Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.
You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.
We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the
cross. Now let's join the service.
Me and Swayze was riding horses the other day and I heard a song
I just couldn't get over. You'll ever do that and sing it
for a few weeks, few days and it was a guy that's kind of had old
George Jones swing to it at the end says you're never really
alone. And boy, I was we was riding
horses, not singing. I said, Swayze, sing it with me.
She goes no, Paul. I said, come on, sing it with
me. She goes no.
I said why? She goes because it's terrible
child speak true. I thought I was doing pretty
good. She said it's terrible, Paul.
Little kids will burst your bubble sometimes, won't they?
I didn't care though. I was singing it to the Lord.
It's different. Amen.
Happy Bibles today we're going to be taking communion at the
end of service, but going to preach on some things here.
I just been on my heart to take communion and, and we do it
quite often on Wednesday nights, not a lot on Sunday mornings,
but we're going to do it this Sunday morning.
And you know, as we, as we look at the gospel that's being
preached today and the things that are going around through
the airwaves, on television and through the radio podcast,
however you want to get it, you can get it.
But sometimes I think we lose sight of it.
We lose sight of and focus so much on what we do or what we're
not doing. I learned a long time ago, God,
God's not as concerned. And and what I'm not doing is
what I am doing right. But we're good at saying what
we're not doing and get hung up. But I want to clear our minds
today and I want to focus on some things that's real.
I want to focus on 7 cries from the cross that Christ made
because it will change your life when you realize what he went
through for us. We must never lose.
We must never leave or lose the cross, say man.
If the cross is not the center, there's no hope for mankind.
If it, if there if there was no cross, there would be no reason
for us to live and believe in a life after this life, right?
Or to believe in a life on this earth that can be blessed and
that can have an abundance of supernatural power and strength
to make it through daily trials. But at the center of our faith
there, there are many religions that accept other things, that
accept what they call all other gods, which are not gods at all.
They're religions that accept other things than the cross that
mean absolutely nothing. Amen.
Because Jesus said this, there's no other way to the Father,
there's no other way to God without acknowledging Jesus
Christ and what he did at the cross of Calvary.
But I want to look at this today at Luke chapter 23.
I want to, I want to read a little bit and I'm going to do a
little reading here on on some things, but we have to think
about this. Jesus was about to go to a
cross, and in Luke chapter 23 and verse 26, I'll leave you
seated this morning and do a little reading.
But it says in Luke chapter 23 and verse 26, it says now as
they led him away, they laid hold of a certain man named
Simon of Cyree, who was coming from the country.
And on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after
Jesus. Jesus was carrying His own cross
up Calvary's heel, but he had been beaten.
He had, He had been crowned with the thorns.
He had, He was, he was in such a bad shape that he could not
carry the cross anymore. He could not bear it, so they
laid it on Simon of Cyree and in verse 27 it says a great
multitude of the people followed him and women who also mourned
and lamented over him. But Jesus turning to them.
Can you imagine? Beaten beyond recognition?
The Bible says, and history says, that we couldn't even
imagine the beating and the bones that were sticking out and
being shown out off of the flesh because the flesh had been
ripped and torn so bad. But Jesus turned into them and
he said, daughters of Jerusalem, he says, do not weep for me, but
weep for yourselves. Weep for your children.
I believe through the portals of time in 2025, about to be 26,
that this is so true. For indeed the days are coming
in which they will say, blessed are the barren wounds that never
bore, and the breasts which never nursed.
They will get begin to say, Can you imagine that?
They'll begin to say to the mountains fall upon us and and
the hills cover us for if they do these things, you know, Jesus
had this awesome thought. I preached on this at Easter a
lot of times. But he said if they do this when
the wood is green, when they can see me toting the cross, when
the, when the old cross is a freshly cut thing on their minds
and they can vigil it and they can see it.
What will they do when it's dry in the portals of time?
What will they do when it's just a a dry old rugged cross and an
old story that we hear about up on the hill of Calvary.
What will they do then? We're seeing it.
We are that generation. We are that time that is seeing
what happens when the wood is no longer wet.
But it's an old rugged cross. It's an old dry place.
It's an old dry story for a lot of people that have only heard
about it. And in verse 32, it says there
was also two other criminals LED with him to be put to death.
