The Cross Centered Life - Rick Scherr

The Cross Centered Life - Rick Scherr

Leadership August 9, 2024

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Rick Scherr's Leadership on "The Cross-Centered Life" focuses on the importance of living a gospel-centered life centered on the cross, drawing from 1 John 4:19 and Romans 5:8 to emphasize God's love. He stresses the need to prioritize the cross over all else, warning against idolizing other aspects of life. Rick provides practical steps for living a cross-centered life, urging listeners to embrace the incredible love of God and make the cross the central focus of their lives. The talk encourages a deep and intimate relationship with God through understanding and embracing the message of the cross.

Transcript

Tonight. It's a really key and very important thing. It has to do with the importance of us being and living as cross centered people. Gospel centered in our lives. And it's one thing to say those words or to talk about that.

There was, like a famous book back, I don't know, maybe 15 or 20 years ago called the Cross centered Life. Does anybody remember that book? CJ Mahaney book checked. And so that kind of became a thing. But I think there's a big difference between actually living and being cross centered in your thinking and who you are, as opposed to just talking about it or saying, I'm a Christian.

So that makes me cross centered because it doesn't.

First, John 419. I've been thinking about this verse. It's funny. Been wanting to and thinking about talking about it for a while, because as short as it is, just seven words, it is. It packs a wallop.

It's got a lot in it. We love because he first loved us. And I know it's backwards and it's the way it's worded, but essentially it is as we know. And if we know, and to the extent that we know that God loves us is then this ability and result in this fruit, which is us loving others. And it's right there, just in one of the simplest verses.

We love because he first loved us. And what does it mean that Jesus loved us? Romans five eight. Jesus love for us is demonstrated on the cross, demonstrated by his death, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Let me pray for our time, and then we'll keep looking at God's word.

Father, just pray that you would.

That your spirit would work with your word and remind us with great.

With great impact, with great reminders with. With strength, that your spirit would remind us of your cross, your love. The good news, the gospel, its centrality in our lives and our thinking. Forgive me, Lord, for straying from that in the times of my life where other idols have seeped in, and something other than the cross and your great love seeps into the center of my life. And I just pray, Jesus, that you would, in your word, would work and show us and remind us of this great, great big truth that we rest on.

Galatians 614. But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. There was a piper sermon many years ago that I listened to where he talked about this verse. And it was so impactful for me, in some senses, it was such a powerful reminder that everything you have and every blessing you have and every good thing that you have is actually nothing to boast in or be happy about. But it's all by way of the cross, that the cross is what is the real thing that you have, and then anything else is just because of the cross.

And that's what Paul is saying. He's saying, I'm not gonna boast in anything. I have nothing to be happy about, nothing to be proud of, nothing to boast in, nothing that gives me significance, except the cross of Jesus Christ. That is by. That is all that I boast in.

That's what Paul is saying here. And that was what the sermon was saying. Paul continues this theme, though, throughout all of his writings. The New Testament, not just Paul, has this theme throughout all of its writings. This quote by da Carson talking about Paul, he says he cannot talk long about christian joy or christian ethics or christian fellowship or the christian doctrine of God or anything else without finally tying it to the cross.

Paul is gospel centered. He is cross centered. And Carson is pulling that out of scripture and talking about Paul himself and the writings. But this is not just Paul. This is the New Testament.

This is God's very words that are saying, and he might as well be saying God himself when he talks to us about christian doctrine, when he talks to us about christian fellowship, when he talks to us about christian ethics, he can't help but to all bring that back to the cross. That's how central it is in scripture.

Philippians three. Indeed, I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, gospel grace, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. Here Paul is again affirming this idea that there is nothing else. In fact, he says, everything else is even just rubbish. It's not even like there's good things, and then there's the great thing.

It's like there's just the great thing, and then there's just rubbish.

Another quote from da Carson where he says, I fear that the cross without ever being disowned. So he says, I fear that the cross without ever being disowned. So what he's saying is people will still say, oh, yeah, I'm a christian. Oh, yeah, the cross, Jesus is great. Like, it's not like people are saying, okay, cross thing or Jesus thing, gospel thing.

I'm over that. I'm onto something else. People still keep it out there. So it says, I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place. It must enjoy by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center.

We are not far removed from idolatry. That's like a really smart person's way of saying something. Like, I read to read that a couple times and, like, work my way through it. But he's basically, it's not complex what he's saying. He's saying that good things, good christian things, good things, they become the thing, and they move and slide into the center and become the thing that we care about, the thing that means something to us, the thing that is what we think about, the thing that we're allowing to move our lives forward, become these things.

And the cross is being displaced out of the center with these other things. Here's just a quick list of good idols of these types of things. Being healthy, gifts of the spirit, politics, Old Testament living, prayer meetings, family children being holy, relationships, social justice, miracles, healing, prosperity comfort end times. Marriage, self help, church world missions, apologetics.

