Louie Giglio - Worth Dying For
Well, good afternoon Passion City, hello Cumberland, and everyone around the world. Today, we are coming to the close of this journey to the ends of the earth, but we’re not there yet, so it really is a beginning and not an ending today. The message starts with a big question: what are you willing to give your life for? This mission that we are invited into, as we talked about a few weeks ago, is an all-in mission that requires an all-in church, and an all-in church requires an all-in meet. So, at the end of the day, God is inviting everyone who’s put their faith in Jesus on this journey, here, there, and everywhere, to be a representative of a message that you can only find in one place, and that is in the person of Jesus.
This message is a message of grace, forgiveness, and redemption. It’s a story of the glory of God. You can’t find it in any other religious tradition; you can’t find it by just flipping through Google and searching for a way. The only person who has come down, paid the price, and made a way for you and me to step into grace through faith, not by works or by any effort of our own, is Jesus. He loved you enough to consider you worth dying for. We know what Jesus thought was worth dying for: the glory of God and a grace that He could extend to you and me. He loves you, values you, created you, sought you, wanted you, and redeemed you. He believed you were worth dying for.
As we come to the end of the book of Acts, we get to Acts 28. Paul, who is one of the main characters in this story, has arrived in Rome; he has finally made it to Rome. He wants to be a light and a witness at the epicenter of civilization at that time, and then the book just ends. Paul is there, and his friends and some family are around, but the book just ends, and there’s no real resolution to what happens to Paul’s life. For that, we turn to some of the other letters he wrote in the New Testament and to church tradition to see what he was willing to give his life for. I’m in 2 Timothy chapter 4, reading in verse 6, where Paul knows he’s coming to the end of the road. He’s writing to Timothy, the guy he is raising up to carry the torch forward. At the very end of this second letter to Timothy, he says, «For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.»
Now, that’s the kind of mentality we have to have in life. It’s certainly the mentality you want to have in death: I’m not ending here; I’m just departing for somewhere else. My flight is about to leave. He was excited about this moment in time because, in verse 7, he said, «I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all,» can you say that word with me, «to all.» So, there’s a crown of righteousness that I believe the Lord is going to give me on that day, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.
That sounds like the final word to me. It sounds like, «I’m out! Drop the mic; I’m done. My departure is near, my flight is leaving, and I feel really good about the way that I have lived my life. I have finished my race; I have kept the faith. I know that there is going to be something ahead for me that is greater than anything I’ve experienced in my journey with God.» It feels like a mic-drop moment. But then we get to some personal remarks at the end of this letter. This is scripture, still inspired by the Holy Spirit, and it still has a purpose for your life and my life, but they are personal remarks. You’re like, «Why are there personal remarks in the Bible? Why is there extra stuff followed by final greetings?» I don’t need any final greetings, and I don’t need any personal remarks! You just made the drop-the-mic statement of all time. Everyone wants to say, «I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith. There’s a crown of righteousness that the Lord Jesus has in store for me. Goodbye, I’m out.»
But the Holy Spirit says, «No, I want you to include some personal remarks, and then I want you to add some final greetings afterward.» It’s all God-breathed and has a role in people’s lives. Why? Because if you are going to get into this story, you have to onboard a few big ideas, and we’re closing with them today.
Number one: you must ensure that you never mistake visibility for value on this journey of making Jesus known here, there, and everywhere. In other words, ensure that you don’t get caught in the trap of feeling like you are only valuable in the process of being a witness for Jesus if you are visible and people can see what you’re doing in this story. What God is looking for today, right here at Passion City Church—this is not theoretical; this is us today hearing from God—is saying, «What I’m looking for today is availability, not necessarily visibility.»
Now, that doesn’t mean you’re not going to ultimately be visible, but you might be visible to the person you work with, your neighbor, or someone in the shadows of life. You may never be on a stage; you may never be Paul, Peter, John, Stephen, or Barnabas, or Silas, or any of those other apostles who get the spotlight in the book of Acts. It’s always going to be that way. There will be someone leading us in worship; someone will lead us in intercession, prayer, exhorting us with the word of God, preaching, and proclaiming the truths of scripture. There will always be someone kind of in the light, but what God is wanting us all to see today is that it’s not about visibility; it’s about availability.
