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Welcome
Announcements
Budget committee meeting right after service today
May 29th we will have a church potluck.
I need someone to be in charge of that (having some sort of list of what people need to bring and getting the main dish which I would recommend chicken from Food Giant).
The church will cover the cost of the chicken, so whoever does that bring the receipt and the church will reimburse you.
I am planning to take a vacation July 30 - Aug 13th.
This is two weeks and the church is going to have to function without me.
I will find someone to fill the pulpit but everything else will have to be done by you all.
Scripture Reading:
Pastoral Prayer
Pray for the lost
Pray for transformation of our hearts
Pray for God presence in this place
INTRODUCTION
I know we have taken a turn from our study on discipleship through Matthew, but we will be returning to it soon.
Next week is Mother’s Day so we will have a Mother’s Day sermon, but after that I plan to return to Matthew.
We are going to focus on one verse today from 1 Cor 1:18.
“The Power of the cross”.
There is one symbol that we will always reflect the Christian faith and it is the cross.
Many people wear them around their necks, they have them tattooed on their bodies, and they have them hanging in their homes.
But what does the cross really mean?
The cross is so much more than a wooden beam that Christ carried up to Golgotha and was nailed to.
It is the very center of who we are as children of God because ONLY the cross can make us acceptable to God.
The cross divides everyone in the world into two classes of people: those who think it is foolish and live their life by it:
Look what Paul says in 1 Cor 1:18:
What is Paul talking about when he says, “the Word of the cross”
The NIV rightly translates this as: “the message of the cross”
Paul says it is the message of the cross that is foolish to some and saves others.
He is talking about the biblical doctrine of the cross.
He is talking about the message that we have been given to proclaim to the world that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
The message that proclaims the blood atonement that Christ made on behalf of the whole world (1 Tim 2:6) through His perfect sacrifice on the cross!
It is this message that Paul labored and suffered so greatly for.
It is this message that Paul trusted would be sufficient to convert sinners.
This is why Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes!”.
It is this message that was central to Paul’s preaching, this message that was central to Paul’s church planting, and this message that demonstrated the power of God to a lost and dying world!
God can save anyone, but He chose to do it through human instruments proclaiming the message of the cross.
And even though most people think this message is foolish, outdated, naive, it was worth proclaiming because this is what God uses to save.
This message of the cross is THE central message of the entire Bible
It doesn't matter where you turn in the pages of Scripture, somewhere in the shadows of every story, every institution, every law, every truth you will find an arrow pointing to the cross.
When life began and sin entered the world through Adam, God declared the message of the cross to the world!
The Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15).
Noah’s ark is a picture of God saving his people from His wrath on sin.
Abraham bundled and took sticks to the alter to sacrifice his son just as Jesus carried his cross to Calvary.
The sacrificial system foreshadowed the Lamb of God
The priesthood mediated God and man
The message of the prophets proclaim a Savior
And the message of Jesus Christ himself who gave us life through His death.
The message of the cross is the message of the epistles
And it is the final message is the book of Revelation, the lamb who had been slain!
The cross is the central truth of the entire Bible.
And if this is the central message of the Bible, then it must certainly be the central message of the church!
Every soul that has been saved by the power of the cross has the responsibility to proclaim the message of the cross
No one is exempt!
We must not be content with proclamation that only takes place inside the four walls of the church.
How would this church in Corinth had ever become a church and not the gospel been proclaimed to the people of the world.
How would Paul be able to write this verse if he had never preached the message of the cross to the world?
I cannot think of a better time for the church to tell this message than now.
Our churches are dying at an astounding rate and I believe it is partly because the church as a whole has neglected this great message in their personal lives.
This is the message that God has given to us to give to the world 🌎.
This is the message that God has ordained by which he will use to bring people Who walk in darkness to faith in Christ.
We are not to proclaim it arrogantly or harshly, or with condemnation, but from love because it was from love that God sent Jesus Christ to die for us!
Every church planter must have a vision for the church he is planting.
He must have a vision or I do not think he will make it.
A vision is a description from God of what a church will look like some years down the road.
And a vision is specific!
A vision is not a generalize thing such as having 100 people in service on Sunday morning, but a specific design that God has created that particular church to become.
And a true vision only comes from God!
When God began to call me to plant this church, I learned real quick this church belongs to God and not me.
I also learned that it didn’t really matter where I wanted the church to be in 10 years or what I wanted the church to look like.
This was God’s church and all that mattered is what God wanted the church to look like and thast i got on board with it.
I want you to see what Paul’s vision of the Corinthian church was.
Look in verse 17, “For Christ did not send me (mission) to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void (vision).”
The vision Paul had for this the Corinthian church was to have a cross centered worldview.
They were to know and understand that it was not the words of Paul that converted them, but the power of God through the cross.
This is what they had drifted from!
This is why there were divisions in the church.
This is why they were showboating spiritual gifts.
They had drifted from the central message of the cross!
They had lost sight of the fact that everything they are depends upon the cross of Christ and nothing that we do can ever replace that!
They had begun to think too much of themselves, and forgotten how much they needed Christ.
All things are made right at the cross.
All relationships are restored through the cross.
All sins are washed away at the cross.
Unity comes through the cross.
The enmity between God and man is reconciled at the cross!
Everything that pertains to this life should be interpreted through the cross.
Application
This is not only the vision for the Corinthian church, but it is also the vision for this church!
The message of the cross must be central to who who we are and what we do!
It is to be central in our hearts
It is to be central in our homes
And it is to be central in our speech
When we drift from the cross, things fall apart
If we begin to depend on ourselves we will fall!
None of us are here because we deserve it, but because God’s grace
The cross divides the world into two classes of people: those who are perishing and those who are being saved
Those who are perishing
The word perishing means “to be destroyed or ruined”
The present tense of this verb refers to a process, not just something that will happen at the end of one’s life.
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