Not bad things. Nothing in there is bad. Many of these things are in scripture. Many things are talked about. But it would be idolatry.

It would be like any idolatry. It would be evil and wrong to the greatest degrees of wrong to displace the cross from the center and put any of these other things into what drives us forward and is the thing that we care about. The thing that we think about being cross centered in your thinking and in your living is if you confess Christ, that is what you're saying. You mean something. That is the thing that's supposed to mean something.

That is the thing, right? The reason the gospel is supposed to mean something to you is because it is what saves you. It is the thing.

This CJ Mahaney quote, the symptoms that arise from not being cross centered are easy to spot. Do any of these describe you? You often lack joy. You're not consistently growing in spiritual maturity. Your love for God lacks passion.

Or you're always looking for some new technique, some new truth or new experience that will pull all the pieces of your faith together.

The number of people who want to follow Jesus but have slid in a way and allowed good idols to displace the center and living cross centered and being cross centered and being gospel centered is not the path that they're on. This is the result. It's the same result. It's the result of idolatry, which is you lack joy, you lack passion, you're afraid, you struggle with. There's struggles just every day that are just overwhelming.

You live in fear. If the gospel and the cross being at the center, that will change everything for you over time.

So how do we do this? How do we keep our lives cross centered? And what does it mean for our lives to be cross centered? Because again, you could give words to this, but it might not actually be something. This is Jerry Bridges.

He was a navigator. He's written a lot of great books. He says the gospel is not only the most important message in all of history, it is the only essential message in all of history. Think about what he's saying there. Again, it's Galatians 614.

Again, it's Philippians three. Jerry Bridges is saying, look, this is not just an important message for all of history, for your life. This is the only message. This is the message that counts. This is the message that's meant to resonate in your soul and be just who you are as a believer in Christ.

You are a gospel carrier. You are a cross centered, a cross caring person. That's who you were meant to be. This gospel is not only the most important message in all of history, it is the only essential message in all of history. Yet we allow thousands of professing Christians to live their entire lives without clearly understanding it and experiencing the joy of living in it.

Two, Peter one nine. Before two, Peter one nine. There's this list of all these traits for where God is saying, add to faith and add this to your faith and you're going to have these characteristics. And it's this list of all these things. And it says then at the end, for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten what, not how to be good, not the Holy Spirit, not how to walk in the gifts of the spirit, not as apologetics.

He hasn't forgotten how to be a good father or how to be a good husband. He has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. That's what he's forgotten when that happens. So how do we remember, how do we keep this at the front forefront? Right.

There's the 352 times. You probably have seen that before, where God throughout scripture says in some way or another to remember, to remind yourself it's one of the most used. There's a few words that are used more often than remember. I think maybe two or three others. But this is one of the most used words where God is saying, remember, remember, remind yourself.

And so I've got 13 things.

Time is it, 13 things. And I promise, I purposely did not put many notes around each of the 13, so we're going to go quick through them. I have 13 things that will help you, that you can think and say, how can I live like this? How can I be reminded regularly? What does this mean?

Cross centered people, people who are gospel centered do these things. If you're not doing these things, it's probably one of the reasons you're struggling to be gospel centered. Does anybody need pens? If you need pens, just raise your hands. Mackenzie will throw you without putting your eye up.

You can do it. Close your eyes. All right, here we go. 13 things for you, practically, right? Because I can stand up here and I can talk and encourage you and say, gospel center.

We're going to live like, you know, we're going to live christ centered. Cross centered. We're going to. It's going to be the center. And saying it is just not the same as living it.

I've known so many leaders, leaders and so many christians who say they're Christian, who say, but yet they're not cross centered. The evidence and the fruit of their life is not gospel centered. Number one, share about the cross. Teach it, talk about it, know it, speak it. Ephesians two one through eight, titus three three seven.

If you don't. When I say those scripture, you don't immediately think, oh, yeah, those two passages are literally the gospel, you were lost, but God, and now you're saved and rescued through the cross, like both of them. And there's other places, but that should be, that kind of scripture should be on the tip of your tongue all the time when you're teaching anything that you're teaching. For Tim Keller, you guys know him, he passed away. Great preacher.

Please listen to his sermons and his podcast. They're so good, so encouraging. He committed years ago, years and years ago, that he would never end a sermon without preaching through the gospel message at the end of the sermon. And he does. It's kind of.

He's so smart. Like, suddenly he's weaving it in. In the last five or ten minutes, you're like, wait, he's preaching the gospel through, like, he's. Whatever message he was talking about, he weaves it right in because it's not hard, because the gospel is at the center of everything and says, and Jesus died for you so that you could have this life, teach about it, talk about it. Is it is grace, the gospel is the cross, something that people would define you by that they would say, oh, man, have you ever heard him talk?