The only way Atlanta is going to experience a revival is if everyone is available for the Spirit of God to use them, not just a few visible people. We’ve got to always keep that in check in our hearts: you don’t have to be in the spotlight to be used powerfully by God.
As for the personal remarks—can we get excited about them? I have a few underlined in my Bible. Crazy, I know! «Do your best to come to me quickly.» So, he’s telling Timothy, «If you can get to where I am, I need you to come as quickly as possible. For Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me in my ministry. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus.»
And when you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas. Now, why is this in the Bible? Do we really need the personal remarks? «I forgot my coat.» Holy Spirit, breathe on that word today. And my scrolls and the parchments. Then, in verse 14, he mentions another guy: «Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him because he strongly opposed our message.»
Then he shares a little bit about his struggle and comes down to the end: «The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.» That’s got to be the mic-drop moment.
«Nope, final greetings. Greet Priscilla and Aquila.» Now, this couple appears throughout Paul’s ministry. They were his companions, sometimes going before him and sometimes staying behind, but they were a powerhouse couple in ministry with Paul. «Greet them and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus.»
Now, that’s a whole other sermon for another day, and I don’t want to make a big point of it, but Paul left a guy behind who didn’t feel well. So not everybody gets healed in the story of God. Okay, sorry, should have just left that out. But it’s Paul! If you don’t feel well while traveling with Paul, you’re good right? Because he has the authority and power as an apostle to perform miracles, but for whatever reason, this dude got left behind because he wasn’t feeling good.
«Do your best to get here before winter, thus the coat.» Eubulus greets you. You know, put that in your online dating profile: «Hi, I’m Eubulus.» And so do Putins, Linus, Claudia. And now we’ve got a whole band of brothers. «The Lord be with your spirit; grace be with you.» Mic drop! Why? Because God wants to make it clear that value and visibility don’t always go hand in hand.
Everyone knows Paul. Everyone understands that Paul is the guy. Everyone understands that the vast majority of the story of the expansion of the early church centers around a guy named Saul, who was Paul. But at the end of the day, God wants to say, «Hey, there are a lot of people in this story.»
You see it again at the end of Romans. The entire last chapter of Romans, Romans 16, is a long list of the people that Paul is thanking. Some of these people are also mentioned here in Romans 16. Why? Because God wants you to know that everyone has a role in the story. And yes, some people are going to get lifted up, some people are going to be talked about more, and some people’s gifts are going to put them at the center. But the only way it’s going to work is if everybody is in the story.
If you need heart bypass surgery, you’re going to go to a specialist. You’re not just going to talk to your friend at work; you’re going to see a heart specialist. He or she is going to diagnose you and say, «I’m going to operate on your heart.» The moment they say you’re going to have an operation, dozens of people are activated in your story, most of whom you will not know their names, and they will get very low visibility in the process of you getting a brand-new heart.
People like the check-in person at the hospital, the schedulers, the insurance people, the diagnostic people, imaging specialists, nurses, nurse practitioners, food service people, the janitorial team, the linen service, the pharmacist, the lab technicians, the anesthesiologist, the surgery prep team, the security team, the people who run the parking facility, the critical care team, the chaplain, the gift shop people, the building maintenance people, the waste services people, the rehabilitation specialists, and on and on and on.
They’re all going to have a role in your brand-new heart, but at the end of the day, somebody’s going to say, «What happened?» So I went to see Dr. So-and-so, and he fixed my heart; she fixed my heart. Someone is going to get visibility, but your heart is going to get fixed because of a whole lot of people who are available in the story.
This happens throughout Acts. In Acts 14, the power coming through Paul is so strong that they think he’s one of the gods in human form, and he has to say to them, «No, I’m just a person. All the power belongs to God.»
When the church was started in Acts 2, when you read the very first thing it says about the church starting in verse 42, it says they were devoted to the apostles' teaching. Yes, there was someone in the light, if you will, but it says they were all together; they were all in the flow; they were all in, and nobody was hung up over who had visibility. Everybody was leaning into availability, and that’s what God is asking for today: are you available, and what do you consider worth giving your life for?
