not...with [man's] wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made of none effect" (1 Corinthians 1:17). The message of the cross isn't just, however, the historical reference to Jesus' death; it's not just about the literal death of Christ, the historical death of Christ, or the fact that there is the geographical location. We can go to what many believe is the place, the very hill in Jerusalem: Golgotha. Some of you have been able to see that place, the place of the skull, just outside the city, and perhaps walk on that same terrain Jesus walked on, the historical person, the historical event. But it is more than that because the cross began before time, because the lamb was slain from before the foundations of the world. So, when we are talking about the cross, don't limit it to the historical event. Realize that, when we are talking about the cross, we are talking about the heart of God. This was the purpose of God from the beginning. The cross includes all of God's love and mercy and compassion, His purpose for His great creature: man. In His foreknowledge, the intent to reconcile man back to Himself was embraced and the method created to reconcile man: the genius (what an understatement concerning God) of the Incarnation. Who would ever have thought God would become a man, the innocent would become guilty so the guilty might be spotless, and righteous, restored, reconciled, and exalted to the right hand of God. What a great plan this is, amen?

Powerful: the cross, restoring evil to good, tainted to pure! The cross, appearing to be an emblem of death, was the instrument of life. Because men who go to the cross living are truly dead men, and men who die on the cross take their lives up again. This great cross, how paradoxical it is to the natural mind. So, be careful, as we approach this subject, that you don't approach it naturally, because it is going to be the opposite of everything you think. Many of you, even after the teaching we've done so far, are still afraid of that cross; and you need to be embracing it; you need to run toward it. It's the instrument of life; it's the instrument of peace; it's the only thing that can give you your life if you'll willfully lay it down there. Yet the church has been so seduced by the world and vexed, that there is the failure any longer to identify with the cross, with the person of the cross. We want to talk about that this morning, and it can't be said any better than Tozer said it. There's a book that's been released, "The Radical Cross." I have just finished it. I was actually preparing this subject when we were out at Tahoe, and Kimberly and Jeff came out. Joanne had found this and sent it with Jeff, so it was a great blessing. I started, and got through a couple of chapters while I was out there, then finished here. When you're speaking truth it transcends not only culture, but time. Tozer writes just like he is living in our day because everything is the same, just accelerated to a place of being worse. I like these words. I just wanted to read this, it's not something I do much, reading, but he makes this statement concerning the old and the new cross. See if this doesn't describe the churches all of us are very familiar with today: famous ministries, televangelists, local churches, we've called them "super churches." Churches that are bringing that message, which is tickling the ears of men: "seeker friendly."

Tozer says it this way:

"Remembering my own deep imperfections, I would think and speak with charity [love] of all who take upon them the worthy Name by which Christians are called. [In other words: he's not being critical of these men. He knows their condition, but at the same time he says:] But if I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of self-assured and carnal Christianity whose hands are indeed the hands of Abel but whose voice is the voice of Cain. The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. The old cross brought tears and blood; the new cross brings [mirth and] laughter. [I'd add to this: The old cross required all, the new cross promises all.] The flesh, smiling and confident, preaches and sings about the cross; before the cross it bows and toward the cross it points with a carefully staged histrionics--but upon that cross it will not die, and the reproach of that cross it stubbornly refuses to bear.

"I well know how many smooth arguments can be marshalled in support of the new cross. Does not the new cross win converts and make many followers and so carry the advantage of numerical success? Should we not adjust ourselves to the changing times? Have we not heard the new slogan "New days, new ways"? And who but someone very old and very conservative would insist upon death as the appointed way to life? And who today is interested in a gloomy mysticism that would sentence its flesh to a cross and recommend self-effacing [a life of humility, the true virtue, that was actually practiced by the first believers is surely not for the modern Christian,] humility, as a virtue actually to be practiced by modern Christians? These are the arguments, along with many more flippant still, which are brought forward to give an appearance of wisdom to the hollow and meaningless cross of popular Christianity."