Have you ever been around or with him? It's like he just talks. He talks about Grace. Like, when I was in college and I had not met Evan yet, and Evan is the navigator who mentored and discipled me, and I had not met him yet when I was in college, but a bunch of my friends who, my roommates had met him, and they were going to his Bible study, and they'd been to his navigator Bible study down on campus, and they came back and they said, rick, you've got to, you got to come meet this guy Evan. You got to talk to him.

And I was like, ah, I don't know. I don't know. And I will never forget one of them saying, rick, you gotta come talk to him. You gotta be at study. I've never heard anyone talk about grace like this.

That's how I just remember that. I've never heard anyone talk about grace like this.

Because what it is, what the God, what the cross, what the gospel meant to Evan just flowing out of him, that's. Is that you? When people say, have you ever heard so and so, when they talk, you've never. Have you ever heard them talk about grace?

Share about the cross. Let it be something that defines you. Number two. Plumb the depths. Plumb the depths of your sin.

You can use another word if you not prefer the word plum, but that's the word I like. Plum. Plum. To dive into the depths, to go deep with, to dig as deep as you can, the depths, into the depths of your sin.

Luke, 747, he who has been forgiven little, loves little. If you've been around enough, you've heard me say this, and it is vital that you make a practice of this to the extent and to the depth that you understand your sin. And your problem is to the height that you are going to love God. It's not any more complex than understanding, than just the simplicity of my problem is so big. God is so then amazing that he saves me, that he rescues me.

Grace will shock you if your sin has already shocked you because of how deep it is. If your sin is not so bad, if your sin is like, oh, yeah, I'm a bad person, I know I've made some bad decisions. And Jesus comes along and offers you free life and forgives you of that sin, you're like, oh, thanks, Jesus. That's really nice of you, Paul. First Timothy 113.

And in many other places, you guys know, could talk about this scripture. Paul is constantly, which is kind of funny, right? He's constantly like, I'm the worst, right? Remember things like, I'm the worst of all sinners. I'm the lowest.

I've done this in first Timothy. I don't deserve to know Jesus. Jesus. Because I have done this, and I'm like this. That's because Paul knows the depth of his sin.

He recognizes it. He has plumbed the depths. He has dove into it. He's not afraid to dive and go really deep and be like, man, I have a serious problem. Not a little problem, not a kind of problem.

Not like, oh, I almost did it. I was almost good enough for God, but couldn't do it problem. But a problem is like, no, I'm at the lowest level here. To the extent that you understand and know the depth of your sin is the height to which the gospel is going to mean something to you. That's almost just logic, right?

And that's what he who has been forgiven little, loves little. It's the very logic that Jesus uses in Luke.

But do you see this woman? She hasn't stopped kissing my feet. That's where. That's right. That's the woman who's crying at Jesus feet because she's such a sinner.

She knows how deep her sin is, and she's overwhelmed because of what Jesus has done for her. She has plumbed the depths of her sin. Number three.

Oh, this is gonna be hard to get through. All right, number three. Sing about the cross.

Romans 116 and one Corinthians 118 are clear scripture. Talking about the gospel is the power. The cross is where the power is displayed of Jesus. And when we sing, we want to sing about the power and what God has done at the cross. The cross is the center of our lives, and it is the thing that would be most, and should always be at the most central part of what we want to sing about.

Heaven will not be filled with songs about you and your satisfaction. Now you're filled up with goddess. That won't be what heaven is singing about. Trust me. It won't be about you at all.

It will be songs about the glorious and crazy love of God, of Jesus shown on the cross. It will be songs of glory to him and what he is and who he is and what he has done. On the next page, there's a quote from CJ Mahaney says, not all worship songs are created equal. Many today are man centered, not cross centered. They focus more on what we need or what we want God to do than on what that's not written right then on what Jesus has already done is what that's supposed to say than on what Jesus has already done.

Lean into that. Whether it's your songs that you're simply playing at core and you're with students and you're worshiping, lean into the songs always, every chance you get, search for and sing those songs. When you're listening to worship music, find your way to the music that is about the cross. I'm telling you, guys, stop thinking about music and that kind of stuff as a form of entertainment. That would be what the devil would want you to think.

Music was created by God, and all of you know this. It moves you, right? It emotionally grabs you. Music has this something God designed thing. And I promise you, God wants you taking that music, singing, and bringing the cross together with that so that your soul is just overwhelmed.

Your soul is overwhelmed with the truths about the gospel, the truths about the cross, the truths about Jesus and what he did for you. Look for every chance to sing about the cross. Number four, memorize and meditate on scripture about the cross. We're not going to look up much scripture, but turn to Colossians two, Colossians 213 through 15.

