“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” -Philippians 2:5-8
“Our symbol is a cross, not a ladder.” –Burk Parsons
But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. -Hebrews 1:8
Manger empty. Cross empty. Tomb empty. Throne occupied for eternity!
-Dustin Benge via Twitter
“I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob,” -Malachi 1:2
What do you do when you doubt the love of God? Look to Calvary. Look to the cross. Look at what Christ has done for you! -Pastor Steve Wainright
(excerpt from 03/10/2021 Sermon “Doubting God’s Love” from Malachi 1:1-5)
“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” -Psalm 55:22
“Whenever there is a cross to be carried by any of Christ’s followers, He always bears the heavy end on His shoulders. – Spurgeon via Twitter
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” -Romans 3:23-26
“God slayed the most valuable person on the planet to show how much He hates sin and loves His glory.” -John Piper
Sunday Morning| Pastor Steve Wainright | Luke 23:23-31
“And as they led Him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.” -Luke 23:26
Though the Romans randomly picked Simon to carry the cross, God sovereignly chose him for that task. God can use you right where you are and you don’t know how much God is going to use you right where you are.
Look how God worked through Simon’s life! He and his family became believers (Mark 15:21; Romans 16:13; Acts 11:19-20; Acts 13:1-3) and the church in their homeland of Cyrene helped spread the Gospel to Antioch, which was the church that sent out Paul & Barnabas.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” -Philippians 2:5-8
God is in the business of replacing our ladders with his cross. -Tullian Tchividjian via Twitter
“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.” -Galatians 6:14
“There is no other object of knowledge in the universe that exposes proud, man-exalting thinking like the cross does. Only humble, Christ-exalting thinking can survive in the presence of the cross. The effect of the cross on our thinking is not to cut off thinking about God, but to confound boasting in the presence of God. The cross does not nullify thinking; it purifies thinking.”
— John Piper, via Of First Importance
Thinking. Loving. Doing., ed. John Piper & David Mathis
(Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2011), 132
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures…” -1 Corinthians 15:3
Never does the devil triumph so thoroughly, as when he persuades missionaries to keep back the story of the cross. -J.C. Ryle, via John Piper’s Twitter
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.” -Colossians 2:13-14
“Instead of holding them (your failures) up in front of your face and using them as the warrant to send you to hell, He put them in His Son’s hand and nailed them to the cross.” -John Piper (via Mike Donehey’s Twitter)
New Life Baptist Church 