* Is Your Life In The Cross 1 Cor 1:18
I look back on a year gone by and I look forward to the days ahead and then ....I look again.... at the cross.
I am convinced the two most important questions I can ask people are these
(1) Do you know Jesus as your Savior?
(2) Is your life in the cross
And if an individual should answer yes to the first ...then he or she should also be able to answer yes to the second
The first question asks....
(1) Do you know Jesus as your Savior?
The answer of many is ....Oh Yes
I do know Jesus as Savior...
...Yes....I have believed on what He did on the cross....I confessed to Him my being a sinner, and have admitted my great need for Him....I have put my trust in Him.
But if the answer to that is Yes than it should be equally easy to answer YES to the second question as well ...
Are you ready for the question?
Here is the question...
Jesus Christ is asking it of me today and He is asking it of you.....The question is this....
Is Your Life In The Cross?
The message I share with you this morning is about something we can’t just forget about until next Easter.... but rather it is something we must remember everyday. The message of the cross.
It is a question of our having embraced the cross and having entered a life that is daily found in the power of the cross.. It is the Yes or No of our seeking to walk daily in the way of the cross.
1 Corinthians 1:18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
So how do we answer this question of
Is Your Life In The Cross...
I believe that it is first to ask the question...
I .Do you Love the Cross?
What would it mean to LOVE the cross.
There is perhaps nothing in all the world that is so ugly as a cross...... and yet nothing in all the world so beautiful...because of what the cross means...
Because of what the cross communicates
and because of what was accomplished on one specific cross at a place called Calvary many years ago.
The cross has become a symbol for many but we wonder what it means to certain ones. We see millions of people who wear cross necklaces or cross earnings but I feel confident many of those who bear the cross have a shallow understanding if any understanding as to sacrifice of which Jesus bore upon the cross for all of us.
He loved us enough to take the pain and suffering and sorrow and even the shame of the cross.
He loved us that much. I often wonder how that love can be returned.
The Bible says Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus did nothing short of that in His dying on the cross for you and me?
A. Think with me about the design of the cross?
Designed for Jesus? In part yes... But more importantly the cross was Designed for you!
Absolutely! You say "ME?"
"The cross was designed for me?"
The design of the cross was that it would meet the specifications for which the son of God could die upon it so that all man kind ....who would trust and believe would find eternal life through Jesus.
Jesus loved us enough to go to the cross and when we look to that cross and to that Savior our heart turns to God to and we are in awe at that great love.
So one’s life being in the cross means loving the cross in sense of a love for Christ who first loved us even enough to go to the cross for us.
Oh how I love Jesus ...
Oh How I love Jesus
Oh how I love Jesus ....
Why?.....because He first loved me!
To love the cross is to glory in it Gal 6:12-15
V 12 some glory in the things of this world
When guys love stuff....Hunting, Sports, Cars they Glory in it!
V 14 Paul says I glory in the cross
Put quite plainly ...Paul says I love the cross...
It’s my glory....
Grandma’s & Gpas Glory in their grandchildren
They share pictures and show off grand-kids
They’re proud of those grand-kids and parents glory in their children.
Your spouse ought to be a part of your glory.
We glory in family BUT....
But Paul said here is something worth glorying in ...it is the cross of Christ. Why the cross because when Paul thought cross ....He thought Jesus Christ.
V 15 It is not about circumcision...
Its not about muscles or body tone....not about beauty or a great tanned body....
It’s about having a life that has embraced Christ through salvation brought to us all through the cross.
What is the focus of your life?
Hunting? Sports? Your Job? Your Good Looks?
Or how about is it Jesus and the power of His resurrection and the new life the cross has brought each of us?
So to answer ...Is your life in the cross.... is to ask ...
Do you Love the Cross because of what it has brought to sinners who can now be saved by grace.
But here is another consideration....
Have you understood the
II. The Invitation of the Cross
Turn with me to LK 14
What is the invitation of the cross?
It is an invitation to sell out to Him completely.
To be sold out the whole route....to Jesus
All your life belonging to Him...
Repeat After me Say
I’m sold out....... the whole route........
All of my life...... belongs to Him.......
How many of you know that we need to not just say that but each of us need to put it into practice everyday....
To accept the invitation of being sold out to Jesus....that’s the invitation of the cross.
Let me ask you a personal question ...are you sold out enough to suffer?
LK 14: V 27 speaks of followers of Christ carrying their cross.....
Let’s read it ...LK 14:27
Now remember that the cross means salvation but it also meant great suffering.
God has called some to suffer in an ultimate sacrifice....giving even their lives ...and yet He calls each of us at times and places to sacrifice and YES ...even to suffer.
