For The Cross- PVPHS and SHS New Life Rally

Introduction
I have a confession. My name is Greg, and I’m a pyromaniac.
A pyro is someone who loves fire, who loves to start fires, and watch them burn. When it’s safe, that is.
My friends and I love the outdoors, and we try to go camping at least a couple times each year.
For those of you who have gone camping, what’s the BEST part about camp? The camp FIRE.
And every time we go camping, guess who’s eager to start up the campfire? Yeah baby, that’s me.
And over the years, not to brag, I’ve developed my own little technique on building campfires.
So tonight, let me start off by showing you how to build a nice, cute, little campfire in 5 easy steps.
1. Gather the wood. This might be a little too big, but you want something nice and dry.
2. Form the wood into a teepee around a core. The core should be made of pieces of wood and pine.
3. Take your lighter which you DON’T have and Light the core on fire.
4. Wait… Or Since we’re Asian, Pose.
5. Step back Watch that Fire ignite into Flames!
6. Optional- Save your brows! Move the log back about 25 feet unless you don’t carry about them.
This past trip to Sequoia, when I lit our campfire up, people from surrounding campgrounds were oohing and ah-ing at fire. Some people even came over to watch our fire burn and to share in it’s warmth!

I Love fires!
But you know what I love more than seeing campfires go up in flames? Seeing youth like you set on fire…totally on fire for Christ.
What I mean is that you have a heart that’s totally and madly in love with Jesus Christ and a life passionately devoted to him, youth who live their lives FTC: FOR THE CROSS.
And in this way I want to see you burn so bright that everyone around will be able to see the light of Christ from within you and experience it’s warmth and power.
Jesus says in Matt 5: 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp(fire) and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
See according to Master, we are to be like a flame that gives off light that other’s experience, so that the result is that people notice, and give their own praise and worship and glory to God.
Our fire should not be to draw people to ourselves so that they admire us and we get the glory.
But our fire for God should cause them to ultimately see how Great God is and cause them to One day turn their own praise to God.
Tonight I want to take you through a progression of 3 steps in which we can build a fire for Christ, one that has the potential to sweep through our lives, our churches, and hopefully across our schools.
WE can’t start this fire, but we can take steps to be available for the Great Fire Starter, the Holy Spirit of God, to come and light a fire within us.

Step one: t - Carry the Cross
EX: When we go camping, the campfire comes at night. But before that, during the day, we usually do some intense hike where we climb for miles and hours to explore the wilderness.
And so by the time we get back to the campground, everyone wants to just sit and chill and chew on some munchies since you’re starving from the day’s activities.
But I ain’t got time for that, cuz’ guess what I gotta do? I have to go out and gather all the firewood.
It’s not all just lying there for me in a bundle, I actually have to go and find it all.
It requires some sacrifice, As pleasurable as it is relaxing and eating with everyone, I’ll be going out and looking for wood.
And my hands get all dirty, covered with soil and bugs from the ground. The wood will be all thorny and heavy. But I am committed, and I would have to carry all the wood back to the campground.
It takes sacrifice, cuz sometimes you can’t be doing what everyone else is doing.
But it’s SO worth it. Because I know that the fire is going to be so amazing and everyone in that place will be able to experience it’s power and warmth all night long.
In the same way, if we want to light a fire for Christ in our lives, well it starts with Sacrifice. Commitment.
Here’s what I’m talking about:
Just as I was Committed and had to sacrifice and go and carry the wood, well you’re gonna have to go and carry some sort of “wood” as well.
JESUS CHRIST: What do I mean? Well think about the New Testament.
Do you guys remember anyone who had to carry some form of wood from one place to another?
Christ, right? Christ had to carry his own wooden cross on which he was killed.
The wooden cross is the greatest symbol of commitment and sacrifice that we know, because it was the wooden cross that Christ gave up his life for us.
Do you realize that in Glorifying the Father, Jesus made us his #1 Priority? He had everything he could want, in the heavenly places, but he stepped down from Majesty because he saw YOU as a priority.
He was totally committed to you. It was all about YOU and a relationship with YOU.
EX: 2 way thing. What if I told you I’m in a relationship with a Manequin? You say “Greg, it’s a dummy!” Don’t call her a dummy! When I talk, she listens. We never fight. She never talks back.
With all relationships, it’s gotta be a two-way thing.
Jesus sacrificed for us, He was committed to us. Look what he expects in return:
I struggled a bit. I hesitate in reading this verse to you. This is not an easy teaching of Jesus to hear.
Luke 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Crowds were following Jesus, but Jesus wasn’t concerned about being the most popular kid in school.
Jesus is going to the extreme in saying that the highest priority and the greatest love in your life has to be Jesus.
Carrying the Cross means that you are committed to him and willing to sacrifice for Jesus because He sacrificed for you.
When you are being tugged at by the things you love, when you’re torn by the sinful desires of your heart, will you be able to sacrifice it all FTC? For the sake of the Cross, to carry it and follow Jesus?
Jesus Christ is so worth it! I could talk all night about what happens if we don’t commit to Christ.
But we should be willing to carry the cross because he deserves it. He is so worthy!
QUESTION: How is your heart? In your heart, do you love Jesus Christ more than anything in this world?
Is Jesus the Most important thing to you in your life? Is he your greatest priority?
John Feng: I was deeply impacted by a prayer of one of the brothers from my church. He was praying one night, “God, help us to prefer you over everything else in life.”
IF it comes down to sin, or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
If it comes down to money or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!!
If it comes down to popularity or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
If it’s between finding love from another person and Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
If it’s between pornography, sexual pleasures, or Jesus, I prefer Jesus!
EX: FIREPROOF. I was blessed when I watched the movie Fireproof. In the movie, there’s this couple who’s marriage is about to break up.
One of the reasons was because of his addiction to Internet pornography. In one scene, he’s struggling with temptation, but knowing that that stuff hurts his wife and kills her inside, he rips out his computer, takes it outside, and in a godly way, destroys it with a baseball bat.
But the best part is that when she comes home, she sees on the desk where the computer used to be a vase of Roses, and a note that says “I Love You More”.
So here’s this thing that he loves in his life, something that had taken great priority. And yet, he made a choice, and said, “NO, I love my Wife more. I prefer my wife.”
HOW ABOUT YOU? Would you be able to place a note in place of the temptations and everything that you face, and say, “Jesus, I love you more.”
I’m willing to give this up, I’m willing to not to gossip/look at pornography/ use foul language/ watch these movies/ talk about that girl, because I love you more. I prefer YOU over everything in my life.
Guys, God is SO good, Carrying the Cross is worth it! He deserves our commitment and sacrifice.
Will you Choose Christ? Will you carry the cross out of your love for Jesus?
Will you be willing to sacrifice in order to make Jesus #1? Because He is SO Worth it.
When we are committed to this first step in carrying the cross, it will lead into step