The Radical Cross: Living the Passion of Christ, (c)2005, Christian Publications, Inc., Camp Hill, Pennsylvania

That's the day we're living in. There is no new thing under the sun. There are a lot of promises about success and self-assurance, self-helps, twelve step programs, seeker friendly churches, but the message hasn't changed. Matthew 16:24: Jesus says, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself." I don't know of any messages you hear, either in the church or in the secular realm today, that have to do with self-denial.

We've already addressed the fact that, when we talk about self-denial, we're not talking about eastern mysticism, we're not talking about asceticism, we're not talking about Gandhi, we're not talking about Mother Teresa, because Paul and Jesus make it very clear that in all of those human endeavors is self righteousness and pride and the works of the flesh. When we talk about denying ourselves we're not talking about abstinence from material things; we're talking about absolute dependence upon Jesus. We're talking about denying secular, human wisdom, natural methods, and living in the supernatural. It was interesting; it was so sad last night as I was watching Tony Compollo in a debate with one of our politicians; and they were talking about whether or not Christians should be pacifists. One of the things Compollo said was that he felt the problem today--and it was amazing to me. They were equating Christianity with American politics. They were equating Christianity, in this argument, with our President, and those two things are in no way representative of biblical Christianity--and Tony Compollo said he thought one of the things that needed to be done today was to apply the ministry of Jesus: to love your enemies. How many of you believe that? I do; I think we should love our enemies. I believe if a man smites us on the cheek, we should turn the other cheek. Jesus taught that, and I believe that. I'm not going to get into what that means at this time. I'm going to show you the wrong conclusion in this. Compollo went to this. He said, "Therefore, we need to be very compassionate, non-critical, and accepting of our Islamic brothers." Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Amen? You see, there is no other way. To embrace the cross is to become so absolutist, so separate, so unique, so distinct, and so isolated that everybody else hates us because we absolutely believe this is infallible. On the same program a biblical scholar was arguing with Hank Hanegraff on the literacy and the infallibility, the inerrancy, of Scripture. He was kind of laughing at Hanegraff and those of us who believe the Word of God is inerrant. And he said, "Do you truly believe the Bible is absolutely inerrant?" And Hank said, "Of course." "And do you read it literally?" And he said, "Of course I believe it literally." And he said, "Then Jesus was wrong because the smallest of all seeds [parable] was spoken in error. As botanists know, it [the mustard] is not the smallest seed." Jesus wasn't talking about seeds; He was making reference to a seed they knew of. How many of you know, that crowd of ignorant shepherds were not botanists? Jesus was not in error; He literally spoke parabolically, accurately, to make the message. You see, when we say we believe the Bible literally, we believe it literally when it is speaking allegorically, when it's speaking parabolically. Some of you could get yourselves in trouble if you said, "I believe the Bible literally: everything it says." Beloved, some of these things are allegories, and each is an inerrant allegory, an inerrant, perfect, accurate parable. But you have to know what is being spoken, how it is being spoken. I'm saying all of that just to say there are all of these people who profess to believe in the Scriptures, yet will speak contrary to it and embrace science and embrace the history. "Because archeologists have not yet found this certain tribe, it must not exist," and, "There is no evidence of the great exodus that took place in Egypt." And they said that about so many other huge events that have archeologically been vindicated in recent, very recent, digs. But do you need archeologists for you to believe? And who are these people who will stand up and profess Jesus as Lord, and speak contrary to His Word?

So when we're talking about identifying with the cross today, we're talking about opposing not only secular kingdoms, but ecclesiastical kingdoms that are compromising the Word of God to build their own reputations. I want to tell you something: When you start making statements that are not flattering of Mother Teresa, people are going to want to fight you. And you start making comments about Billy Graham that are not flattering, and people are going to want to fight you. Billy, who used to be just a simple Bible preacher rubbed shoulders with too many kings and presidents, and lost his foundation stone, bringing another cross. There's a reproach to those who are going to embrace this cross.