I often put myself in the shoes of those criminal.
Can you imagine being there watching Jesus and, and, and
knowing that you've heard about this man from Galilee and that
was raised in Nazareth, the carpenter's son.
But you had heard these things about how he healed the sick and
how he raised the dead and all the miraculous things he had
done and who he professed to be. But now he couldn't save
himself, it seemed. But there was these two
criminals. They were led with him to be put
to death. And in verse 33 it says, and
they had come to the place called Calvary.
There they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right and
the other on the left, and the first crowd from the cross.
Think about all that Jesus went through.
He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
See today we look around and and it's hard, you know, we want
justice for those that are blaspheming the Holy Spirit and
blaspheming the name of Jesus. But yet while they were doing
this to him, he said, Father, forgive them.
We need a little forgiveness in our life.
Amen. We need to forgive so that we
can be forgiven. They divided his garments and
they cast thoughts and the people stood looking on, but
even the rulers with them snared.
He saved others, let him save himself.
If he is the Christ, the chosen one of God.
We see this today when tragedy strikes, people say, well, if
he's really God, why do these things happen?
We see these same things today. And the soldiers mocked him,
coming and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the
king of the Jews, save yourself. And it.
And an inscription also was written over him in the letters
of the Greek and the Latin and the Hebrew that is the king of
the Jews. But get this one, one of the
criminals in 39 who were hanged blasphemy him saying if you are
the Christ, save yourself. What a horrible thing to say,
but yet people do it today all the time.
If you really are God, bless me. And how arrogant is that?
If you really are God, why am I going through this trial?
We all been guilty. If you really are God, why am I
facing these issues in there in my life?
See, Jesus said that as he was being LED up the hill.
Father, forgive them. Still pleading, still trying to
convince people and warn them of a day that was coming.
But we look at these whenever Jesus was pleading like this, it
should tell us of something that's bad, that's coming.
It should tell us of these things.
They knew not that Jesus was the Son of God.
They knew not by crucifying Jesus that they were for
fulfilling the plan of God unto salvation.
Had Satan have known this, that by crucifying Jesus it would
bring eternal life, I think his plan would have been acted out
much differently because now he's got to deal with the Holy
Spirit. Now he's got to deal with those
that are blood bought, that are born again, that have a reason
to live. Satan never looks ahead.
He never read or believed what Jesus had had wrote at this
place in time. And Isaiah 53, one and 10 and
I'm going to read this because Isaiah, it was a great prophecy
that he was prophesying here. And Isaiah 53, think about this
years before the event that I just read you on Galgotha, it
says who has believed our report in Isaiah 53 and one, And to
whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He shall grow up before him as a tender plan and as a root out of
dry ground. He has no form or comeliness,
and when we see Him there is no beauty that we should desire
Him. Talking about the Cross, what I
just read you, He is despised and rejected by man, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we and we hid, as it
were, our faces from Him. He was despised, and we did not
steam Him. Surely He has bore our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Isn't that a great verse?
Yeah. We esteem him stricken and
smitten by God. I like, I want to come back to
that in a minute. We esteem him smitten and
stricken. Isaiah said by God and
afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him and, and, and first
Peter 224 declares the same verse.
Peter quoted it. And by his stripes we are
healed. Verse 6 it kind of changes.
It says all we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He was led as a slam to as a lamb to slaughter, as a sheep
before its shears in silent. So he opened not his mouth.
That had to be hard. It had to be hard not to call
10,000 angels. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who will declare his
generation? For he was cut off from the land
of the living for the transgressions of my people.
He was stricken, and they made his grave with the wicked, but
with but with the rich, and his death, because he had done no
violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Christ went through a lot of junk for us, for you and I, and
yet many times we get burdened down with living right.
We get burdened down with serving God, we get burdened
down. Think about what he did Amen.
And yet he said nothing but for Father forgive them for they
know not what they do. But as I as I said back there in
that other verse of what ago it says that he was smitten and
stricken by God and afflicted and in verse 10 it says yet it
please the Lord and you think about that your only son, your
only begotten son that God had given it and they said get it
please the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief.
But when something strange right here happens when you make his
soul an offering for sin. That's what happened.