Paul is at the end; he’s getting ready to depart; he feels good about the way that he has lived and is confident in his reward. The second thing that has to be true is we have to erase the secular and spiritual divide and see that we are all ministers of the gospel.
If you didn’t see or hear the message from Andrew Scott last week, I just encourage you to take time to go watch it. It was an incredible invitation for you and me to use the things that God has wired us to do for the purpose of taking the story of Jesus to the world. What we need to do is tear down this mindset that says, «Oh, the professionals tell people about Jesus, and the rest of us over here have all kinds of other less important jobs that wouldn’t fit into a spiritual purpose.»
God wants you to understand that if you know Jesus and have had an experience with Him, if you’ve had an encounter with Jesus that has changed your life, you are now qualified and invited to be a minister of the gospel story of Jesus to the world. You’re invited in right here and right now; everyone is invited in, and that’s only going to happen if you see that there’s no distinction between the sacred people over here and the secular people over here.
God has put you where you are for a reason; He’s given you the gifts that He’s given you for a reason, and your vocation is your ministry. You hear people all the time say, «Yeah, I have a job, but I also serve at my church, and that’s my ministry,» or «I’m a door holder, and that’s my ministry.» No! That is your ministry, but your job is your ministry!
You know, «That’s just where I make money so I can pay my mortgage, so I can go on vacation a couple of weeks every summer, so I can send my kids to college, so I can do the stuff I really want to do. My job’s just a means to an end.» If your job is just a means to an end, you need a new job. If your job is simply a way to get to the weekend, you need a new job.
God did not give you gifts, abilities, talents, opportunities, or a unique set of skills just so you can sit at a desk and bide your time till the weekend. That is not God’s plan for your life. You get one shot at life on planet Earth; this is it! You’re telling me you’re going to spend five days a week doing something you don’t like just so you can go somewhere you want to be on the weekend? Man, you need a revelation! You need to wake up!
You need a new job and a new view. You were placed on the planet with certain gifts, abilities, talents, and aptitudes so that you could be a biotechnician or in sales — you could sell a rock to another rock! You have gifts so that you can be in education, finance, banking, or some part of the healthcare industry. All that was God wiring you up uniquely to put you in a sphere of this world where you could be a beacon of light and hope.
They’re not inviting me to your company. I have not gotten one invitation this year to come to any of your workplaces. No one has called, no one has said to our team, «Hi, we work over at the printing company, and we just love it if Pastor Louie could come over and do a Bible study or tell everyone about Jesus and share the love of God.»
Nope, haven’t gotten a call. But you have that little thing; when you swipe it, the light turns green and the door opens, and you walk in every day. Why? Well, it’s just where I’m working right now. My brother knew somebody who worked there before, and blah, blah, blah, blah. I got a job. Wow, that’s inspiring!
«I don’t really like it, but it’s what I’m doing right now.» That’s inspiring! «I don’t really do that great of a job honestly at it, because my boss isn’t even around right now, and we’re working remotely from home, so nobody knows what I’m doing. So, I’m not hardly even doing much right now.» But that’s cool, because it’s COVID. That’s inspiring.
Man, I hope I get some employees like that when I get a business to run! You only work when somebody’s watching you? I don’t even know why I got into all this, except to say God may have put you in your job because the people at your workplace need Jesus.
«Well, what am I supposed to do? Buy everybody at the office a Bible?» Maybe not the first step! Number one: crush your job to the glory of God! Make it impossible for them to do what they do without you! If you don’t even believe in God and don’t even care about Jesus, still just do that! That’s the best thing anyone can do: add value to people’s lives and to the community and to the world. Crush your job.
Secondly, care about the people you work with. Don’t participate in the negative stories. Build up positive stories and care about people. If you do those two things, you’ll be noticed and probably promoted at your workplace. And when you are noticed and promoted, it will give you two paths to get on. One is, «I’m building my brand.» One is, «I’m building a platform to share the brand that is The Brand.»
As you continue to crush your job and care for those around you, most likely, you’ll continue to be promoted. Eventually, you’ll have the equity to say, «I’m a Christian,» and not get cut off before you finish the sentence!
Then you can say, «Man, the people I work with—they’re lost! I’m talking wake-up call in my office; we need a revival at my workplace.» And God says, «Yes, you do! That’s why I sent you there to be the embers of revival at your place.»