The denying of self is the denying of self-confidence. It's denying self gain in position, in power, in control. It's important, and I want to speak this morning a little bit more out of Philippians, because Paul is speaking there, and he's referencing again his new list of priorities, which, I think, most of us need to work on in our own lives practically. So let's turn over to that Philippians passage. As you're turning there, remember what Jesus said in Matthew: Deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Him (Matthew 16:24). This is an ongoing, daily process. There is a once for all decision to die on the cross; there is a daily decision to identify with the cross. The dying daily is the constant choice of obedience to the heart of God, to the proclamation of the gospel. Paul said, "I'm not ashamed...it is the power of God unto salvation" (Romans 1:16). I want to tell you something: this seeker friendly message you've heard so much about, which is building all of the big churches of today, is the enemy of the cross: it's another gospel.

Who are these people who are preaching this message? Individuals who have been blinded, seduced, distracted by attractions. The cares of this world have choked out the Word of God. How does it happen that men who have loved God, men who have served God, men who have preached the Word are now blinded and deceived? It was one bad decision at a time. None of these men, I believe, sat down and consciously said, "I'm going to stop preaching the truth and start deceiving people." Do you know what? You won't make that kind of a decision either. But one wrong choice at a time; one preferring of self over the cross; one justifying of carnal behavior, identifying with the world instead of the reproach of Christ. It's so important to "[look] unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2). There's shame with this thing: people are going to laugh at you; they're going to mock you. Christians: professed Christians.

"Why are you so dogmatic? Why are you so self-righteous? You just think you're better than everybody else." "No, I think I'm worse than everybody else. I view myself as the chief of sinners." I'm not speaking for Paul; I'm speaking for myself. How do you see yourself? "I'm not all that bad." You haven't seen yourself yet, and you haven't seen the glory of God. "I'm a pretty good person, actually. Now, I know there is the Adamic nature in us, and I know about total depravity, but I do pretty well." You haven't been to the cross, because the cross reveals to each of us our own ability and our own worth. Jesus knew what it was to humble Himself even to the death of the cross, the Scripture tells us: "...who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus' life was a life lived under the shadow of the cross. Tozer speaks of this in his book, and I won't try to replicate it. If you get that book, it has some beautiful poetry addressing the life of Christ under the cross: Living under the shadow of the cross. For you and me, we need to live our lives under the shadow of the cross; we need to pray our prayers under the shadow of the cross that they might be effectual. What is a prayer that is prayed at the foot of the blood stained cross? How could any of us kneel to pray in that blood stained dust, and demand our will and our way when we're so conscious of the fresh drops of blood of the Innocent One who died for our reproach and our sin? Do we live our lives in total gratitude for the price paid? Do we live our lives carelessly and freely and without restraint, thinking God should have died for my gain and my good and for my ease, or do we live always as debtors? I don't know about you, but I wake up every day understanding very clearly, as soon as my eyes are open: "I'm a debtor. I'm a slave. I have no value, no worth, nothing to contribute but the privilege of serving."

What does the cross do to us? You see, Jesus' life, not the historical event, Jesus' life was a life lived identifying with the cross. What am I saying? In His majesty--divine, omnipotent, omniscient--the infinite, Eternal One was made flesh and dwelt among us. He humbled Himself. His enemies laughed and mocked Him and pulled out His beard. He could have called 10,000 angels. They couldn't take His life; He had to lay it down. The King of Kings never enjoyed any pomp and circumstance. The Creator of the cattle on a thousand hills said "I'm hungry. I'm tired." The water of life said, "I'm thirsty." What are we saying? He did it all willfully by choice: that's the cross. It's not: "What's available to me?" It's: "What do I choose?" "If any man will, let him" (Matthew 16:24). So when we pray, when we believe, when we prepare, what are we preparing for? I've talked about asceticism, and we'll refer to it again before we're finished, because I don't want any confusion and thinking that, somehow, we're talking about lives of asceticism. We're talking about lives of self-identity; lives of self-denial. We're talking about lives of absolute dependence upon His lordship, and the death to self-will, the death to self-agenda, and the death to over-evaluating our own worth. Every one of us, on a quiz, could pass the test. We could all say the right thing; we could all talk about depravity; we could all talk about "...in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:18). We could all talk about humbling ourselves, and God will exalt us. What do you do when it's decision time? What choices do you make pertaining to self? Is self the consideration, or the glory of God, the purpose of God? Is self the determination, or can you say, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of" (John 4:32)? "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work" (John 4:34)? "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up" (John 2:17)? Have you been to the cross? Is it a daily visit?