When I was thinking about memorizing and meditating on scripture that talks about the cross, this. This was the first verse that popped into my mind because it is so awesome. It is like it's got so much great cross centered, gospel centered words in it.

Somebody else read 13 through 15, please. You can read that.

Thank you. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made a life together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of death that stood against us with his legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to cross. 2015. Yep.

Disarmed the rulers and I authorities and systems of finishing by trying to take those. Okay, just in those three verses, there's so much cross centered, gospel centered stuff. It is so rich and you can see it. Obviously, you can see the simplicity of it. But then you begin to think about the record of debt and it being nailed to the cross and just the visuals of this.

This scripture. This is one of the great places in scriptures where you get these. This imagery that God is using to talk about the cross and to talk about the gospel and what has happened. The last verse, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to shame by triumphing over them in him. That's a reference to back in that day, when there was a war or some type of battle that needed to be fought, a town or a city would send out all their men and their troops, and they would go out to a battle in a war.

And all the people sitting back at the city, they didn't know. They're just wives and husbands and sons and brothers, and they're all back in the city just praying like, we have no idea. We hope that. Gosh, I hope my son is not just getting killed out there. I hope my dad is not out there just getting slaughtered in some battle, in some war.

They don't know. And what would happen is when an army would win a battle, they would show up back at the city and there was a triumphal entry. And what they would do is at the beginning of this parade, that was literally a parade, as they would come into the city, the beginning of the parade would be the soldiers, and they would be bringing in all of the bounty, all of the things that they gained from the. The battle, all the things that, whether it be, you know, livestock or could be gold, it could be anything. But they're bringing in all this stuff in the beginning of this giant parade.

And then the parade keeps going, and all the soldiers are coming, and they come through. And at the end, all the prisoners of war tied up, being at the end, all coming through at the end of the parade. This is saying, jesus Christ leading a triumphant processional, and the devil and evil and demons at the end of that parade just being walked right into the city, right? And think about. There's so much to this.

Think about the idea that, like I was thinking the other day, they won the battle, the army wins the battle, and it takes days for them to get back to the city. The people in the city, they don't know that the battle's been won, right? They're still hoping, even though the battle's over and that group is journeying back. And I was thinking what a great representation of the resurrection, because just like with Jesus, he won the battle, and it was done and completed on the cross, it was over.

Completed over at the cross, it is finished, means far more than Jesus just breathing his last. Just the depth of that quote by Jesus, it's done. The battle is over, and the army is heading back, but the people still don't know. Three days later, we're still. We're waiting.

The army shows up as proof, and it's like, they won. They did it. It happened. And that's exactly how people responded with the resurrection. The resurrection proved that Jesus did what he said that he did, that he did die on the cross for your sins, that he did die with the wrath of God poured out upon him, that he did die and completely satisfy all sin for you and for me.

And he did it. And the resurrection, like the army that finally shows up is the proof. It's like, yes, I did, and I'm. And the resurrection says, oh, my gosh, it's true. That was the gospel message for many years.

Right after, if you did, if you don't know this, right after, in the early christian times, the biggest part of the gospel message that they kept saying is they would say, it's true, it's true. It's true. Jesus really is God. He really did die for our sins. It's really true.

He rose again. It's true.

All that. And I'm encouraging you to meditate and memorize on scripture because that little blurb that I just shared, that's all that is. That's me meditating and memorizing the scripture. And me just thinking about it being like, oh, it's, like, so crazy. And thinking about what happened and what Jesus did and then the resurrection and what that means, and Jesus walking and parading evil through the city.

And that doesn't even talk about the first two verses. Imagine your soul and your heart if you meditate and memorize this kind of scripture. I mean, I hope you can see this, right? It's not that some scripture is better than others. It's not that kind of thing.

But the gospel is better is all that matters. The cross is what matters. So when you memorize scripture and you meditate on scripture that talks about the cross, it should be like, this is great. This is so amazing. There's so much here, right?

If you want to memorize John 1135, Jesus wept. That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But it doesn't quite have the same impact, does it?

Memorize and meditate on scripture about the cross. I'm encouraging you, even if you don't feel like it, find this kind of scripture and memorize and meditate it. Meditate on it. Number five. Read the story.

Read about the cross. Read the gospel story. Mark 1521 39. I thought it would be fun if there was time, but there's nothing read just the account the last day. Right?

The passion of Christ.

There's so much power to be found in the gospel story as it culminates at the end of Christ's life on earth so much.

The chosen has been doing what. There are four seasons now. I hear the fifth season is going to be about passion, like the week leading up to the passion, and that the entire 6th season is going to be the last day. That's the whole season. I don't know if that's true, but that would make sense to me because it builds to this cross centered thing that an entire season would be spent on that.

