Don't Waste Your Life - Part 5

They are gifts, life is a gift, death is a gift, and they are given to you in order that you might use them to display the supreme worth of Jesus Christ. That's the pathway of the unwasted life and therefore you must cultivate a supreme valuing treasuring of Jesus Christ above all things. I count everything as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus.

If you're not there tonight, labor in prayer and in meditation and in wrestling with God that you might get there so that with all authenticity you might be able to say, I count everything as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus. And then thirdly, this treasuring of Him which displays His worth is most clearly seen by what you are willing gladly to risk and sacrifice for the surpassing value of more of Jesus. Let me say that one again.

In fact, I'll say all three of them again just by way of summary. First, you have life in order that you might display the supreme value of Jesus. The way you display the supreme value of Jesus is by treasuring Him, being satisfied in Him above all other things in life.

And thirdly, that treasuring and display becomes most vivid by how much you are willing to risk or sacrifice if He calls in order to have more of Him. Listen to the radical way Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 12. You remember the situation? He's got a thorn in the flesh.

We don't know what it is. It's causing him pain. He says, Christ, please take it away three times.

And Christ says, no. And then Paul says, verse 9, He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.

There's more of Christ. You see that? My power. Do you want more of Christ? Christ's grace, Christ's power, Christ's fellowship.

Do you want more and more and more because He is your treasure? Paul did, and therefore he said, Christ says, My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weakness. And then Paul responds, Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly.

Don't miss that amazing counterintuitive word. I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities.

For when I'm weak, then am I strong. Magnifying Christ by being satisfied in Him, in pain and calamity and suffering and insults and weakness, was the passion of Paul's life. His passion was not the American dream of escaping insult, calamity, pain, suffering.

His passion was any life and any death that enables me to know you better, see you more and magnify your greatness more. Bring it on, Jesus. All I want in my life and death is to enjoy you more and make your worth more vivid for the world to see.

So, I ask you tonight, are you going to throw away your life? Are you going to buy into the American dream, minimize suffering, maximize comfort, maximize ease, maximize security, build bigger barns, work for the bread that perishes, lay up treasures on earth, covet the praise of man and be happy for 80 years and perish? Is that the way you're going to waste your life? Or, are you going to see Christ crucified and risen and reigning and bearing your sins as the infinite treasure in your life that He really is? And then make life choices that display to the world His value. Have you ever wondered why 1 Peter 3.15 isn't coming true for most of us? Where it says, always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you and somebody asks you. Anybody asked you recently? You know why? It looks like our hope is in the same thing they're hoping in.

The church in America is not where it ought to be. We are going to have to make life choices for this globe, this raft with pain, loss, perishing, suffering, hungry, uneducated, without water, without medical care, globe. We're going to have to make some choices about how to be invested that will cause the world to say, Hmm, why are you going there? What are you hoping in if you leave all this?