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I want to talk to you,

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young person.

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You've learned doctrines 
of sovereign grace.

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You read the Puritans.

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Congratulations.

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I will not lose sleep tonight

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because people in the world

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lack self-esteem.

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I will not lose sleep tonight

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because they're not having 
their best life now,

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or they're not being all 
that they can be,

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or their checkbook is not balanced.

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I will lose sleep tonight,

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if I lose sleep tonight,

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because men will stand 
naked before God

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and be cast into hell.

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When I preach, and when you preach,

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whether here or in the mission field,

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you cannot simply think that

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you're just a communicator of truth

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and you leave it there.

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You must preach as a 
dying man to dying men.

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And I see that in Paul.

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There was a passion.

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There was an urging.

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He wasn't simply satisfied

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if he preached well

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or communicated truth.

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He longed for God to be

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honored among men.

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And he longed

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for men

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to be holy,

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to be Christlike,

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and to be able to rejoice

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in the benefit of their great salvation.

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We ought to be a people

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given to urging our brethren

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to greater and greater godliness,

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to greater and greater piety,

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to abound further and further in love.

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He says, "I urge you, brethren."

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What is he going to urge them to do?

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To do the most difficult, scandalous,

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in some cases, some would say,

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preposterous thing

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a person could ever urge

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another person to do.

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To give their life away.

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Do you know, even the 
devil had it right?

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In this sense,

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you can take away a man's goods,

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his houses, his lands,

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you can do absolutely anything to him,

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but the moment you touch his flesh

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is when you're truly going to 
test this man.

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To give away a car,

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a home,

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a tithe...

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is a small thing.

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But to ask a man to 
give away his life...

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I know there is so much
romantic notion about missions,

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but Amy Carmichael,

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Elisabeth Elliot's book,

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it's right,

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missions is only this:

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an opportunity to die.

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And opportunity to give your life away.

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For something much larger than yourself.

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Much greater than yourself.

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So he is going to ask these people

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to do what some would consider

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almost cultic,

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absurd,

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ridiculous,

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immoral,

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to give their life away,

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to offer their life.

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Now, you're going to need strong medicine

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to motivate a person to something

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such as this.

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What on earth or in heaven

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could ever motivate a man

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to give his life away?

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I'm going to urge you to

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give your life away to God.

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To offer it up as a living

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and holy sacrifice to God.

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Now, I'm going to do so

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on the basis of the following:

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The first 11 chapters of this book

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that outline for you the mercies of God.

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And have you decided that you

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would submit your life 
to those directives?

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You see, we talk about
being biblical

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in our worship.

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Have you gone through Scripture

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to discover what God desires
out of worship?

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Well, you know, we love 
worship this way.

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I don't care how you like worship.

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Because that's not the point.

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What has God said?

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You see, in this idea,

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we can romance this thing to death.

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We can spiritualize it to death.

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We can say, oh, I've given my life

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to the mission field;

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that does not mean at the same time

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that you have given your heart to God.

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Because you can go to the 
mission field and be godless,

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and carnal and trite.

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You'd be better off joining
National Geographic

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than you would a mission agency.

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Are you seeking in simplicity

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to examine your life?

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I'm not talking about finding

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legalistic inferences

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and forcing them upon yourself.

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I'm talking about the great principles

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of Scripture dealing in every aspect

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of your personal life,

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applying them to you,

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and seeking to obey them?

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Let me ask you a question.

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If you go to the mission field,

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without taking what I have said

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as a serious endeavor,

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isn't there the possibility

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that the only thing 
you're going to do there

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after you have crossed land and sea,

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is make a convert like yourself

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that's nothing more than a 
two-fold son of hell?

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There isn't a whole lot of 
American Christianity,

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folks, that needs to be exported.

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Unless, like Ravenhill says,

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we put it on some kind of a raft,

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and send it off to a lone island,

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and after it's going away from the dock,

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we all sing the doxology.

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If we're going to endeavor to 
work in missions,

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then we must be motivated

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by a God that we know.

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A Gospel that we know.

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And we must be a people

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who have endeavored with great force

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to examine their lives

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in the light of Scripture

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and conform their lives

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to what Scripture says.

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How much of what you have -

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even the way you sit in a chair -

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is formed by those around you,

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and not by Scripture?

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Something to think about.

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Well, I think if you're going to be
a missionary of any account,

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this is what you must do.
Stay in your room.

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Not only pray, but study.

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So that when you walk out of that room,

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you have something to say about God.

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And so that you will be able 
to walk out of that room.

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Listen to me.

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I've been there, done that,
got the t-shirt.

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You walk out there in all your zeal,

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in the middle of the plaza,

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and you begin to preach,

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and you think as a young missionary

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that angels are going 
to drop out of heaven,

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and the Hallelujah Chorus 
is going to be sung,

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and millions of people 
are going to be converted,

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they're going to toss 
you on their shoulders

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and build a statue of you.

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That's not going to happen.

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What's going to happen is this:

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you're going to go there,
and you're going to preach,

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and you're going to preach,

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and when a crowd starts listening to you,

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somebody somewhere is going to rise up

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and call you a demon.

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The entire crowd's going to turn on you.

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They're going to grab your little pulpit

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and your makeshift microphone

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and all your little tracts

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and they're going to throw 
you out on the street.

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It's going to take a lot more

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than a romantic zeal for missions

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to make you get up, pick up your pulpit,

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your tracts and walk right back in there

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and preach again.

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It's going to take a passion for God

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that is created out of knowing Him.

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And that's the same for

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everything in the Christian life.