Unconditional Election | Romans 9:1-16
Church at the Cross : Sunday Messages
Scripture: Key Takeaways: 1. God did not promise salvation to every ethnic Israelite, but only to those he chose to be recipients of his saving love (). 2. Generally speaking, Israel did not respond to Jesus in faith (). 3. God faithfulness to Israel is seen in that there is a believing remnant (). 4. God’s faithfulness to his promise to Israel will one day be seen in greater measure when God saves Israel in great numbers (). The Doctrine of Election “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,...
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Does God Keep His Promises? | Romans 9:1-13
Church at the Cross : Sunday Messages
Scripture: Key Takeaways: Does Israel’s spiritual condition mean that God doesn’t keep his promises or that God can’t accomplish his purposes? Not every physical descendent of Israel truly belongs to Israel.
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Good Questions | Week 4: Why Do You Call Me Lord And Do Not Do What I Say? | Luke 6:46-49
Church at the Cross : Sunday Messages
Scripture: Key Takeaways: “Our commitment to Jesus can stand on no other foundation than a recognition that he is the one who knows the truth about our lives and our universe…Could we seriously imagine that Jesus could be Lord if he were not smart? If he were divine, would he be dumb? Or uninformed? Once you stop to think about it, how could he be what we take him to be in all other respects and not be the best-informed and most intelligent person of all, the smartest person that ever lived? He is not just nice, he is brilliant…‘Jesus is Lord ’can mean little in...
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Good Questions | Easter | Week 3: Why Do You Seek The Living Among The Dead? | Luke 24:1-12
Church at the Cross : Sunday Messages
Scripture: Key Takeaways: Jesus did rise from the dead and Christianity is true, and you must honestly face it. OR Jesus did not rise from the dead and Christianity is false, and you can completely forget it. Jesus did not die. (“Swoon Theory”) The disciples were deceived. The disciples were deceivers. You won’t find Jesus among the dead. You won’t find life away from Jesus.
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Good Questions | Week 2: Why Do You Spend Your Money On What Is Not Bread? | Isaiah 55:1-9
Church at the Cross : Sunday Messages
Scripture: Key Takeaways: The greatest things we need are found in a relationship with God. “What causes us to be fickle is the realization that our present pleasures are false, while failing to realize that absent pleasures are also vain.” Blaise Pascal. The Greatest things we need are completely free. Anything that would lead you away from God, or rise above him, is an enemy to your joy. “...in the past couple of years, I have noticed a happiness pattern that relates to politics. Namely, the people most in...
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Good Questions | Week 1: Where Are You? | Genesis 3:1-15
Church at the Cross : Sunday Messages
Scripture: Key Takeaways: Hide from God Cover Up Make Excuses and Shift Blame Face Ourselves Face God Receive Grace Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, Weak and wounded, sick and sore Jesus ready stands to save you, Full of pity, love and pow'r. I will arise and go to Jesus, He will embrace me in His arms In the arms of my dear Savior, Oh, there are ten thousand charms. – Joseph Hart (1759).
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The Love of God and Christian Assurance | Romans 8:31-39
Church at the Cross : Sunday Messages
Scripture: Key Takeaways: God is for us and is greater than anyone or anything against us. God will give us every small thing we need, because he has already given us the Greatest thing we need “Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy; —but the Father, for love!’ Octavius Winslow God will always accept us in Jesus no matter what accusations are brought against us. Jesus, Thy robe of righteousness; My beauty is, my glorious dress; ‘Midst flaming worlds, in this arrayed, With...
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All Things for Good | Romans 8:28-30
Church at the Cross : Sunday Messages
Scripture: Key Takeaways: The bad things will all be turned to good. The good things can never be taken away from you. “What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that he knows me.. I know him because he first knew me, and continues to know me. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort—the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates—in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge...
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Prayer, Let's Get Practical | John 16:20-28
Church at the Cross : Sunday Messages
Scripture: Key Takeaways: Prayer is a Privilege secured for us by Jesus. “God is radically committed to my life of prayer. He shed the blood of His Son so that I might be cleansed and rendered fit to stand before Him in love. He also permitted the brutal rending of His Son so that I might now have a way to enter into the Holy Place through the torn flesh of Jesus. ‘Draw near,’ he says… How can I not feel the infinite sincerity of these invitations, especially when considering the painful lengths that God endured so that I might enter his presence in prayer....
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The Spirit’s Presence and Prayers | Romans 8:26-27
Church at the Cross : Sunday Messages
Summary: Scripture: Key Takeaways: + Presence + Prayer
info_outline“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” 4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. 5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:1–6) ESV
What blocks Renewal?
"Their concern was for healing rather than cleansing. They wanted God to make things right in their nation, but they did not come with broken hearts and surrendered wills. They wanted happiness but not holiness. They wanted a change in circumstances but not a change in character. They wanted rescue from their situation but not deliverance from their sins. - Warren Wiersbe
What Catalyzes Renewal?
9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. 10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13) ESV
"Halfhearted Christians are the most miserable people of all. They know enough to feel guilty but they haven't gone far enough in Christ to be happy"- Ray Ortland
How do we Contend for Renewal?
Prepare in the Hidden Place
Delight in Discipleship
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O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit. (Ho 14:8).
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I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (Jn 15:5) ESV
Patiently play your part