The movie, the Passion of the Christ, an entire movie spent just on that last day because of the centrality of the cross. So, readdeh. Read the story in Mark and in Luke. Like, read the story. Read it through.

Read books that talk about the cross. I gave four books right there that are classic, famous books that are just gospel centered, grace centered books. I mean, I dare you to read the Cross of Christ by John Stott. It is famous for people, famous for people who love the cross.

And you will love it. You will be like, this is amazing. And I'm going to say this again, because this is the thing that you have to understand is true.

The truths and the things that you can learn and know and come to understand about the gospel, about the cross of Christ are far deeper than you have gone. I promise. No one in this room, me included, none of us, have even begun to scratch the surface of how deep there is to go to learn and to understand about the cross. I realize as people who have heard the gospel message and people who have told the gospel message and were like, oh, yeah, club talks. Yeah, I get it.

You know, it's like we do a need talk, a sin talk, cross talk, appropriation talk. I know those. I know the gospel. And it doesn't feel like there's much more to it, right? Like, it just feels like.

But I am telling you, there couldn't be a greater lie. There is nothing deeper than plumbing the depths. There we go again. Than diving into the depths of the cross and the truths of the cross. It is deep.

When you read these books, that's what you'll do. You'll be like, what? I never thought. I never. And it's just new things into your mind and into your heart about the cross of Jesus Christ.

Number six. Preach the gospel to yourself every day, all day. That is not something new that we say that you guys know. It's so vital that you preach the gospel to yourself, that you are the person who is telling yourself and reminding yourselves of the truth, that you are learning about the gospel and that you're doing it every day. The gospel, like we talked about early on in Galatians, like the gospel, is the answer to everything.

And I know it's hard to figure that out or to see how that works. But I promise you, as you go through each day, if you are regularly looking for opportunities to preach this gospel to yourself and you find ways to keep reminding yourself of these mighty truths of the cross and God's love for you, it will affect the way you think, and it will become a way that you are. I mean, just. Just the amount of guilt that we operate in and the amount of performance, those two things alone. So I'm telling.

I know the culture that we live in. I know myself. I know that you guys today, you might not have realized this, but you struggled with guilt and you struggled with performance today. You tried to be something, accomplish something, show yourself. You had a performance thing going, or you had a guilt thing going on where you just felt like, I'm just not worthy.

I don't. I suck. I shouldn't even do this. Some level of guilt. There's an answer for that, that you can preach to yourself immediately, that sets you free, that totally puts you into a joy filled situation and brings joy to your heart.

If you preach the gospel to yourself. I mean, it's the same feeling that you had the first time you accepted Jesus. And you're sitting at summer camp and you're like, this is amazing. My sin is. And God loves me and.

Are you kidding? And you feel this, right? And you're like, my gosh, it's the same message that you can preach it to yourself every day so that you're, like, feeling and understanding and getting the exact same thing from it. I would argue every day in the real life situations is when you need it the most. It's one thing to be away at a camp and hear this message and have a moment of reflection.

It's another in the middle of your day when you're feeling like, I can't, my sin has overwhelmed me, or, I need to accomplish this. I need to be this type of person for everyone around me, or I want to be a people pleaser or whatever it is. And you preach the gospel to yourself, and you're like, oh, my gosh, I set free. This is crazy.

Preach the gospel to yourself every day. Number seven, embrace and engage the bad times to walk in the cross. So what we learned from Philippians three and some other places, that God brings bad things or allows bad things, however you want to look at it but God says, who cares where they come from? Here's what I want you to do with the bad things in your life. Here's what I want you to do with suffering when it comes into your life.

You're walking with me because I walked in this suffering. I suffered as, I suffered for the cross, as I suffered through the passion, as I suffered that. Now you can suffer with me. Do you see? It brings you, again, right to the feet of the cross when you embrace your suffering and understanding.

Like, I'm as close to Jesus as I've ever been. I'm as close to the cross and gospel centered as I've ever been. Because this suffering and Jesus suffering, we're walking together in this. We're going to briefly look at it later, but there is no suffering that you will experience on this side of heaven or ever in your life that is equal to or even comes close to the suffering that Jesus experienced. So he knows, I don't care what you're going through.

I don't care what has happened or how bad it's been. Jesus knows how great is that, and he knows because of the cross, right? That's where the power is, and we walk with him in that. So when you are in suffering, bring the cross with it, and bring Jesus suffering into it so that you can walk through your suffering alongside of Jesus, who walks with you through it.

Number nine. Number eight. When good things happen, rejoice in the cross, not in the good things. So now we got the opposite end of the spectrum. When good things happen, right?

In Luke ten, the disciples go out. They do all this crazy stuff. Jesus sends them out in pairs. They come back. They're like, if you remember the story, they're like.