That’s only going to happen if we tear down this imaginary wall that the enemy has built between the sacred and the secular. We think, «My work life is one thing; my church life is another thing.» «My work life, that’s just what I do; my church life is where my heart and soul are.» And God is saying, «I need light in your job! I need light in your neighborhood! I need light in your community! I need light in the places where you hang out! And guess what? You’re the light!»
We don’t need any professional, sacred people to show up. You are the sacred person in the place where you are; you are the light of Jesus in that place. The goal isn’t for all of us to gather in a building; it’s to get out of this building and into every inch of the city!
We’ve said it so many times, but Tozer says, «It’s not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular; it’s why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act.»
When God called Moses, He said, «Go! I’m going to use you to set My people free.» Moses said, «I can’t even talk good! I’m not the right guy!» And then he’s questioning, «Who are you?» that I am who I am? «So what if I get there and they don’t believe me?» He says in chapter 4, «What’s in your hand, Moses?» Moses said, «My staff, of course! I was up here tending to my father-in-law’s flock on the back of this mountain! Of course, I’ve got a staff in my hand like anybody tending a flock!»
He said, «Throw it down.» And when he threw the staff down, it turned into a snake! Moses did what I would have done: he freaked out because he wasn’t into snakes. Then God said, «Pick it up by the tail!»
At that point, I would have said, «I threw it down; you pick it up!» But he gets the tail, and it turns back into a staff.
Now that story has a different angle, but I wonder if that’s what God’s saying to you today when you’re thinking, «I don’t know how I’m going to be a part of this global expansion of the gospel. I don’t know how God’s going to use me here, there, and everywhere.» Maybe He’s just saying today, «What’s in your hand?»
Okay, throw it down! Just let it go! Say, «I am a nurse practitioner, and I am just going to put that down and say, 'God, if you can somehow use being a nurse practitioner and turn it into something supernatural, I’m going to take what I have in my hand, what I’m good at right now, and I’m going to put that into the equation, and I’m going to trust You to use me.'»
The third thing that has to happen is that we can’t lose sight of the ultimate because of the immediate. This verse is underlined in my text because one of my mentors when I was in high school and at summer camp used to teach on this text all the time. In verse 9, he says, «Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.»
You can track in a few other writings of Paul and catch up to where Demas joins the team, where he gets in on the mission. Imagine being a guy who’s right next to Paul, in the flow, but the pull and allure are so strong that at some point, he just checks out and says, «You know what? My friends keep texting me; they’re in Thessalonica right now; it’s all going down,» and he abandons the ultimate for the immediate.
If we’re just honest, that’s where a lot of us are. We don’t disbelieve that God has a mission; we’re just more interested in the immediate than the ultimate. It was far easier for me to invest my money in something that immediately brings benefit to my life rather than giving of myself to the ultimate end that Jesus be known everywhere on planet Earth. I know that pull is strong, especially if you can pluck a guy right out of the gospel story.
I wonder if that’s where you are today. You’re still in the gathering, but you just got plucked out of the story somewhere along the way, and you’re pouring all your time and energy into the immediate and not the ultimate. Paul said, «I’m ready to go. I have fought the good fight, I have finished my race, and I have kept the faith. I’m ready to go right now!»
«I never lost sight of the ultimate for the immediate.» Tying closely to that, you can’t buy the lie that past failure will disqualify you from future and current roles in God’s story. In other words, you can’t buy into the idea that because you blew it somewhere along the way, you don’t get a chance to be back in the story. That’s what he says right after this in verse 11.
«Only Luke is with me.» Now, who is Luke? By the way, Luke’s the guy who wrote the entire book of Acts and the Gospel of Luke, the eyewitness account of Jesus. Then he wrote the account of the ascension of Jesus back into heaven, the coming of the Holy Spirit, the birth of the church, and all the story we’ve seen of the expansion of the early church—all that came through Dr. Luke’s eyewitness documentation.
Now Luke is with Paul at the end; he’s still there writing the last bit of Acts with Paul. But then he says, «Get Mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me in my ministry.» Now we’ve talked about this a lot in the past. When Paul took off the first time with Barnabas, John Mark was with them, but John Mark bailed on the mission. So when they started out for the second time, Barnabas wanted John Mark to come again, and Paul said, «No way! He’s a quitter, and he ain’t coming!»
