Boasting Only in the Cross - Part 2 — John Piper

A Life That Counts for the Cross

Look at my boat! God, look at my boat, God. Well, not for Ruby and not for Laura. Don't waste your life. Don't waste it. I grew up in a home where my dad was an evangelist and he lived for one thing, to make Jesus Christ known among people who didn't know him.

And I would watch him leave on Friday and put him on the airplane. He'd be gone for a week or two weeks or three weeks and then come Monday and he'd come home and we'd welcome him home. And I loved my dad and I still do because at 81 he's still doing it.

And there was on the kitchen wall in our house a little plaque. I grew up with it from the time I was six on and now it hangs on the wall in my living room at home. And it said this, only one life to soon be past.

Only what's done for Christ will last. 48 years I've seen that almost every day of my life. And I am here to plead with you to make your life count for the cross. I'm 54 years old and most of you are 17 to 23 or so, and some exceptions around.

A Father's Plea Against Wasted Success

I have four kids your age. Carson's 27, Ben is 24, Abraham is 20, and Barnabas is 17. And then there's Talitha. She's four. So I have four sons who could be sitting out there and nothing moves me today to long and yearn and ache and desire more than the desire that these boys not throw away their lives on fatal success.

And therefore, I come to you. It came over me like a wave yesterday. I come to you as a father. I'm old enough to be the father of almost everybody on the grass. And I speak to you as the father, perhaps, that you never had.

And I speak to you, perhaps, as the father that you did have who never had a vision for you. Or maybe the father that you had who has a vision for you. And it's all about money and it's all about data.

Or maybe this would be the best of all. I speak at the father exactly what your father has always wanted you to hear. And you never would listen to lay down your life for Jesus and to go to the hard place and do the hard thing for the glory of the cross.

So hear me as a father speaking to my son and my daughter this afternoon. I love passion. Passion. Ninety seven. Ninety eight. Ninety nine. One day. One of the reasons I love passion is because the two sixty eight declaration based on Isaiah twenty six eight goes so close to the center of what I feel like I'm about.

The Desire for God's Name and Christ's Renown

You know what it says? Especially that last phrase. Your name and your renowned are the desire of our souls. So here's not just a body, but a soul. And here's not just a soul, but a soul with a desire.

And here's not just a soul with a desire, but a desire for something infinitely great and infinitely glorious and infinitely valuable. Namely, the name and the renown of Jesus Christ. The reason I love passion so much is because my own life mission and the life mission of my church is almost identical with that vision.

Spreading Passion for the Supremacy of God

And it goes like this. We exist. I exist. To spread a passion for the supremacy of God, the supremacy of Christ, the supremacy of the cross in all things for the joy of all people. That's my passion. And I pray that I could deliver it to you, that I could call forth a generation to take this passion to the hard places.

Lay down your lives for it. You don't have to say it like I say it. You don't have to say it like Louis Giglio says it. You don't have to say it like Beth says it. You don't have to say it like anybody else on this platform says it, but you got to find your way to say it.

You got to find your passion and lift it up and say it and live for it and die for it. And then you become like Paul. Don't you just love the way the apostle Paul spoke about his passions? For example, there's one you may not be too familiar with in Acts chapter 24 to chapter 20 verse 24.

Paul’s Passion to Finish the Ministry

He says, I don't count my life of any value nor as precious to myself. If only I might finish my course and the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus to preach the gospel of the grace of God. You hear it?

My life doesn't count, but for one thing, to make a difference in the world, you don't have to know a lot of things. One thing. Get one thing clear and die for it. Philippians chapter three. Whatever gain I had accounted for the sake of Christ.

Counting All Things Loss to Know Christ

Indeed, I count everything is lost for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I might gain Christ. I love the way Paul spoke these words of consecration.

One thing. And so I asked myself this week and weeks gone by, what's the one thing I could say that perhaps would rivet your heart on your passion to go to the hard places and do the hard thing among the hard campuses among the unreached peoples.

Boasting Only in the Cross

And this verse came to my mind, and I emailed it to Louie a few days ago, and he said, That's it. That's where we're going. It's Galatians chapter six, verse fourteen. It's so short. You don't need to look it up.

You just read Galatians six fourteen. May I never both except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world was crucified to me, and I was crucified to the world. May I never both save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world was crucified to me.

Let's say it positively. Boast only in the cross. There's one idea. You don't have to know a lot of things. You don't have to have a great long education.