They're like, this was crazy. I was, and I prayed, and the person was healed, and then this happened. And Jesus literally says, like, yes, you guys, I saw Satan. Like, you guys were beating him up, right? That's what Jesus says.

And then he says this crazy thing that had to make them go, wait, what? Because they're rejoicing in all this stuff that they. That happened, that they did and were like, we were awesome. This is great. And he's like, hey, don't rejoice in that.

Don't rejoice in that, but rejoice that your name is in the book of life. Rejoice that you've been saved. It literally. He might as well have been just saying, hey, there's nothing to rejoice about here except that you are rescued and saved, that there is a way home, that there is a gospel, that there is a cross. And so for us, I would encourage and challenge you guys, right?

This is part of something that because of comfort and prosperity and the way that the world has seeped into us, we tend to want to rejoice and make a big deal out of good things. And I'm encouraging you, like, don't take something great that's happened and turn it into Jesus and the cross is what's great. Because I'm telling you right now, going back to Galatians six, if you didn't know this, every breath you breathe is literally just because of the cross. Any good thing that has ever happened to you, well, that's by way of the cross. That's the whole point of that cross centered thing.

So, like, there really isn't anything to rejoice in but the cross, it is the thing. So when good things happen in your head, remind yourself of Luke 1020 or remind yourself of any amount of scripture that reminds you to say, it's not about good things happening. To me, that's not what's great. What's great is what Jesus did for me on the cross. What's great is the good news of Jesus that the cross and his love for me demonstrated.

That is what is great. That is what is good.

This is. It reminded me of, again, the singing thing. It's like, we want to sing about these good things, right? You. I was ashes and you made me.

Not ashes. Something nice. I forget butterflies or something, but. Right, but like, we want to sing about that. We want to rejoice in that.

And God is saying, look, no, no, no. Rejoice in the cross. Sing about the cross. Sing about my love for you. Demonstrate it on the cross and how great it is and how amazing it is.

That's what you want to rejoice in. Number nine, seek healing and consolation in the cross. In one, Peter 224 is a great verse that just gives us a simple description of the gospel, but it ends with, by his wounds you are healed. By Jesus wounds you are healed.

Where do you go? Where do you seek healing and consolation in your life?

Not. Don't give me the, you know, don't think in your head that pat answered Jesus in some broad, weird. I don't even know what that means sense, but I know that's the right answer, so I say it. Right. That's.

That's Christianese. That's people speaking the christian language. I'm talking serious. Something happens and you feel like, I'm looking for healing. I'm looking for consolation.

You call your best friend, you call your boyfriend, girlfriend, your spouse, your mentor. I mean, where you turn it. What? Where are you turning? And Jesus says, by my wounds you will be healed.

You want healing in your life? It is found at the cross. Don't go anywhere else. Don't seek anywhere else. Dive into the truths of the cross and it will give you the healing you're looking for.

No matter what it is, no matter how hard something has been that you have gone through in your life when you are young, something terrible or whatever it is, by his wounds, you can be healed. But you got to go there. You got to stop looking to self help books and pop psychology or someone on the Internet to give you a lot of social media likes or whatever, to give you some type of healing found at the cross. Number ten. Pray regularly through the good news.

Matthew 612. That's a reference to the Lord's prayer.

Even in the Lord's prayer or in the Lord's prayer, there's the line where he says, lord, help us to forgive others as you have forgiven us. Right? There is the gospel, right. Matthew 612. What I just said, we want to forgive others as God has forgiven us.

That's just one. John 419. We love because God first loved us. You forgive because God forgives you. It's all about focusing in and realizing and recognizing God has forgiven you, that you have the cross.

And so pray through the elements of the cross, not just there, but thinking about the gospel story, when I talk about need and sin and the cross, that story, and I talk about appropriation, which means, you know, coming to Christ, when you think of those things, have a habit of praying through those things, Lord, my need and my sin, right? You're plumbing the depths of those things. And then, Lord, and the cross and this, and you did this and this happened, and then Jesus, oh, my gosh, the resurrection, what that means, and it's true. And praying it right, getting it into your prayer life in some way, thanking Jesus for what he did on the cross should be something you do in your personal closet, prayer life a lot. So I get that.

When we meet or you do Bible study with your folks, you're with people everybody knows, like, hey, make sure you mention Jesus and that thing he did right. Make sure you talk to say something to thank him for the cross thing, right? So, Lord, we're just here today. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for dying for me and that whole thing.

And then. And you think of it, right? I would challenge us that oftentimes, maybe that's not even the part. We're not even thinking. Thinking about what we're praying at that point.

So we're thinking about the other things that we're gonna pray. And I would challenge us that in your personal closet, prayer life, when you close the door and you're sitting with Jesus, are you being moved to tears as you pray through the gospel? And you're like, jesus, thank you. So great. Oh, Jesus, your grace is amazing.