Jesus made his soul an offering for the sin that you and I
commit. It says he shall see his seed.
Man, when I read that I had a runaway when Jesus was on the
cross, God wasn't seeing the sin, Amen.
How did he cause him to be smitten?
Smitten. How did he cause him to be
stricken? Because Isaiah said he was
looking through the portals of time, Amen.
It says that he shall see his seed, He shall prolong his days,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Can I tell you we're the seed of salvation that he was talking
about right there. We're the seed.
When God looked at the cross, He seen the seed.
He seen what would happen when you you're going through hell on
earth, when you're fighting all the battles and the things that
you have to face. See, the seed that's being
planted, Amen. Know that it will grow.
See, See, Satan never thought he would have to deal with the
seed. He never thought he would have
to deal with the third member of the Godhead called the Holy
Ghost. He never thought that, but see,
he could see the seed. What is the seed?
This is why you know. But why does a preacher always
preach righteousness? Because your righteousness is
the seed that was planted on Calvary.
Amen. When the blood flowed, it made
us right standing under salvation.
Somebody ought to praise the Lord, and we're his seed because
we're bought by the blood of Jesus.
They know not what they do. See, it was a big, big plan
that's still working today. It's a seed that just keeps
growing if you keep planting it. It's a seed that Satan can't
destroy and he can't handle it because it keeps multiplying
over and over over as we keep serving and we keep fighting for
the faith. Give the Lord a praise.
I need to take a breath. But as Jesus was on the cross,
something that makes our salvation so real.
In Luke chapter 23 and verse 39 as we were talking about the two
thieves that were beside Jesus. In Luke 23 and 39 it says one of
the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him saying if you are
the Christ, save yourself. There were two thieves, one got
justified, one didn't. There's two kinds of Christians
today. The one that says, if you're
really God bless me, if never realizing what he's already
done, never realizing the plan that's already in place.
If you just line up and begin to walk in it.
But always wanting more, always wanting God to do something.
And God, if you can do it on my time frame and do it the way
that I come on somebody, the way that I think it ought to be
done, then I might believe that you're the Christ, like so many
today, just looking for a quick fix, just questioning.
God, if you're Christ, save yourself and save us.
You do something for me. And I might believe so prevalent
today. But see, this thief #2 there was
something there. The thief that was on the other
side, What did he do? It says the other one,
answering. He rebuked him.
Man, you don't know what you're talking about.
You don't know who we're hanging beside.
Do you not even fear God seeing you or under the same
condemnation and we indeed justly, for we received the due
reward for our deeds. We've done some wrong, but this
man's done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, Lord
shows great faith. Not only did he just say Lord,
but he said, Lord, I know where you're going.
They may kill this flesh that I'm looking at, but there's
something on the inside of you that's going to override this
flesh of the law of sin and death.
I don't heard you preach about it.
I've done heard what you did in Galilee.
I don't heard what you did in Samaria.
And now I believe that you're able.
He said, just Remember Me. I'm not worthy, but just
Remember Me when you come into your Kingdom.
Just a little bit of faith. He said, if Jesus once told him,
if you'll just have a little bit of faith as a mustard seed, you
can say to this mountain be moved and cast into the sea and
it shall be done. Jesus said unto him, assuredly I
say to you the second cry from the cross, and thank God it was
today. What a hope, what a promise.
Today you will be with me in paradise.
See, all the other thief had to do was just believe a little
bit. It wasn't by his works and he
was saved. All he had to do is just
recognize who he was and what he was sent to this earth for.
And today he could have been in paradise, but yet he wasn't the
thief on the right. He was a little different.
A great example for us to follow today if we want to be in
paradise. Do you not know this man in the
middle? We're guilty, but yet he accepts
us because that's what he's here for.
He's a we're sinners in need of a savior.
Come on. He was on a cross with no hope
about to die. Mama, if the people could see
today, if you're walking through life and you have no hope and
you're about to die, guess what? Your future with Christ is alive
and well because he says today you can be with me in paradise.
This thief looks at him. He says Remember Me when you
come into your Kingdom. And he says today you will be
with me in paradise. What a hope, what a promise,
what a future, what a provision. Today you will be with me in
paradise. This world may take my money,
this world may take my health. This world may even try to
crucify me as they're doing all over the world right now.
