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Sermon: "CROSS ROADS"     

Jeremiah 15:15-21; Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:21-26

 

 

These words of our Lord which I am about to read again are not very popular within our self-indulgent generation: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Matthew 16 NIV)

 

Our first lesson is from the prophet Jeremiah.  Like all the faithful prophets, he was misunderstood and abused as he stood faithful amid an unfaithful generation.  He cries in frustration to God because of the pain.  He suffers for bringing God's word to the people and he becomes angry with God for this.  Why doesn't God protect Him?!  Why should the messenger suffer on account of the message?

 

It isn't fair!  The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ wasn't fair!  It was completely unfair!  It was an innocent man suffering the penalty for a planet of criminals!

 

As with the Lord, the best that our planet has had to offer has been ridiculed and harmed throughout history.  Cain kills Abel!  Angels are endangered in Sodom. 

Joseph is thrown into jail on false charges.  Elijah despairs so deeply over the unfaithfulness of Israel that he wants to die.

 

The author of Hebrews sums up the unfair lot of the faithful very well when he was inspired to write: 

37  They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- 38  the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11 NIV)

 

No--life isn't fair toward the godly, and yet it is through the godly, as they carried their crosses, that the world has been changed for the better.

 

There’s something gripping about that person who stands in the tempest of worldly ways and will not let go of God's truth!  There is a winning power in that individual who shows godly, sacrificial love in a world where most people are only looking out for #1!

 

At this point (I want to warn you in advance), the message is going to sound a bit hard... a bit tough on Christians living in America today.  Yet my friends, a true word,

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