Philippians says it this way; let's look there again. You can continue to study through these passages and never exhaust them. In the second chapter of Philippians, before we look at Chapter 3, at the verse we were spending time in, Paul is making reference to Epaphroditus, his fellow soldier. I love that phrase. Paul speaks a lot about being a soldier. This is a war we're involved in. The cross is our banner as warriors; it is the rallying point. We know what the banners were: His banner over us, the Scripture says, is love. Do you want to know what love is? Love is self-denial; love is preferring others. Love is not only desiring, but supplying, the absolute best for the object to which we show our affection. This banner, this cross: "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me" (John 12:32). "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14). We're being destroyed by fiery serpents; we're being destroyed by the poison of the Adamic nature, of secular humanism. There is a cross that has been raised up, and everybody who looks will live, everybody who looks away from the natural tendencies of the world, all of the glitter and the fame and the methods, all the promises. But take this to the bank: to try to save your life is to lose it. To refuse the cross is death; to die is gain. "For me to live is Christ, and to die [to self] is gain" (Philippians 1:21). Paul isn't [just] saying, "For me to live is to live out a life as a Christian, and then I'll die and go to heaven." That is not [only] what he is saying. "For me to live is Christ;" It is self-denial; to die to self is gain, and it's the only thing that will bring the presence of God. It's the only thing that will enable me to walk in the spirit so I don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Then ultimately, beloved, you've got to understand, heaven is the consequence. We're not working for heaven; we're guaranteed heaven if we stay dead to self. So, when Paul is speaking here and he is talking about Epaphroditus, we know the soldier is one who has prepared himself for battle. If we're going to be champions, if we're going to be masters in spiritual warfare, then, the Scripture says, we have to become temperate in everything else. We talked about that aspect in our last session: temperance versus abstinence. I believe temperance becomes the fruit of abstinence. I believe there are times when we must abstain that we might learn temperance, control. You have to identify where you are, and you have to hear from the Holy Spirit as it pertains to your own life and what it is that has you in bondage and what it is that is robbing the glory of God. That's working out your own salvation. Paul says, "Epaphroditus...my fellow soldier...was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick [and you were concerned for him and praying for him]. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow." Isn't it interesting? The guy who was sick was worried about the people worrying about him. What about when you're sick?

You see the redirecting of everything away from self. I'm not talking about a false humility: Somebody comes up and says, "Ah, you look nice today. I like your new dress." "Oh, this old thing?" You just shopped forty hours for that thing, sold the cat, mowed lawns, paid the price, and "Oh, this old..."? "Thank you; I was hoping somebody would notice." Have you ever said that to anybody? "Oh, I really like that dress." "Thank you; I was hoping somebody would notice. I mean, I put a lot of time into this." I'm not really encouraging you to verbalize that, but the whole thing is: that's why you're doing it. Everybody knows. "Thank you; I'm glad you like it. I really like it." Here you are with that new designer dress or whatever it might be, and now what do you do? "Thank you. Oh, yes, it's an Oochie Gucci. It's the finest. I trained the silk worms how to..." and you go into the whole thing. Enough is enough! It's a nice dress, okay? Now, what about the new blue-light special she has on? Do you take time to say, "Is that a new blouse?" "Yes." "Oh, it really looks nice on you. Are those wood chips? Is that what that's made out of?" How easy is it for you to prefer others, to just be thankful for what Father has given you, but to emphasize the goodness of God in all of His infinite wisdom and His provision for all of us, and to prefer others, and not to vaunt ourselves; and not to be puffed up, and not to demand our own way, and not to behave ourselves unseemly. You see; the cross is the ability to die to self that we could love others, that we could prefer others, that we could esteem others better than ourselves. So, when Paul is speaking here in Philippians and says, "I count all things but loss" (verse 8 of Chapter 3), remember what he is talking about. I will re-emphasize this, then we'll start winding down for this morning. We're talking about the need in every one of our lives to re-evaluate, to put a new value system together.

