Saturday, April 22, 2017

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CROSS

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CROSS

CONNECT: Have you ever received a coupon that promised something for nothing?  Then we leave it on the table in the kitchen, or put it in our car, or stick it in our wallet and forget about it, only to find it later, get real excited, and then look at it realize that it is expired? 

TENSION: Many of us live that in way in regard to what God has accomplished through the Cross.  During this month we have examined the importance, the impact, the images, and the immortality of the Cross.  All that means nothing is we do not apply it to our lives; we must implement the Cross for it to be effective. 

SOLUTION: We must redeem the coupon!  The good news is that this coupon has no expiration date!  If you have not redeemed it up to now, it is still valid today!  Let me show you how to cash it in!

TEXT Let's take another look at the base Scripture for this series:

Galatians 6:14 NKJV But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ...

Now let's add the rest of the verse: by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

What does this mean? Simply that I am dead to the world and the world is dead to me!  Well, it sure doesn't feel like it!  Why? We must implement the Cross!

Luke 9:23 NKJV Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

Luke 14:27 NKJV And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

It must be daily and consistently...
1 Corinthians 15:31 (NKJV) I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

2 Corinthians 4:11 NKJV For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

The essence of the Cross was stated in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Three times the Lord Jesus asked the Father that cup of suffering be removed.  Acknowledging what was required, He told the Father, “Not my will but Yours be done.”

INSTRUCTION: How do we implement the Cross? Three basic steps, all from Romans 6...

It all happens in our souls: our minds, our wills, our emotions.  The spirit of man connects with the Spirit of God and knows the truth.  The body of man connects with the world, the flesh, and the devil and must surrender to the truth.  The soul of man must fight for the truth!

Step 1 Knowing: We must know what happened at the Cross.

Romans 6:6 (NLT) We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.

We must have a change of mind!

2 Corinthians 10:4–5 (NKJV) For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

Ephesians 5:26 (NKJV) that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,

Our minds can be washed!  Read; memorize; meditate...

Step 2 Reckoning: We must accept what happened at the Cross and at the Resurrection.

Romans 6:11 (NLT) So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

We must have a change of heart!

Consider, or reckon in some translations, is an accounting term.  It means to reconcile your accounts, balance your books.  When you balance your books, you have a new starting point!  Then, we can embrace the truth emotionally.  When my books are balanced, I live in peace because I know exactly where I am.

Hebrews 12:1–2 (NKJV)Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Luke 6:45 (NKJV) A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Step 3 Yielding: We must live out what happened at the Cross.

Romans 6:13 (NLT) Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So, use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.

We must have a change of will!  Who will you present yourself to, show up for?

Romans 7:21 (NKJV) I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

Romans 8:2 (NKJV) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

INSPIRATION: It is so clear in the Message translation...

Romans 6:6–14 (The Message) 6-11Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: 8If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. 9We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. 10When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. 11From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.

12-14That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. 13Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. 14Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God.



INVITATION

Saturday, April 15, 2017

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE CROSS

April 16, 2017 Easter Sunday: The Immortality of the Cross

INTRO: Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan...

Main Point: Once for all...

Key Scripture: Hebrews 9:12 (NKJV) Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

1.     Once for all people...

a.     Hebrews 10:10 (NKJV) By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
 
b.     Romans 8:32 (NKJV)He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

c.     No one is out of the reach of God's reach!

                                               i.     Thief on the Cross, Paul, Peter...
                                             ii.     David Berkowitz, Son of Sam... VIDEO

d.     Romans 5:8 (NKJV) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

e.      2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV) The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

2.     Once for all sin...

a.     Romans 6:10 (NKJV) For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.   

b.     Hebrews 7:27 (NKJV) who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
 
c.     1 Peter 3:18 (NKJV) For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

d.     You may be here today and think, "I have gone too far, done too much..."

                                               i.     Romans 8:33–39 (NKJV) Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? ...38For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1.     Corrie Ten Boom: “There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still.”

                                             ii.     No one goes to hell because of sin!

1.     1 John 2:1–2 (NKJV) My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

2.     Mark 3:28 (NKJV) Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men...

                                            iii.     The only sin God cannot forgive is rejecting Christ as your Lord and Savior.  If you do not come to God, He cannot forgive you!  That sin is already paid for.  All you must do is ask!

1.     1 John 1:9 (NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

3.     Once for all time...

a.      Hebrews 9:26,28 (NLT) ... But now, once for all time, He has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by His own death as a sacrifice. 28so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people...

b.     Jesus is in your past - Revelation 13:8 (NKJV) Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

c.     Jesus is in your future - Revelation 5:6 (NKJV) Lamb as though it had been slain...

d.     Let Jesus be in your present! VIDEO: "Barrabas"

INVITATION