Shocking, right? I mean, do I have to pull out the les mis video, right? I don't need to do. I shouldn't do that again, right? Too many times.

But is it shocking like that? Do you look at God's grace and you're like, what is happening? This is crazy. Your love for me, God is what? And your prayer life reflects that when you close the door and nobody is there?

Or do you have a list of things you're just asking?

Pray through the gospel. Number eleven. Consider his enduring, what he endured on the cross.

There are four main things. There are many things that Jesus endured on the cross for us, but I will just remind you of these four big rock, huge things that happened on the cross with Jesus Christ for you. The first and the least painful, the first and the least difficult for Jesus was the physical death that he endured for us, the blood that he shed for you and for me.

But make no mistake, we've all seen the statistics or heard the doctor things about, you know, what a crucifixion is like and how terrible it is. And him being whipped with a cat of nine tails and skin being ripped off of him, he endured quite a physical death for you and for me. And every time you think of or you see the nails being driven through his hands, I hope that you think that is me driving that nail in, because it was. It is. I hope every time I see a scene from a movie or I think about, or I read about the, the.

All the people in the crowd saying, crucify him. Crucify him. Because they were riled up by the crowd, I think that would be me. I'd be like, everybody in the crowd. All right.

Yeah, I'm with you guys. What are we doing? Okay. Yeah. Crucify him.

Who cares that he was such a great guy? Just crucify him. Crucify him. Yeah. Yeah.

And I just turn around and I walk away with a smile on my face. Yeah, that's me. And that's you. Jesus endured that physical pain for us. The guilt of all the world, of all people, of all time poured out on Jesus.

When Jesus took on our sin, that meant that he took on all of the guilt that comes along with it. Imagine, right? There was a movie once that I saw where a bunch of teenagers, like, high school students, they wanted to, like, teach their teacher a lesson. So they kidnapped the teacher and they were, like, kind of torturing him. And then they accidentally killed him, right?

And then they, like, buried him or something. I don't even remember. And they bury him, and then the rest of the movie is them just wracked with guilt. Like, they just can't deal with the guilt of what they did. And they're just.

It's wrecking them, right? It's wrecking their daily lives. It's wrecking what they're doing. So finally, like, one of them's like, I gotta tell you. And it just, like that was the guilt of one person with one sin.

Now multiply that by the billions and billions of people and the sin and the guilt and the weight of that that Jesus took upon the cross for you and for me, because we no longer have guilt for our sin, right? No more. No more condemnation for your transgressions. Yes, but that trans. Those.

That condemnation went somewhere. It didn't just fly into space and go away. God took all that condemnation.

He took all that guilt and just put it on Jesus. The abandonment, being left alone when he finally cried out, my God, my God, where have you gone?

Without going into it too much, if you can imagine the greatest connected relationship that's ever been in the existence of all history, we can't even imagine it. Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Father have been one in fellowship since the beginning. In the beginning of the Bible, when it says, it talks about and uses the word us and we, and it's talking about Jesus, the God and the Holy Spirit in this perfect fellowship. They don't need us. They don't need people for fellowship.

They have each other. And it has been perfect for all of time, except for one moment when father turned from his son to even. I mean, a child being lost is terrifying. That doesn't even begin to capture how that abandonment and that loneliness and that separation would have just wrenched Jesus heart apart to be separated and abandoned like that, which he was. Because the fourth thing when God poured out the wrath, his wrath of God upon Jesus on the cross is when God turned his back on Jesus so that he could die with our sins, so he could die with the penalty being paid.

To imagine just the words, the wrath of God is. I mean, what can we do to put words to it. The size of the universe, as big as it is, we're like, there's 200 trillion galaxies and even more universes. It's so big, you can't even begin. It's, like, so big, you can't even think about how big it is.

Like, it's so crazy big. So when you talk about the wrath of God, what do you think that that means? What is that? I mean, you talk about, like, there was a movie, a Star Trek movie. Go.

Star Trek. Right? Many years ago, called the Wrath of Khan. And it was basically about this guy named Khan and his wrath. His anger was like, what the movie was about.

And it's like, he was really angry. I mean, at the end of the movie, he's, like, dying, and he's like, I spit at thee, I hate thee, and I'm gonna kill you. Literally. It's this classic scene with Ricardo Montauban. You guys know who that is?

Nobody, Johnny. Yes, we know that classic scene, but it's the wrath of gone. What? The wrath of Rick? The wrath of anyone.

What is that?

Gosh. The wrath of God.

That's what propitiation is, which we're going to talk about in a second. The wrath of God poured out on Christ while he's on the cross so that he could die with it, so he could pay the penalty. For you and for me.

Number twelve. Seek joy in the cross.

First Peter, 1891, of my life. Verses. Favorite verses. Oh, the inexpressible, inglorious joy that can be yours, that only comes by way of the salvation of your soul. I don't know how else to say it.