I see a lot of people that will bend over backwards to meet deadlines at work ....go to bed late and wake up early to help with school and community organizations and functions.....But where are the people who will suffer themselves and sacrifice their energy and well being to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His Church.
Friends we need to bring the sacrifice back into the church. Not the lamb, not ram, but you and me....When was the last time we suffered for the church or for the Lord till it hurt just even a little bit.
Where is our sacrifice? Have we really taken up our cross to follow Jesus?
This is the part where many people say well I guess I really don’t care about my life being in the cross.
Many people say...
"I am glad that Jesus took that invitation to go to the cross for me ...but this invitation He gives of me picking up my cross....I think I’ll just have to take a rain check on that ."
And I say " NEVER LET IT BE SO"
Many people confuse the Christian life with the old Cafeteria Style Restaurants....
How many remember the old Cafeteria style restaurants where you would go through a line and there would be lots of plates with individual food items and you would pick and choose as you go down the line...
Oh yes salad is good..I’ll have salad....
Oh and meat loaf...thats good I’ll have some of that....
oh but spinach ....no thank you I’ll stay away from that.
Many begin to live the Christian life after salvation and they think they are going through a cafeteria....
God’s Grace...oh definitely give me that...double helping if you would...
God’s Provision....absolutely I love God’s providing....
What’s that there....? A scoop of suffering Oh no....Not that Don’t want it ...don’t need it...wont accept it.
And to those who take life like that are refusing the invitation of the cross that is an essential part of ones life being in the cross.
III. To say my life is in the cross is to say....
I understand and embrace and exercise FORGIVENESS.
Turn over to Ephesians 4 with me.
If you could take one word to sum up what the cross is really about what would that one word be?
Could it be forgiveness...?
Doesn’t Forgiveness Sum up the Cross Well?
Certainly there could be many correct answers Love, Salvation...and others but I believe one of the best one word descriptions of the Cross of Christ is FORGIVENESS.
Understand for a moment what state we where in before Christ died on the cross for us....
Look at Eph 4: 13-16
Understand that before Christ on the Cross we were sinners without hope....why?......
Because we were sinners without forgiveness.
Now Let’s consider forgiveness to the extent of a life that is in the cross.
To understand the great forgiveness that Jesus had for us...Is to understand the forgiveness we must have for others....
Let me say that again...some on the planet earth just dont seem to get this...
To understand the great forgiveness that Jesus had for us...Is to understand the forgiveness we must have for others....
Not just some others....But all Others....
Move over to Mark 11:25 with me in the Bible.
I hope that you will realize that I am not perfect.....(Not even Close)... and though I think it would be really neat to walk on water...I haven’t quite reached that level.
There is a real possibility if you and I are to be friends for any length of time or I am your pastor for many years....There is a possibility at some place and point and time....I may need to count on your forgiving me.
And you know what I know about you...
Your not perfect either and if your human...everyone here I think falls into that category,,,,If you are human...the outlook is strong that somewhere sometime you will need me to forgive you.
MK 11:25
Here is some good advice for Christians...
Don’t ever say I can’t forgive that person....
If you feel you can’t then quote Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
AND LEARN TO FORGIVE....because unless you do....How can you say....Yes my life is in the cross.
If you are harboring un-forgiveness in your heart I will tell you ...your life is not in the cross.
If you did not catch it ...this is an acrostic sermon for the word LIFE L -I - F- E where the LIFE stands for a particular point of the message.
The L - The Love of the Cross
The I - The Invitation of The Cross
The F - The Forgiveness of the cross
and at the end there is the E of the cross
The E is the End Result of the cross....
What is the end result of our life in the cross.
What is the end result of the cross....What did it ultimately accomplish for us.
Eternal Life.... that is the End Result of the cross.
MK 10:17-21
Where does Eternal Life begin....In Heaven
NO!
Eternal life begins the moment you accept Jesus Christ.
The moment you do what Jesus told that rich young ruler to do....
Th moment you let go of everything and take hold of Jesus....When you say and end experience those words....Nothing in my hand I bring ...but simply to the cross I cling....Even then Eternal Life has begun.
Some are still clinging to the wrong sort of Glory....
Some are still accepting invitations to everything but to serve the Lord and to worship Him & to work for Him.
Some are clinging to a grudge or unwilling to forgive and so they are a captive of ill emotion.
And some today have just never taken it to the edge and say ...I’m going to turn loose of everything and leap into the arms of the one who loves me and who will give me eternal life.
His name is Jesus...and He wants to give you Eternal Life and then He wants to lead you to walk in the way of the cross and to be able to say daily ...
My Life is In...the cross....