Paul and Barnabas split over it. It wasn’t a big theological rift; it was simply that he wouldn’t come. All of a sudden, now there are two new teams going out, but somewhere along the way, Mark got back into the story, back in the flow. Even though he’d kind of been embarrassed when you get shut out of a return journey by Paul himself, that word trickles around. «Oh, you’re the quitter who didn’t get to go on the second missionary trip? That’s awesome!»
But now, somehow he’s back, and he’s back in the story. He’s been restored; we see that in a different place in Paul’s writing. Now in the fine print of the personal remarks, which we’re not sure, we didn’t just end with a mic drop. Oh, because God wants people to know: even though you are out, you can be back in. Even though you failed, you can get back in. Even though you quit, you can get back in! None of your past situations will keep you from getting back in the story of God.
It may change the configuration of how and where you’re serving, but your story can be used for somebody else to understand the goodness and grace of God, and He wants you back in the story right now! The enemy’s telling you you failed and lost your shot, and God is saying everybody gets a shot today to get back in the story of God.
The last two things: the fifth one is that we understand that no ask is too small because the King is so great. In other words, there’s no job too small because the King is so great! I love this; this is one of my favorite verses in scripture, verse 13. We’re down: «Get John Mark. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. Oh, and when you come, Timothy—hopefully before winter—bring my cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas and my scrolls, especially the parchments.»
Are you kidding me? The Holy Spirit wasted some of His God-breath on one sentence that says, «Oh, by the way, when you come, please bring my cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas.» Why does that need to be in the Bible? «Hey, Timothy, can you get my coat?»
I believe that the Holy Spirit wrote that personal remark at the end of a brilliant chapter where there should have been a mic drop, so that I can know that no job is too small if the King is that great. You’re like, «Well, Louie, I just got a coat.» Paul’s coat? It might have kept him alive just long enough to write some more of the Bible!
The parchments? Okay, I’ll get to the parchments! Are you going to write the word of God on them? I notice you’ve been writing letters, and there’s been something powerful happening as you’re writing! I’ll bring the parchments, but the coat? We can find somebody else to get the coat!
What if Timothy had that attitude? «Are you kidding me? I’m your protege! This letter is written to me; it’s called Second Timothy—my son. I’m the one you’re raising up; I’m the one you’re putting in place. What? The coat? Do you put that in there and just tell me, 'Hey, get the coat here; put it right in there like I’m the coat boy? '»
Why? Because the enemy—one of his greatest tools—is that you’re not visible, therefore you’re not valuable; therefore, you stop being available, and you write yourself out of the story of God.
Number two: the enemy has a way of saying, «Who are you to tell anybody about Jesus? You’re a statistician; stay in your lane.» The enemy has so many tools, none greater than pride. «So, that’s what I’m doing right now? No, I don’t do that. I don’t do cloaks, thank you.»
Versus, «Man, if this King is inviting me in, there’s nothing beneath me except the grace of God that I’m standing on.» One of the legends when I was a young up-and-coming pastor, preacher, and minister in my late 20s was a guy named Dave Busby. He went to heaven toward the end of 1997, if I have my years right. He spoke at the very first Passion Conference and wasn’t alive by the time we did the second one. He had cystic fibrosis and lived far longer than the life expectancy.
When you have cystic fibrosis and preach for a living, that’s a tough road, but he had a powerful prophetic anointing on his life. He was one of the guys I watched like a hawk. I not only learned from him, but I watched everything he did. We were at a conference in Colorado, about a hundred youth leaders from around the southwest part of the country. I was living in Texas at the time, and I was the lowest guy on the totem pole at this gathering. I don’t remember exactly how it happened; I want to say God somehow got invited there.
Dave Busby was speaking, and the last morning we were sitting at breakfast, there were a couple of long tables. I was a few seats down across the table from him, feeling like we’re friends now. «I am at the table with Dave Busby!» This was before the invention of the personal computer, or I would have Instagrammed something. We’re talking about a long, long time ago.
I’m just sitting here with Dave Busby, and then he looks down and includes me in the conversation. I’m like, «Wow!» Toward the end of the meal, he looked at me and said, «Can I tell you something privately?» I was like, «You want me to come around there?»