Most of us could put the right list together in our quiz, but we become so easily distracted in our every day living. We all know family is, outside of the Lord, the most important, precious, thing we have. Yet we overlook them for acquaintances; we take them for granted, and go play and recreate; we have jobs that take way too much time, yet all say how valuable the family is. Then one goes into Intensive Care, and the job doesn't seem as important anymore. I would hope you're not sitting there, waiting for them to come out of surgery, looking at your watch to see if you can make your tea time; either kind: finger kind [sips tea] or [swings golf club]. Don't say you love Me, then don't keep my commandments. Don't say you love me, then live contrary to the value system I've established and you say you believe in. "What things [I used to count] gain to me, those I [now count] loss." When he said, "I have suffered the loss of all things," he did not totally liquidate and get rid of everything he possessed. There's Paul, now standing there in his skivvies. That's not what he did. "What was gain, what I had too much value upon, I devalued and re-evaluated the eternal." What was it that Paul counted gain? Verse 3: "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit." The religious group he identified with: he was a member of Calvary Temple. He said, "Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. [I love this statement he makes in verse 4] If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more." Paul is saying it; bless God! "You think you're bad? You can't even compare to me. I'm the Man! There was not a religious person who had the zeal I had, or the knowledge I had." He sat at the feet of Gamaliel; he was being groomed as a Pharisee among Pharisees, groomed for the Sanhedrin: a genius! And he says, "That's what I trusted in." "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel [verse 5], of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." What a statement to make! This guy kept the letter of the law: Blameless! Persecuting the church! Then one day, on the road to Damascus, a light shone around him and he heard a voice, "Saul, Saul why persecutest thou Me?" That light knocked him from that animal; he's lying in the dust, "And he said, 'Who art thou, Lord?'" "I am Jesus [of Nazareth] whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." "Arise, and I'm going to show you how much you must suffer for My name's sake. A man is going to come, and he's going to pray for you, and you're going to receive your sight" (Acts 9:4-17).

What have you been trusting in? You see, when we read the passage in Matthew, Jesus speaks again in Luke, Chapter 14, verse 26: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." How many of us are out evangelizing today, we go door to door, we go to the job, we run into seeker friendly Christians, and we share this with them? Now, I know many of you do, and what happens? They get angry. "Who do you think you are, trying to tell me I'm not a Christian, that I'm not worthy to be His disciple? I signed a membership card; I made a profession of faith in the name of Jesus." Hey, this thing isn't about professions; it's about funeral processions. Where is the biblical cross? We've made a mockery out of the cross; we've made a mockery out of the message of repentance. People don't repent today; they sign membership cards and they make professions of faith. "Repent, and be baptized" (Acts 2:38). Repent means to change your course, to turn around and go the opposite direction you were going; and there is no more confidence in the flesh. There is no other way but the spotless Lamb, the innocent Lamb, who died for our sins. "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Where is that message today in the church? What are we embracing? Most of us here embrace it, but here's the question I have for you today: Are you boasting in it? Are you rejoicing in it? Are you counting it gain when people despise you and hate you and say all manner of evil against you for His name's sake? That's our boast, beloved. "I'm afraid they won't like me; I'm afraid they'll think I'm 'super saint' and that I'm self-righteous." Paul said, I go about always bearing the marks of Jesus Christ in my body (Galatians 6:17), 2 Corinthians 4:10). "I embrace His reproach." Now his zeal had turned for the new value system, bathed by grace and faith. "By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Peter having been taken up with the pressure of the Judaizers, Paul said, "I withstood him to the face" (Galatians 2:11). "You're wrong! You're getting caught up in traditions and works." "Your life is too liberal." Paul would challenge from both sides. We of the new value system who love the light, who walk in the light, reprove darkness; but you had better start with yourself. The man who has been to the cross never sees others' sins critically, but tragically. Compassion: "Yeah, the only reason that guy is still doing that is because he wants to, he loves sin." What about you? Why are you still doing what you do? "Well, I hate my sin." When you've been to the cross, you see that everybody else wants out just as badly as you do. When you've been to the cross, you see that everybody else is dying just like you are, in bondage just like you are, in fear just like you are. When you've been to the cross and there is death to ego, and there is death to pride, and there is death to self-will, you see that you're not special, you're just one of all of us who need the same grace, and the same mercy, and the same truth, to be free; and thank God for the privilege of helping others.