They're killing Christians. But Jesus said, I got your soul
because to be absent from the body, to be present with the
Lord. We look at the third cry from
the cross in John 19 and 25. I'm going to move along here.
Jesus looked at his mother and he said, woman, behold your son.
This word behold is used 12198 times in the King James Version
of the Bible. It's derived from the Greek word
Edo, which is be sure to see. Jesus said, behold your son,
behold what's going on here. Behold the cross.
Be sure and see. You need to be sure and see if
you don't see anything else. If you can't keep up with the
religious freaks at the local church, if you can't dress like
them, if you can't attend their functions because you feel an
outcast. If if you get offended when you
go to the church because someone looked at you wrong or you
dressed different or you smell different or whatever it could
be, you need to get this right here.
You need to behold the sun that hung on the cross say man,
because it's used in the Bible so many times.
And then Jesus looks at his mother and as he looks as at the
disciple in which he loves, he said you behold my mother, she's
yours now I'm not here. You take care of her.
Jesus family was important as he left this earth.
He said, mother, behold your son.
That was an important cry. The 4th cry, Matthew 27 and
4346, Jesus said, Eli, Eli Lama Sebastianoni, which is my God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?
You ever felt like God has forsaken you?
Jesus did too. When you're down to nothing.
I said God's up to something. See the question Jesus asked to
why God had forsaken him was was really not ask.
I don't believe in the sense of of not knowing because Jesus was
God in the flesh. He knew very well what was
happening, but I believe for a short moment there in time as
Jesus asked this question, not acknowledging the fact that God
did not deliver him as he always had, but he said, Son, you have
to go through with this because to do so would have forfeited
the plan of redemption for all mankind for all eternity.
The little problems in your life that we go through many times,
we don't realize the bigger picture.
That may be the only trial that God can use to get to somebody
else. If you're where you need to be
with God, maybe your trial is not even for you this morning.
Maybe the hard times not even for you, but it's for someone
looking on that you might be the only Bible that they ever read.
You might be the only faith that they reach out and grasp.
Jesus spoke this in Aramaic, which was commonly used by the
Lord. Some teachings say that Jesus
felt forsaken because God had allowed him to become sin.
Some people, some scholars say that God had to turn his back
because the sin debt was being paid.
And God cannot. He's holy.
He cannot have nothing to do with sin.
He cannot look up on what was about to happen.
God had to look away for a short time.
We can only speculate, but God knows.
But yet it was a cry from the cross.
Why have you forsaken me? Anybody ever felt that way?
Maybe it was for a short time because God was trying to
accomplish a bigger purpose in your life.
Because there's nothing like feeling like God has left us,
like the Holy Spirit has withdrawn from us.
There's nothing like that. Can I get a witness?
And you've been there before, many of you.
You'd never want to go again. And Luke 19 and 28, we read of
the 5th cry from the cross. Jesus said I thirst, I thirst.
This statement was fulfilled in Psalm 69 and 21.
It says for my thirst, they gave me vinegar.
So many times in our spiritual life we thirst as well.
But I can't help but think that sometimes today Jesus still
thirst for the his prep for for the presence of his children
that he died for. Can I get a witness?
Sometimes he's thirst for that prayer that you refuse to stop
and pray that day just to say, Lord, I love you, I need your
presence in my life. Maybe he thirst for that
Scripture that we haven't read in so long and opened up the
Bible. Maybe he thirst because he
inhabits the presence and the praise of his people.
He longs to come down and spend time with us.
He said I thirst, but we shouldn't stay thirsty long and
John chapter 4 we read of a great story and four and 14.
It declares that the Samaritan woman at the well see if Jesus
told her what He said. If you drink of this water in
this life, you were a mainstay. But the water that I give you,
you shall never thirst again, but it shall become a spring of
living water in the everlasting life.
He called her to be set apart. He called her to worship that
she would never thirst again. And in John chapter 19 and verse
30, we would read of one of the greatest cries from the cross
when Jesus said this, He said it's finished, it's finished.
I see so many Christians today that have not realized that it's
finished. We walk through life struggling.
We walk through life battling addictions.