2.

Step 2: Become People of Passion
When we truly carry our cross, we will naturally be people of passion.
You can’t make yourself passionate. Passion is something that just comes out. It’s natural.
When we are passionate for Christ in our hearts, we will be passionate people in our lives.
EX: Water in a bottle. What happens when I shake this? Water comes out
Jesus teaches us that whatever is stored up in the heart, that’s what’s going to come out in the way we walk, the way we talk, the way we live.
If you truly love Christ, and committed to carry the Cross, when we are shaken by temptation and the things of this world, our commitment to Christ in here will come out in the way we live.
If we are passionate for the Cross of Christ on the inside, we will naturally be passionate on the outside.
POSER: You guys can try as hard as you want to try to live a good “Christian” life, but if our inside is not changed and transformed, committed to the Cross, a life FTC will not come out.
You’ll try for a while to live out a Christian life, and you may pull off a few good deeds, but you will burn out. Why, because there isn’t at the core of us a commitment and love for Christ and the cross.
BASIC CAMPFIRE SCIENCE: If you want a lasting fire, you have to burn from the core. Many people who start a fire for the first time will pour a lot of fuel and have a lot a wood to get a huge fire burning, only to find out w/n minutes that there really is no fire. It’s gone.
If we are committed to Christ and carry the cross and making him our greatest preference, it will come out in our lives and people will see the passion within.

I know many of you probably don’t think of yourself as a passionate person, especially since we’re Asian.
What do you think of when you hear the word Passion?
EX: Enthusiasm. Do you know where the word comes from? Back in the day, when people were converting to Christianity, people saw in them a radical change in their lives. They saw them begin to live different with a newfound joy for Jesus. People didn’t know how to describe what they saw. All they can say was that those new Christians are in God. In God, in Greek is en theos. That description is where we get the word enthusiasm.
When we TRULY commit to carrying the cross, and live like Jesus is our #1, then the bible says that God comes to live in us. Not only is God in us, it’s a 2-way thing, and we are now In God. En theos.
People should see by the way we walk and talk that there is something different about you… en theos.
God is in you, you are in God, and it shows.

