Cross Country

Plus Sign

Little Zachary was doing very badly in math at school. His parents had tried everything…tutors, mentors, flash cards, special learning centers. In short, everything they could think of to help him with his math work and nothing was working.

Finally, in a last ditch effort, they took him to the local Catholic school. After the first day, little Zachary came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn’t even kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying.

• Books and papers were spread out all over the room and little Zachary was hard at work. His mother was amazed.

• She called him down to dinner. To her shock, the minute he was done, he marched back to his room without a word, and in no time he was back hitting the books as hard as before.

• This went on for some time, day after day, while the mother tried to understand what made all the difference.

• Finally, little Zachary brought home his report card. He quietly laid it on the table, went up to his room and hit the books.

• With great trepidation, his mom looked at it and to her great surprise little Zachary got an “A” in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity.

She went to his room and said, “Son, what was it? Was it the nuns? Little Zachary looked at her and shook his head, no. “Well, then,” she replied, was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms? What was it already?

Little Zachary looked at her and said, “Well, on the first day of school when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they were not fooling around.”

This is Typical of Our World

We know various business logos but not the cross.

Most do not know much about the Cross of Christ]

Most do not know much about the Christ of the Cross

Slide – Well-known Logos

Essentially the meaning is gone – crosses merely are jewelry or decorations

We have beautified the cross and forgotten about its purpose and its horrors.

When we boil down the issues, what stands out as most important?

DBR – Cross

Power of God – Romans 1.16

Promises of God –

1 Corinthians 1.18-25

We center on the cross because it is:

I. The Cross Is Our Way to Holiness

God has high expectations for his people – “Be holy for I am holy.”

More than appeasing an angry God.

He has expectations of us.

The Cross Shows the Seriousness of Our Sins.

It is destructive

Internal Sin I-262

A huge tree in Colorado fell to the ground with a resounding crash. It had stood for over 400 years. It was a sapling when Columbus discovered the new world. It had been struck by lightening fourteen times, braved great windstorms, and even defied an earthquake. In the end, however, it was killed by beetles. They bore into the bark to the core of the tree and eventually brought the giant to the ground.

The same is true of our sins. If we allow sin to go unchecked, it will eventually bring us down. Yet, God provided a way to remove our sins.

It has eternal consequences – Romans 6.23

The Cross shows that God is Serious in “setting us apart.”

II. The Cross Is Our Way of Humility

Dependence on God

Arrogance of Man

18And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' 20But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' Luke 12.18-20

Need for direction

23I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself,

that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Jeremiah 10.23

5Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3.5

I-130 Guidance of God

In Thirst for God, Sherwood Wirt tells of serving as quartermaster in the Alaska Game Commission on an 80’ patrol boat called the Teal. He was at the helm when Captain Cole took over and briefly changed course north toward Juneau. He pointed to the compass reading and said, “Steady as she goes.”

As the boat cruised along, Wirt noted that they were edging toward the land and altered the course slightly to steer straight up the channel. The Captain snapped, “You are off course. Go back to the heading I gave you.”