Let's finish with this. "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." I want you to make sure you don't miss that emphasis. It's not just losing things, it's for Christ; and it's not just for Him, it's for Him. In other words: "in exchange for." I'm not doing this for Jesus; I'm doing it to get Jesus. "Lord, you see what I did for You?" as opposed to, "Lord, did you see what I gave up that I might depend upon You, that I might be made one with You? For me to live is Christ and to die to self is gain." So, we count it loss for the acquisition of Christ: "Yea, doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but [refuse,] dung, that I might win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness" (Philippians 3:8-9). This is the key, and we want to emphasize this: "And be found in him, not having my own righteousness." It's not about now how strong we become in Christianity. "I was strong in the world, now I'm strong in the church." There's only one way to be strong in the church, by being weak. There's only one way to be great in the church, by being the servant of all. So Paul is saying here, "I've learned the secret: not having my own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of faith, by faith."

When we finish up on this tonight, there are some tremendous passages in Romans and in Galatians I want you to see, which refer to what we were saying last Wednesday night. It's that secret of sanctification I want you to see. It's that secret of walking in the spirit so we don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. It's the force called reckoning: "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11). Reckoning is faith's ability to call things that are not as though they were, to by faith see righteousness put to our account. Reckoning is the ability to see the finished work as God sees it. Reckoning our righteousness is faith's ability to not have to work, because it's accomplished, it's finished, it's been declared. Though not yet appropriated, it is an eternal reality. It will culminate if I don't work at it; the work is finished. I'm going to show you the passages on how that practically applies to our lives. The harder we try to be righteous, the weaker we are, because we're trusting in our works. The sooner you can see yourself righteous, the works of faith and the works of grace will manifest in a life of peace, obedience, and exemplary sanctification. That's what we're all looking for. Now, how does this happen? I'll finish with this for this morning. Paul is saying, "It's not by the righteousness of the law; it's nothing I do, but the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith [verse 9]." How do we know if we're in that? "Knowing the power of his resurrection, embracing [identifying with] and glorying in the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." This conforming to the death of Christ is the conscious awareness of the lack of ambition. It's such a great time. Friday, as I came down from the ball games, and slipped into prayer yesterday (it is so cool when you are aware of it), and I remember coming in, and kneeling down, and just spending that time when you first kneel in His presence to clear everything out, to clear the mechanism so you can really focus on God, with no other noise.