Like, how else I pray for, like, I'm like. Like, I find myself often, like, I was sitting at, uh, core the other night, and I'm just praying. There's so many people there. I'm just praying, like, lord, how. Please help them to know, like, real joy.

Like, like, how do. How does. How can they go to the salvation of their souls, to the cross to find joy? And instead of all the other places that they're looking. I want to get married.

I want to have kids. I want to have a better job. I want to be comfortable. I want to be liked by my friends. I want to be popular.

I want to have some money. Like, instead of those things where they are trying to find joy, which I'm well aware that most people in that room are finding their joy. Most of us are still working this out of. And I'm just praying, Lord, but it's like they're looking for it in all the wrong places. If you want inexpressible and glorious joy, it is found in the simplicity of the cross and the gospel.

I promise you it is there. And I promise you again as a reminder, the cross is deep. The truths are deep. You can go and die. There is so much to learn.

There is so much you don't know about the cross. Do you catch that? There's so much you don't know about the gospel. So much and joy. It just doesn't build as you learn and as you dive into all that.

Number 13, study the cross to go alongside what I'm just saying about the depth and what there is to learn.

These are just seven biblical but doctrinal words that you might be able to say, well, I think I kind of know what salvation is or what that is, but do these things. Salvation is actually much deeper than how you or I would probably define it in a sentence. These things are doctrinal terms, ready, not for you not to know because you're not a scholar. When I say propitiation, you should be like everything I just talked about with the wrath of God, and be like, oh, my gosh, propitiation. It's amazing.

It's crazy. Can you imagine the wrath of God poured out on Jesus? Like you know it? When I say substitution, you're like, you understand what that means and the doctrinal implications, the God implications of that. So I'm encouraging you to study if you don't know these words.

I mean, over the years, there are so many things. When I was thinking about just the completed work of Christ and the word complete, it's done and it's finished in the depth of what that means. I have discovered by diving into these things as I have studied, whether it be a systematic theology book or whether it be one of those books that I referred to before, I have studied what justification is and what reconciliation is. And so when I think of the completed work of Christ and that it's done, I'm like, wow. And when I read Ephesians one, I'm like, this is like gold.

This is amazing. It's done. And what that means and the depth of what that means to you, and I promise you it will have a daily effect on you, because suddenly you're living differently, because you are living in the completed work of Christ, and you're like, it's finished. I don't have to add to it, and I can't take away from it. God has done it all.

Praise God.

Study the work of Christ, study the work of the cross. The cross is a blazing fire at which the flame of our love is kindled, but we have to get near enough to it for its sparks to fall on us. John Stott staying near to it means setting your mind on this all the time. Remembering, reminding, building these habits into your life. And I know they're habits that have to be built.

They're not natural things that I would just do naturally. These are things you have to make yourself do. You're going to have to add these things to your list of habits or get rid of other habits because there probably aren't many that would count at this level. And add in these habits so that you are remembering and reminding and diving into the depths of what it means that Jesus died for you because one. John 419 we love because he first loved us.

Ultimately, everything that you're learning about the cross, everything you're learning about the gospel, will keep coming back to one thing.

God loves you like you can't even begin to understand. His love for you is crazy. It's mind blowing. But you won't know that. You don't know how much it loves you till you go here, till you dive into this.

That's where it's found. And over and over again in your life, you'll be like, I can't believe how much God loves me. This is crazy. And it leads to joy that's unspeakable and inexpressible because that's what this does. It shows us God's love.

Let me pray.

Jesus boy, we just come before you, we sit before you. We just thank you. Thank you. Words that don't, don't even begin to.

The only response that we have, Lord, the only thing that we can do, the only response that we can have to such a great love is we just give our lives to you. We lay our life down to say, we are yours. We'll go wherever you ask. We'll take whatever risks you want. We'll go anywhere.

It doesn't matter where that is or what it is. Jesus, what else? There is no other response. This is all we've got. All we have is our lives.

And so we give them to you, Jesus.

Lord, we ask, I ask, we ask that you would teach us more about your love for us, that you would teach us more about your love for us by way of the gospel and the cross and amazing grace.

Lord, I just pray that everyone in here, the rest of their lives would be just a quest and a never ending quest to know the cross. To know the good news and the gospel and nothing else. Just run after Jesus and chase after this amazing grace and all the demonstrations and ways that your love is shown through this. I just pray, Jesus, that you would inflame our hearts towards this. That you would.

That everyone in here, that everyone in here, all of us, 30 years from now, would just weep regularly at the joy of the cross and the joy of grace and the good news that we would live so freely because of and so joyfully and so holy because of this amazing story and this amazing love that you have for us. Teach us more about your great love for us every day, Jesus, and praise things in your name. Amen.