GYC 2014: At The Cross

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Cross-Check: Finding Your Personal Story At the Cross

Sebastien Braxton

1. Cross-Check: Did I Do That?

2. Cross-Words: Lord, Speak to Me… Please!

3. Cross-Hairs: Why Am I Struggling with This Sin?

4. Cross-Roads: I Just Don’t Know What to Do!

5. Cross-Fire: God, Why Didn’t You Come Through For Me?

6. Cross-Movement: I Want It To Matter That I Lived

This message was presented at the GYC 2014 conference at the Cross in Phoenix, Arizona.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Lord, we pray that you give us the strength, give us the guidance, and that you would give us your spirit.

That he may revive us again, that he may speak to us, and Lord, that he may lead us as well.

We love you and we thank you for the story.

And we pray, Father, that we would find that our stories cross with yours.

And as we go into this session on cross words, Lord speak to me, please.

We pray, Father, that you would guide us in this session.

Now, in the first session, we ended with a quote talking about the slaves, black slaves in America.

And 1 of the things that shocked them was as they began to find their story in the story of the cross and they realize that going through their slavery, going through their abuse, that this was just a tale that had already been told.

That there's something that struck them about Christ.

And the thing that struck them is the first in the list of the words that we're going to address in this session.

And that's found in Luke chapter 23 beginning in verse 34.

You find that when Jesus was crucified, there are typically described as 7 last sayings of Jesus.

So supposedly, these are the 7 last things that Jesus said.

And there's a lot of interesting facts that I believe continue to build off of our first session.

All right, the Bible says, before that, let's start in verse 32.

It says, There were also 2 others, criminals, led with him to be put to death.

And when they had come to the place called Calvary, There they crucified him and the criminals, 1 on the right hand and the other on the left.

Then Jesus said, Father forgive them for they do not know what they do.

Now I want you to first understand that the precursor to this phrase is important to get the story.

You see, when we talk about cross words, we're looking at the fact that right before Jesus says this, His cross has just been thrown into the ground.

So the Bible says that as soon as Jesus is hoisted onto the cross, hoisted into a hole, and he's feeling the first pains of crucifixion, his first reaction is not a cry of pain.

Lord give me strength to bear this situation.

His first reaction is, Father, forgive them.

This is an interesting fact to know that the first words of Jesus as he's feeling the first pains is prayer.

That even the pain of crucifixion, even the suffering of the divine judgment, even drinking the cup that he wished would pass from him, his first reaction is to turn heavenward.

His first reaction is to pray and that even in his pain, prayer will not stop Christ.

And not only will it not stop Christ from praying, it won't stop Christ from praying a prayer of intercession.

See I can understand that in many of our stories.

When we find ourselves in great suffering, our first reaction is to pray that this thing will go away.

Our first prayer is, Lord, please resolve this thing.

We say, Lord, you said in Psalm 50, verse 15, call upon you in the day of trouble, and you will deliver me, and I shall glorify you.

So we claim your promise that you will deliver us from this situation but that's not Christ's first prayer.

And it is a wondrous thing to think first of all that Christ's first reaction to his suffering is to pray.

His first words are not to humanity, but his words are for humanity.

His first words are to God in recognizing that, Lord, it is not about how they're offending me.

It's not about the roughness of the soldiers.

He doesn't say Lord give me strength to forgive them.

See we have to start off in our own personal stories and recognize that when we find our story in the cross sometimes we discover that we didn't handle our situation correctly.

You see when you and I are being wronged by someone, and we're talking about cruelly wronged, we're talking about injustice, miscarriage of justice.

Our first reaction is I don't deserve this.

But we find with Jesus, he says, listen, my first thing is to pray, it is to turn to God, not to turn to the people.

Jesus has the capacity to look beyond his own pain.

Can you and I think of a time in our lives, in our stories, where we were able to look beyond our own pain and see God's.

You see, when you and I first think about our suffering, when you and I first think about our discomfort, we're not understanding that what we are feeling is only a microcosm.

It is only an ounce of what he is feeling in your injustice.

Christ doesn't say, Father, help me to forgive them.

He doesn't say, I forgive you even because you don't know what you're doing to me.

Christ doesn't say, listen, guys, Lord, give me strength so that I can maintain a Christ like demeanor in the midst of this situation.

Someone cannot forgive someone unless that person has wronged them.

So because of that Christ is looking down and he's saying okay when you and I are being mistreated when you and I are being mistreated, when you and I are being mishandled, our story says, you know what, I'm gonna tell this person, I'm gonna fight for my rights, I'm gonna confront them, I'm gonna let them know this is how you offended me.

But Jesus says what you need to do is not even let them know how they've offended God.

What you need to do is go to the Father and say, Father forgive them.

And to argue and understand that what I am suffering, they don't even understand what they are doing.

You see the first thing That Jesus teaches us here is that prayer should be the first reaction When we look at our stories in life Is there a time where we found that as soon as the pain set in as soon as the discomfort came?

Not for strength, not for energy, not for a right spirit, but for their own forgiveness.

The second thing that Jesus teaches us in this first saying on the cross, on these cross words is that Jesus remembers that he is still God's child.

He hasn't forgotten his sonship in his pain.

You see it is very quick for us to start asking God why are you allowing this to happen to me?

When we look at our stories, you see, there's something about finding your personal story in the cross that there comes a day, brothers and sisters, and if it hasn't come, I pray that it will come.

That when you and I are going through our pain, when we're going through our difficulties, we still remember that we are still sons and daughters of God.

That we still remember that we can behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.

That we should be called children of God.

That we can remember that now beloved we are the children of God.

Now when I don't see a way out of my situation, now when I feel like I just don't have the energy to go on, I must remember my sonship.

Series

Cross-Check: Finding Your Personal Story At the Cross

2. Cross-Words: Lord, Speak to Me… Please!

Transcript

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