Cross Centered Life (Part 1)
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It’s Monday morning, what are you thinking about? What floods your mind. Is it your work schedule, what am I going to feed my kids for breakfast, Have I taken all my pills, Oh I’m stiff and my back hurts, I don’t want to get up, I need to get these three things done today, I need to go to the store, I’m going to relax and take it easy, I’m going fishing, I have to go to the Dr. this morning, I’m going to get my hair done, etc. What about Tuesday -Sat. What about Sunday? Do I have to get up, I’m soo tired, maybe I can just sleep in and watch it online, I have to get ready for worship, I wonder if so and so will be there. I wonder if the preacher will have a good sermon this morning or will he bore me to death. I need to get this done after church. What about right now, I hope he keeps it short I’m hungry, That song was pitiful, I didn’t like that song, whats for lunch, are we done yet, etc. Whats on your mind most of the time? If we are honest with ourselves; most of the time it has nothing to do with Jesus, the cross, or the church.
And yet that is all Paul could thing about.
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
What was it that caused Paul to take up the cross of Jesus and to live for Him each day. What lead Him to preach the Gospel
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
to those all over the ancient world. What caused him to do this amidst great difficulty and persecution. Why live a life commited to jesus?
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.
and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
Paul was consumed with Jesus and the cross, It was everything to Him. Find a letter of Paul where Christ does not fill every letter, He begins every letter trying to help us fall in love with jesus and realize what we have in Christ. He is trying to get others to be as consumed with Christ as He is because he knows that without Christ we are nothing.
remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
It’s all about Jesus and the cross. Do you realize that everything in the Bible is about jesus and the cross? from the old to the new. In the O.T. we find out we are sinners and need of a Savior. It’s the story of redemption, How God is going to redeem man from his sins. The Gospels teach us about Jesus and the events leading up to the cross, and the rest is how to live because of the cross. Brothers and sisters
Jesus and the cross cannot just be prominent in our life, he has to be preeminent
Jesus and the cross cannot just be prominent in our life, he has to be preeminent
May be the reason our faith becomes wishy washy is because we are not Cross centered. Maybe the reason we don’t win more souls for Christ is because we are not consumed with Jesus and the cross. Maybe the reason we loose our children to the world is because Jesus is not preeminent in our lives. He is just one of the many important things in our lives.
Everything and I do mean everything we do should revolve around the cross. Our worldview is shaped by the cross. Every choice, every interaction is a reflection of the cross in our lives or not.
What about you this morning? Is Jesus preeminent in your life? Is Jesus standing on the throne of your heart? The answer to that question may be NO this morning. The wonderful thing about God is he has given you another day of life to get right with Him. Right now this morning you can make Jesus number one in your life. You may be asking your self this morning, How can I ensure that the cross will always be at the center of my life.
Memorize the Gospel!
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;
who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
Memorization of scripture may be one of the lost arts of the church. But Daryl I can’t memorize scripture. Oh yes you can, we are just to lazy to do it. It may take work and effort and time but you can do it.
Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.
2. Pray the Gospel!
Thank God for who He is and for the forgiveness that was purchased for us through Christ death on the cross. Thank God for reconciliation. thank god for salvation, Thank jesus for our inheritance. etc.
3. Sing the Gospel!
I heard an old preacher once say that by everyone's bed aught to be your bible and a hymnal. A Hill Called Mount Calvary, He Paid a Debt, Boundless Love, O scared Head,What A savior, etc.
4. Remember How the Gospel Has Changed You!
Before Christ I was________. Be specific with what sin that you were lost in and saved from. How did you live before and what has changed now.
5. Study the Gospel!
make it a life's pursuit to know everything there is to know about the Christ, the events leading up to the cross, what we have because of the cross, why the cross, because of the cross. etc.
DETERMINE TO KNOW NOTHING BUT JESUS CHRIST & HIM CRUCIFIED!