Some of you may recall. It was a great baseball movie: For Love of the Game, I think it was called. That was one of the comments he made. It was a thing, when he was pitching, he would say: "Clear the mechanism." You could hear the crowd all of a sudden [go quiet]. Any of you who have performed in some type of event where you have to concentrate, you know what it is like to come into that zone. It would be nice to be there all the time, but you're not. But there are certain times you come into the zone, and you don't hear. People can be screaming and everything, but everything becomes quiet and everything slows down. It's an amazing thing. I remember one time in racing. We were up at an event. I was actually driving the ZR1 and I got so much in the zone that day, it was unbelievable. I was in the ZR1, just the regular street car, and beat everybody including a car that is set up like our super gas car, the full out race car that has all of the computers and the transmission brake. I beat that guy in just a street car. I was so much in the zone, the lights, when they were coming on (everything slowed), I could see the filaments starting to come on. It's an unusual thing, but you're there in the concentration. There are times when you come into prayer and it's that way, and everything just goes "whoosh" and you're right there at the throne of God. The last two nights, as soon as I've knelt down that's happened: I've just been "poof". The old song becomes so real: "And the things of earth become strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace," and you can instantly hear the voice of God, and you know, you sense, the peace of God. The one thing that is so real at that time is the lack of all ambition. There is nothing I want; I don't have any plans; there's no agenda. I don't need anything; I don't want anything. I am at peace; I'm in the grace and the mercy of God. This is how I want to live every minute of my life, and that's how Jesus did. When the wind and waves were blowing, and He was in the ship, He was in the zone. When they were screaming, "Crucify Him!" He was in the zone. When they nailed His hands to the cross, He was in the zone; He was at peace; He had no ambition. "For me to live is Christ."

How do we get there? Consciously: "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ" Paul goes on to say in this passage. What is your ambition? That's what I want to ask you tonight. It's either going to be secular, which is death, or you can have an ambition to have no ambition. My ambition is to no longer exist. To count loss everything that used to be gain that I might know Him, come to the excellent knowledge of Christ that I might know Him in the power of His resurrection, to taste the fellowship of His sufferings, to know the excellency of His resurrection. That life I live that's no longer my own, to eat bread that others know nothing of, to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish the work, to have a peace that passes all understanding, to have a joy unspeakable, to rest and cease from my own works that I might do the works of God, to call things that are not, concerning me, as though they were, and to boast in the cross, the finished work, and not in my own righteousness, that's a great gift we have from our Father.

Father, we come to You this morning, and we thank You for Your mercies, which are new every morning. We joy in the illumination of the kingdom of God, and thank You for the privilege of serving as unprofitable servants. When Your grace enables us to accomplish something for Your glory, we only boast in the Lord by saying, "We have done [only] that which was our duty to do." To be able to say with all confidence and humility, "[I am] the righteousness of God in Him," to be able to say in absolute awe, amazement, and bewilderment, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me," is because we finally know what it means to say, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Thank You for it, Father, in Jesus' name.

Let's stand before the Lord this morning. We'll take just a moment and wait on the presence of the Lord as Katie plays for us, and you allow the Lord to speak to your heart this morning. What, on the priority list, the value system, must be negated, rearranged? Now, don't think for a moment that you have the right to move these items, "for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). You don't know where to put them. Just say one thing: "Lord, it's obvious in my life, things are out of order. Show me the truth. Show me the pearl of great price, and I will sell everything to acquire it. Let me get a glimpse of Your glory." Is it your heart's desire this morning? I believe it is for the majority, but many of us are afraid. We're not afraid to declare the truth, we're not even afraid, many of us, of the stigma, the criticism, and the opposition to the message. We're not afraid of the opposition to the message; the thing that hinders most of us is that we don't want people thinking that we think we're better than they. That's pride. Just speak the truth in love.

As we sing this together, just let the Lord solidify the cross in your heart. Embrace it in faith, and you'll know life through death. "Exalt the Lord our God..." Thank You, Jesus. We rejoice in You, Father. Oh, You're so good, Lord. Thank You, Jesus.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Father, there is only one reason we can even be entertaining the cross, and that is because Your life is in us, Your Spirit is ordering our steps. We're a people who have tasted the goodness of our God, and we know the life abundant that has been afforded us. Father, we're not seeking eternal life, we're seeking Christlikeness. We want to represent You purely, powerfully. We want our works to be seen and our Father to be glorified. It's our hunger; it's our appetite; it's our passion. Make it real in Jesus name; amen. Amen.

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