Here’s the biggest misconception. When we think of Passion, We also often think of people who cry and scream and jump and dance for Jesus.
Is that passion? Could be. But I think it goes deeper than that.
But a passion is an evidence of an inward commitment. It’s when people can look at you and your actions and know you are seriously committed to something. SO committed you’re willing to suffer for it.
EX: Telephone
People believed her. Why? Not because she was crying and screaming, but because her actions and her words showed that she was committed to what she believed was true.
I don’t care how I look, I don’t care what people think. This is what I believe, and I’ll stand for it.
EX: Passion Of Christ. It’s not because he was crying and screaming and dancing for Joy that he got to be the only one to carry a heavy wooden cross and then be nailed to it.
NO, it’s called the Passion of Christ because it was something He truly believed in, so much that he was willing to suffer for it. He was committed to it.
So if you have taken that first step, Step 1, to carry your cross,
then Step 2, it will come out that you are a person who is passionate for Jesus in that you are very serious about living for Christ. FTC. We will then become People of Passion.

If step one, leads to step two. What happens when you put step one and two together? You get step 3.
What happens when you take the cross that you carry, and you combine it with Passion that’s in you? You Passiton.

3. Passiton
Growing up, there’s a song our youth group used to always sing called “Pass it On”. The song starts like this:
It Only takes a spark, to get a fire going.
And soon all those around, can warm up in it’s glowing.
That’s how it is with God’s love,
Once you’ve experienced it,
You spread His Love, to everyone, You want to Pass it On.
Ex: We went to Sequoia when it was time to go to sleep, I went to put out the fire. I made sure that everything was completely put out. Mike was even like “Dude, that’s enough.”
We tucked into our sleeping bags. But 20 minutes into my sleep, Mike wakes me up! The fire ignited! Not just the fire in the pit, but it lit up a 10 foot tree trunk that was next to it!
What happened? What happened was it only takes a spark to get a fire going. There were apparently embers that were still warm, and when a little spark lights up, those embers heat up, and when a few embers heat up together, they pass it on to other embers around them, or to other pieces of wood. Once they’re hot enough, they heat up the wood around them, until everyone around catches on fire!
Just the song says, it only takes a spark, to get a fire going. It only takes a spark to get a fire going.

Imagine what it will be like if each of us is a light for Christ, on fire for Christ, and we go out to our different schools?
And not just by ourselves, but Christians around us catch on to the vision and they too are committed to Christ.
Imagine how powerful the light of Christ shines. Imagine the attention Jesus will get.
Remember what Jesus said?
Matt 5: 14"You are the light of the world… let your light (plural) shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
You are a fire for Christ. When your fire for Christ is seen, you will see it get passed on to others. Jesus says so. He says that our light will draw others and many will turn to the Father in Heaven just like you!
EX: When I went to college, people told me that you can go 1 of 2 ways. You either get involved in parties and drinking and the ways of the world, or you can go the way of Christ and grow in faith.
That scared me, so I prayed that God would help me go the way of Christ.
When I moved into the dorms at UCI, He put me in a room next to a Caucasian Atheist on my left named Jesus, an Agnostic Chinese guy on my right, and a Roman Catholic Pilipino across the way.
That year, I was committed to being a light for Christ, and not being afraid to show it.
I would worship in my room, I would read the Bible openly in the living area, I would go to fellowship every Wednesday.
Everyone knew of my commitment to Christ. Not just because they saw it, but I also talked about Him. I looked for opportunities to share with these three guys my faith, and who Jesus is to me. That year, none of them received Christ. Through my efforts, no one caught on.
But that doesn’t mean the fire wasn’t burning.
I moved out with Rhian, but I didn’t see the other guys for the next three years!
My final quarter at UCI, I’m on campus…
I graduated college, and I never got to see Rhian saved. I wanted to see him saved the most.
Two years later, I get an email from Rhian saying that he’s given his life to Christ. And He tells me that it was me showing Him Christ’s love all those years that brought him to Christ, along with his aunt who prayed for him, his cousin who challenged him, and Dr. Vaca who mentored him.

When we let our lights shine bright, together as Christians, we will pass it on.
This is something that God is in charge of. He will start the fire, He will make us people of passion, and He will cause that fire to be passed on.
But it starts when we start committing ourselves to Jesus Christ, and carrying our cross, sacrificing whatever it takes to make him our greatest priority, our first love.
And we pray that God will cause a fire in our hearts, in our churches and in our schools through us, a fire that can’t be contained.
I want to pray for you right now, and so I’m going to ask everyone to join me right now. I’m gonna give you some time to just sit before the Lord and talk to Him. Is this a challenge that you want to take up? Will you make that commitment? I’m giving you time so that you can actually think it through, no forced decisions, no pressure. Just a commitment to make between you and God.