The Cross

and I I I think it's uh I think it's

very amazing the fact that almost every

song that someone sang was about the

cross the most significant thing there

is and the Apostle Paul talked about

that and we're going to take a look at

it here in a bit but I want you to think

about

something without the

cross none of us would be here without

the

cross there would be no forgiveness

without the cross there would be no

grace without the cross there would be

no mercy and without love and without

grace and without mercy none of

us would have any

hope and it's the message of the

cross and that message alone which

changes

lives i I could get up here and teach

you theological

uh or teach you

theology get up here and teach all kinds

of

things but if I

neglect the message of the

cross your life's not going to

change because it's the message of the

cross that everything we believe is

built

on our healing was provided for on the

cross our spiritual rebirth was provided

for on the cross

our ability to walk in God's

promises were provided for us on the

cross because Jesus when he made that

statement it is finished he said

everything it took to fulfill all of

this stuff in the Old Testament is now

complete and my job here is

finished and then he gave up the ghost

and died everything that we believe

everything that we tell people we

believe everything that we feel every

opportunity we have when we come to

church and for the spirit of God to

minister to us to to get our prayers

answered all of these

things are all dependent on the cross

and the cross

alone is only the cross that provided

those

things only the

cross before the

cross the sacrifice had to be done every

year over and over and over and over and

over but once the cross was

complete it never had to be repeated

one drop of his blood was enough to

cleanse the whole world all of his blood

was enough to cleanse you no matter how

many times you screwed

up and how many of us here can

say that since we got

saved we haven't shrewed

up how many of us can say since we got

saved I have no

failures because without the work of the

cross there was no

grace without the work of the

cross there is no mercy go to the next

slide Dawson

so the Apostle Paul writes in 1

Corinthians if you have your Bibles open

them up that this is 1 Corinthians

chapter 1 verse 18 i want you to hear

what he says he says "For the preaching

of the cross is to them that perish

foolishness but unto us which are

saved it is the power of God

it is through the cross and the cross

alone that we have access to the power

of

God if Jesus hadn't died he wouldn't

have resurrected

if

Jesus had not been willing to endure the

agony of the cross and I don't know how

many of you realize how brutal

crucifixion

is when they hang someone on the

cross from the angle and and the way

their arms are out and and their legs

are and and under normal circumstances

Rome The Romans way of crucifying was to

tie them to the cross do you know that

people that were crucified

lived 3 to four days before they

died they died from

exposure

dehydration and

suffocation the cruelty of the cross is

you can't

breathe

espixia the only way they could take a

breath was to push up with their legs

far enough to be able to take a

breath because being suspended on the

cross paralyzes the diaphragm you can't

take a breath you can't get your lungs

to take in any air so the only way they

could

breathe was to push up with their feet

to get a breath of

air and then they would hang and they

would slump

again and sometimes they live three to

four

days that's why the Romans broke the

legs on the man on the right and the man

on the left was because they had to die

before the sun went down not to violate

Jewish law so they broke their legs

roughly about 3:00 in the

afternoon and gave them about three

hours

the brutality and the cruelty of the

cross as hard as this may be to accept

was

necessary for our

salvation because the

price for

sin had to be

paid and we weren't able to pay

it the price for sin had to be paid by

the one and only being that could pay it

God

stop and think about what's going on on

that cross how many of you agree that

Jesus was all man and all

God that he was God in the flesh that's

what the Bible tells us in in the Gospel

of John in the beginning was the word

and the word was with God the word was

God and all things were made by him and

without him was not anything made and

all things were made for him

we called him Emmanuel God with us jesus

on the cross this is God hanging on the

cross dying in your and my

place because only he could pay the

price of his judgment remember what he

said the wages of sin is

death but the gift of God is eternal

life through Jesus Christ our

Lord the only thing we

deserved was the death that Christ

took because of the sin in our lives and

our

inability to pay that

debt it does not matter how good you are

it does not matter how nice you are it

doesn't matter how giving you are how

loving you are and or any other thing

that that would be classified as a good

person without

Jesus you're not going to heaven without

Jesus you're not going to receive

forgiveness without

Jesus you have no access to mercy

and he paid that price on the cross go

to the next slide

join so this is why we have to preach

the cross it

convicts us of

sin when someone gets up and begins to

preach and the anointing hits you if you

have things in your life that aren't

right you can feel it the Holy Spirit

begins to deal with you

it convinces us of his

love because what you're feeling is not

it's not I'm not causing it christ is

Holy Spirit is touching you the Holy

Spirit is drawing you it's not me he

just uses the words that he gives me it

converts us to

Christ faith comes by hearing hearing by

the word of God and how should that word

come except by a

preacher romans 10:14

it constrains us to serve how many of

you wanted to come out here and help

young people or teach uh Sunday school

classes or preach or any other

thing until God made it real to

you in fact there isn't a single person

sitting in this

building who accepted Jesus as Lord and

Savior until he made it real to

you i heard about Jesus all my

life i had ants that were man they were

faithful to going to

church but I'd never had a personal

experience with Christ i had never met

Jesus face to face i had never come to a

place where I was able to recognize him

for who he

is but when it did happen my life

changed and it wasn't an gradual change

I changed instantly and then there were

other things that I had to work on as

time over the years to continue the

process but when he came into my life

and I changed I changed right then

right then there was no there was no lag

time i changed right

then in fact that particular

night when I met Jesus at the

cross I I passed out drunk and

high and I had a vision of where I was

headed and Jesus telling me if you cry

out to me I'll save you and when I did

instantly I woke up and I was clean and