We walk through life toting a filthy mouth.
The list goes on. We walk through life talking
negative. We walk through life.
We pray countless hours for something that he said is
finished. I'm going to give it to God.
God don't want that nasty stuff. He said It's finished.
When them nails drove through his hand, guess what addiction
was finished when the stripes were on his back.
He said it's by my stripes that you're healed.
Well, I didn't get healed, Pastor.
No, but you died and you went on to be with the Lord forever.
What a great healing. We have it backwards.
He said it's finished. The debt has been been paid.
What are you battling with today?
What are you fighting for? We got to get in the mindset.
It's finished. When them old things come up on
your mind, they try to overtake the flesh.
Just stop and tell the devil it was finished.
I'm not going to argue with you about it.
It's finished. We have to grasp that.
But that's hard for our mind to grasp because we want to put our
butts and our thoughts on it. No, it's finished.
The sin debt has been paid. We have to learn to accept the
gift of salvation and accept that gift of grace.
The debt has been paid. The 7th cry from the cross is so
encouraging. In Luke chapter 23 and verse 44
it says now it was about the 6th hour and there was darkness over
all the earth until the 9th hour.
Then the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was rent.
It was torn into because the old covenant was being broken and
the new covenant of grace was coming in.
And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said,
Think about this Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
No one takes my life, but I lay it down, He said into your
hands. See, I see a lot of Christians,
they, they want to pray the sinner's prayer.
They want to get baptized, but they want things to be finished
in their life. They want the sin debt paid
right. But they never really commit
their spirit into the Lord's hands.
They never really trust him. They never really, you know,
we're good at trusting God with an eternal destiny that's way
out there somewhere. But we have a hard time with the
10th. We trust God that He's going to
take care of my soul eternally, but yet we want to keep this
little thing in our self because Sunday morning I got something
more important to do than go feed my faith.
It's Lordship making Him Lord of all, or He's not Lord at all.
I'll never forget when I begin to walk in that it changed my
life when I begin to commit my spirit unto Him.
Because see, there's something that's going to happen to all of
us. It's called death.
It's knocking. It's knocking daily.
And at the moment of death, guess what?
The control that you've held on to, you have no longer, because
it says to be absent from this body that the soul will go one
or two places. It's at that point you must have
already committed your spirit into His hands.
No one takes my life. Jesus said I lay it down.
I asked you the question today, Have you committed your spirit
into his hands? Have you committed your spirit
into his hands? What are some awesome cries that
Christ made? He said, Father, forgive them
for they know not what they do. You know when as I get older, I
do that a lot when people wrong me, when people wrong me.
There was a lie I heard about me the other day and I used to want
to bow up and go fix it. But you know what I said?
I said they don't know me very well.
I don't find my identity in who you think I am.
The second cry was assuredly I say today you will be with me in
paradise. Isn't that awesome to know?
To be absent from this body is to rest assuredly that your soul
will be in the hands of an almighty God.
The third cry was 1. Behold thy Son, He was on the
cross when he cried this. The 4th cry, he said, my God, my
God, why have thou, why have thou forsaken me?
It's OK to feel forsaken. We're going to feel that way,
but it's just a feeling because you're never alone.
He said I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.
The 5th cry he said, I thirst, I thirst.
What are you thirsting for this morning?
What are you thirsting for? The sixth thing he said somebody
needs a grass that it's finished.
Whatever you're battling, it's finished.
It may not be going like you think it should, but it's
finished. The seventh thing he said,
Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.
Cries from the cross. You know, people describe the
cross as so many things and the Lord give me this a while back
because I battle against people that think they're once saved,
always saved, and there was never a change in their life.
But I got news for you, the cross is way more complex than
once saved, always saved. And it's so much more, get this
than living in fear of the sin you just committed because we
have forgiveness. I challenge you.
Tell the enemy it's finished this morning.
Tell the enemy it's finished as the song plays.
We're going to take communion this morning.
We're going to read a little more scripture, but let's say
it. Let's stay in.
Thanks for listening to the Cross Powered Church podcast.
May you know that true hope, peace, and salvation can only be
found in Jesus. If you're near Campbell, TX, we
would love for you to join us in person.
You can find service times at crosspoweredchurch.com.