He said, «Yeah.» I got down right beside him, and I’m like, «Dave Busby just called me over!» He said, «Would you do something for me?» «Yes! I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I’m ready! We’re going to tour together; I’m going to open, he’s going to come and close; we’re going to put out a DVD series together!»
He wants me to come speak to his youth group in Minnesota. «What do you want? Just tell me!» He said, «Could you go up to my room?» He handed me his room key. It was 202. «Get my bags; they’re all packed by the door. Do you mind carrying them down to the lobby? This altitude is killing me.» I said, «I’d be happy to!»
I hustled up to 202, opened the door, grabbed the bags, and took them down to the lobby. Before today, nobody knew I brought the bags to the lobby because I didn’t have Instagram! Oh, I would have totally documented that. «These are Dave Busby’s bags, people! I am now in possession of Dave Busby’s bags.»
Excuse me, pardon me, could you move over, these are Dave Busby’s bags! «I mean, come on!» I remember that moment, it was a heart check for me even at 29. It was a heart check; he was saying, «Hey, do you mind getting my coat?»
I believe that if we can overcome this notion that there are little and big things in the Kingdom and just understand that there’s just a King in the Kingdom and there are no little or big things, just King’s things in the Kingdom, when the King invites me to hold one of His things, what a privilege!
Lastly, we have to see that the reward of heaven is worth the price of life. What is worth your life? You just get to live one. You don’t get two; you don’t get to come back. You’re not going to get another trip around; this is it. You get one race; you get one fight; you get one faith. And you’re going to buy something with your life; you’re going to own something at the end.
Paul is just asking, «Do you see and believe today that the reward of heaven is worth the price of life?» Paul said when he was writing to the church in Philippi in the first chapter, verse 21, he said, «For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain!»
He said for him to live is Christ. Oh, to die? That’s gain! He went on to say, «So I’m torn, honestly! Because if I get to stay here, that’s good for you; that’s just more Jesus! But if I go away, that’s what I really want! So I kind of want to go! But I know I need to stay.»
Can you imagine the freedom of living in that place? «Oh, I get to live again today? Awesome! That’s just more Jesus for you! Oh, I’m dying today? Oh, that’s just more Jesus for me!»
So either way I win! This is a win-win mindset! So, he’s in Rome. Church tradition says that Nero, after the great fire in Rome, lost his mind, if he hadn’t lost it already, and started one of the most atrocious persecutions of Christians in history.
It was in that window of time that Paul was being poured out like a drink offering, and his departure was near. Peter, who was not a Roman citizen, was also in Rome and was crucified upside down in the same persecution. Paul, being a citizen of Rome, could not be crucified; that was reserved for barbarians, who were lower than the status of Roman citizens.
So church tradition says he was beheaded, and can you imagine coming to the end of your life and looking up at the guillotine and saying: «This is my greatest day on planet Earth!» Oh, is this the day? Awesome! This is going to be the day; this is the best day of all days for me!
If the people had said, «Okay, you think it’s so great; we’re not going to do it today,» he would have said, «That’s okay; that’ll just be more Jesus for you!» «If I live, it’s Christ; if I die, it’s gain. If I’m here, the whole praetorian guard is going to hear; if I’m here, some of those in Herod’s household are going to hear; if I’m here, I’m going to plant churches and strengthen them; if I’m here, I’m going to preach the gospel to the Jews and Gentiles; if I’m here, I’m going to tell everybody in Rome!
If I am here, it’s going to be Jesus. If I die, it’s going to be gain! I consider the reward of heaven worth my life! It’s only when that shifts in me, and only when that shifts in you, that you begin to say, „For me to live is more Jesus for the people on this planet, and for me to die is more Jesus for me!“
„I’m torn! Do I want to do Monday or do I want to do glory? I want to do glory! But probably better for the world if I do Monday. Some want to do Monday, but Monday is going to get Jesus! Jesus considered you worth dying for, hoping you would consider Him dying for you—a message worth giving your life for and just saying, 'Here I am, I’m available! I’m available! My qualification? I’ve had an encounter with Jesus, and I’m willing to share it with the world.'“