Intersection Series

SIGNS FOR LIFE:

INTERSECTION

Gal 2:20 (p824) May 6, 2012

INTRODUCTION:

Rick Rusaw is the lead minister at Lifebridge C.C. in Littleton, Co. He’s the President of N.A.C.C that’s upcoming, a graduate of Cincinnati C. U. and author of some great books, ”The Externally Focused Church” and “Living your Life on Loan.”

In that later book he has a chapter entitled “Intersections” and he writes…

“I don’t remember much about my driver’s education class in high school but I do remember my teacher’s uninsured technique for preparing us future drivers for the upcoming test.

As we approached an intersection he would scream at the top of his lungs…”Look out for that stop sign!!! Ricks says…”His roar startled me so much that I accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake and flew through that intersection…”fortunately, my teacher didn’t yell at me very much after that!!!”

Rick Rusaw says the one quote he remembers from driver’s education class is…”always watch out for the intersections”…good things and bad things can happen at intersections.

I believe that is exactly God’s message for us when it some to our lives. “Pay attention at the intersections…keeps your eyes open…this is a place where you are going to meet God or meet others on the road of life…

That’s what this series of messages is all about…life is a journey…scripture often describes it in that way…

Proverbs 20:24 says “A man’s steps are directed by the Lord…How can anyone understand his own way?”…Jesus describes two paths in Matt chapter 7…two roads, one narrow…one wide…one leads to life one to death….Each person walks on one or the other…Every person chooses the path…the road they travel on in this life! But none of us travel outside the knowledge of God…Many of us walk outside the will of God…but none outside the knowledge of God.

Hebrews 4: 13 says “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight…everything is uncovered and laid back before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.”

I share this truth because we can either make this journey in our own plans…or make the journey of life within God’s plan…

This is the very reason Gal 2:20 is the apostle Paul’s’ “MapQuest”…

I OUR JOURNEY ENDS AND GOD’S BEGINS AT THE CROSS

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live…”

The cross is an intersection…in fact it’s not just an intersection….it is the intersection.

The Bible begins with creation in the book of Genesis….It ends with Jesus, victorious and almighty on the throne in the final book “Revelation.”

But God’s plan…from beginning till end has at its very core…an intersection…and that intersection of all history is the cross. Rom 5: 6 records…”You see at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly….Verse 8 continues…”But God demonstrates his own love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Everything pointed toward the cross…and the cross changed everything which was to come…It was God’s right, he invaded his creation…and while we were still sinners…Christ died for us….”

The cross is the intersection of God demonstrating who He really is to all mankind.

What happened there took care of the past, the present and the future. All sin…every sin, even those nailing Jesus to that cross, and the sin that was yet to happen through you and I…was paid for…totally, completely.

Romans 5:19 says “Through the disobedience of Adam the many were made sinners…so also through the obedience of Jesus the many will be made righteous.”

The apostle Paul came to understand…He was rushing down the road of life…one he had planned…God was even a part of it…or at least the God he thought he knew….Violently, aggressively he blasted through towns, tore through road sings, ran over pedestrians..and striped undeserving people…his destination was firmly fixed in his mind and heart…there was only one problem…SIN….His sin and selfishness drove the car…and then he slammed into God’s intersection…the Cross

Acts 9: 1-6 (p 777)

God threw up a road block…and a risen Jesus brought Saul’s life to a crashing halt.

You do not receive Jesus into your heart by saying a prayer…you do not become a disciple of Christ by simply “getting baptized.” Nowhere in scripture does that occur.

The only way…show me if it’s not….that someone, anyone becomes a disciple of Jesus Christ is…”they die at the cross…and are reborn to work anew in the Holy Spirit.

Saul couldn’t continue as Saul anymore…He came to the cross…the intersection of all life and sand…

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live”

[I’m not sure what journey you’ve been on…or who you’ve run over…I cannot comprehend what plans you have for your life…but Jesus isn’t just payment for your toll so you can continue on your trip].