sober i smelled like I'd been to hell

but I was clean and

sober and my life changed immediately i

left that life behind my experience with

God was so powerful that I could not

deny who he

was nor could I

deny what he'd

done so I ask you is that the experience

you had with Christ

now the other side of that

coin every single person sitting in this

building who has accepted Jesus as Lord

and Savior is commanded to

go and share that experience you don't

have to be a preacher you do not have to

be a preacher you don't need a license

you don't have to be an evangelist none

of those things are are necessary for

you to share with somebody what Jesus

did for you see if you don't make it

personal people won't hear

it when I tell

people about Jesus it's

personal because I know what he brought

me out of

someone asked me the other day at the

house they said "Pastor how many people

have you led to the Lord since you've

been at my father's house?" They weren't

asking about the whole 41 years I've

been saved just the eight years I've

been at my father's

house and I told them "I've led over 400

people to the Lord in the last 8 years

at my father's

house." And they asked me "How many

people have you led to the Lord in your

lifetime?" And I said "I don't know

well over a

thousand the last time I was here with

when brother Chern was still alive I was

sitting right up here he was at the

piano we were

talking and he asked me a question he

said "Do you know how many people that

you led to the Lord at this

church?" This in

2019 and I told him "I have no idea."

He said over

450 at this

church how many people have you led to

the Lord in the last

year how many people have you led to the

Lord in the last 10

years when's the last time you told

somebody about Jesus

when's the last time you shared with

somebody the importance of the

cross when is the last

time you were God's mouthpiece because

you

are jesus said "If you if you believed

in him rivers of living water would flow

out of you."

How many dry people do you

know who could use a drink of that

living

water the message has not changed jesus

said Jesus Christ the same yesterday

today and forever the same message that

reached me 41 years ago is the same

message I'm still sharing today

let me introduce you to somebody who can

change your

life let me introduce you to somebody

who can make a difference i can't make a

difference but I know a man that can let

me introduce you to

Jesus because I guarantee you if you

truly have an experience with him if you

truly accept him for who he is and what

who he says he is I guarantee you your

life will

change guarantee it that's a money back

guarantee but if you just go and play

church nothing's going to change

you're going to continue going through

life exactly like it

is and then you fall in danger of being

that that person that you're going to

come up and say to Jesus "Well in your

name I did this and in your name I did

that." And he's going to look at you say

"I knew you not you worker of

iniquity get away from

me." That's not what I want to hear him

say i want to hear him say "Well done my

good and faithful servant enter in." How

am I going to do that if I'm not telling

people about

Jesus how am I going to change someone's

life the only thing that can change

their lives life is Jesus and if I don't

tell them about the

cross if I don't tell them what Jesus

did the Holy Spirit is not going to move

them the Holy Spirit's not going to

change them because he's waiting on me

to open my

mouth to be a

witness and if you can't do

that you might want to go

back and and get serious with God and

say "Did I miss it

somewhere am I failing somewhere

why why am I not as excited today as I

was when I got saved what happened did I

miss it somewhere did I get overwhelmed

by the the cares of this world what do I

need to do

Lord to

change this situation

it's worth your time to find

out i I like to watch old Billy Graham

messages okay because in my opinion he's

the greatest preacher there was from

since the Apostle Paul and as I looked

and listened to Billy Graham's old

messages I found his message never

changed

seven decades of ministry and his

message was still the same at 93 years

old when he died as it was when he was a

20 year old man and just started his

ministry thus I preach Jesus Christ and

him

crucified i make myself a

transgressor that was his message it

never changed

guess what the Apostle Paul said right

here listen to what he says where

Christ sent me not to baptize this is

verse 17 but to preach the gospel not

with wisdom of words lest the cross of

Christ should be made of none

effect for the preaching of the cross is

to them that perish foolishness but unto

us which is are saved it is the power of

God

the message hasn't changed we're 2,000

years out the message is still the

same and we need to accept that message

to

ourselves we need to get on fire within

ourselves we need to be

responsive to the Holy Spirit and

realize that there is none of us sitting

here me included that did

anything worthy of him going to the

cross he chose to do

it because he loved us first

it was his

choice to do

it because he loved you that

much and if you're here

today you're here for a

reason it's not by chance or

accident because I guarantee you if your

heart is open to

Christ he can change everything in your

life and restore what's been

lost that's a beautiful thing about

Christ when he restores what's been lost

he makes it as if it never

happened i made a post i think brother

Gary saw it says "The truth is like

surgery it

hurts but you'll

heal a lie is like a pain pill it'll

make you feel good but you got to keep

getting more and more

lies to keep feeling

good because when the lie wears off

you're still faced with the

truth and the truth is none of us would

be sitting here today if it wasn't for

what Jesus did on the cross so I'm going

to ask you that able to stand stand

because we are going to

pray and if there's anybody here who

needs a touch from the

Lord go ahead and come on up front

because we will anoint you and pray for

you

but I want you to understand and I want

you to

realize Jesus provided every single

thing we

need on the

cross

everything from forgiveness to

redemption to resurrection was all paid

for on the

cross so I want you to pray with me lord

Jesus we're standing here in your house

god we're standing here in your

presence god right now we ask that

through your Holy Spirit you point out

to us things that we need to deal with

that you show us

Lord convict

us prepare our hearts and enable us Lord

to serve you to the best of our

abilities to give you our very best as

each and every day goes by Lord to

understand that you paid for it

all was nothing that we had that made us

worthy of it but you chose to do it for

us and Lord we praise you and we glorify

you and we thank you in Jesus'

name we thank you Lord for that does

anybody here need to be prayed for if

you do come on up front