His Cross Part 3

[background music] Teaching and fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God waitly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. To everlasting, to everlasting, my Oluwa titi lailai. titi lailai, titi lailai, my Oluwa titi lailai. titi lailai, titi lailai. [Speaker 1] Our Father, we are grateful unto You. We thank You again for the privilege of gathering together to fellowship in the scriptures, to fellowship with the scriptures. We thank You, our God, for a time like this. We thank You, Lord, for Your presence. We thank You again as we all gathered together unto You, we who are physically here for the meeting, our brethren who are joining us on Mixlr and on Telegram. We thank You as we all fellowship together. Lord, we pray that everywhere we are connecting with the discipleship class, Lord, we pray that You will meet with us in the name of Jesus Christ. Our Father, our eyes on You. The Bible says Paul plants, Apollos waters, but it is God that gives increase. Lord, we pray that You will give increase to the meeting in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, everlasting Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We are grateful to God again that we are here in His presence. We started the topic "His Cross," that was two weeks ago. We began to look at the matter of His cross. We saw from the book of Timothy that the Spirit of God made it very clear through Apostle Paul that there's going to be a latter time. And that latter time will be characterized by different happenings. We tried to itemize them in line with scriptures. It will be difficult to be a Christian. Men shall be lovers of themselves, heady, proud. A lot of things were listed. And we became interested in one major thing among what was listed, that is, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. The power to make people live a godly life. That there will be people who will have a form of godliness. And we linked that to the life of the Pharisees, pharisaism of our days, men who are vast in scriptures but cannot live the life of God, men who are vast in spiritual gift but cannot live the life of God, men who are active members of different fellowships but cannot live the life of God, that life of uprightness, that life of holiness, that life which is a display of righteousness. In the second edition, which was last week, we continued from where we stopped three weeks ago. We were looking at the example of the church in Corinth. And we saw, looking at that church, the church was a church that was privileged with knowledge. The church was privileged with utterance. The church was privileged with spiritual gift. But we noticed that as privileged as that church was, that church was a carnal church. It was a carnal church, the church in Corinth was a carnal church. And we noticed that when Paul was to begin to address the problem of that church in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul began by calling our attention in the verse 10 of that 1 Corinthians 1. He noted that, "Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, 'I am of Paul,' 'I am of Apollos,' 'I am of Cephas,' 'I am of Christ.' Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say I baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be of no effect." And one thing that came out very clearly in Paul instructing that church was that there was a departure from the gospel. There's a departure from the preaching of Christ. And when he was to sum up that in the verse 18, he said, "for the message of the cross is foolishness." So the gospel is about the cross. Anything outside the cross is not the gospel. And then when he got to chapter 2, he raised a very crucial thing in chapter 2. He said, "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or excellence of wisdom declaring the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Christ and Him crucified." So we noticed that when Paul was looking at this church last week, it's a good example of how men can have a form of godliness but deny the power. In 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, we were able to see that the cross, the gospel, is the wisdom of God and is the power of God. When we leave denominationalism and so many other things we want to people preach today, our tradition, our practice, our convention, the way we do things, our this, our that, all of these make people to have a form of godliness. They will look as if they are godly. But when it comes to living holy life, can you live above telling lies? Can you live above fornication? Can you live above the corruption in Nigeria? Because the claim is that somebody was saying, "Sometimes I say God will have special mercy on Nigerians because God knows that in Nigeria it's difficult to be a Christian." And I just laugh. I laughed because the person was talking seriously. He says, "When you go to places like US, America, the society itself help you to live right, but here if you want to live right the society will kill you." And I said, "Do you remember Daniel?" Daniel was the only light in the midst of godlessness, and he was able to shine the light of God in the kingdom of Babylon. In Nigeria, do we have only one Christian? So we're talking of the reason why people could not live the life of God, it's because we left the cross. We left the cross. The cross is the power. The power to live right is the cross. So the Corinthian church was a classical example that we looked at last week. It's unfortunate for that church. They were gifted, they have utterance, they have every other thing, and like we noted last week, what do you find among them? Brother taking brothers to court, a man sleeping with his father's wife and he's boasting. He said no, that is the Apollos dimension, not the Pauline dimension, the kind of claim we claim today. "In our own church, our own doctrine," different kinds of claim today. We saw that church. So we saw that it becomes very important today to address the matter of the cross because the cross, like we noted last week, was what we left. We left it, not knowing that the cross is the only place we can get power and wisdom. So as we continue in the series today to build on this matter, I want us to look at a statement that was made last week which is where I'm taking it from that statement today. Something was said last week. We noted that what actually is the problem of humanity? Sin. That's the problem of humanity. When you're talking of uprightness, you're talking of godliness, you're talking of living right, living correctly, having the power of God, all of that, what we're talking about is that human beings should have victory over sin. And brethren, I want us to look at it very practically, this matter of His cross. The matter of His cross. Now, you know that before Jesus came, before the matter of the cross, there have been miracles. True or false? The miracle was so much that somebody died. The dead person, the bone, another person that was dead, when the dead man touched the bone of the person that was dead, not a living man, I'm talking about power. You know who I'm talking about, Elisha. People were trying to go and bury their dead and then they saw the Syrians coming to attack them. In a bid of running away, they threw the dead man. Immediately the dead man touched the bone of Elisha, the man came back to life and joined those that were running. That was power. I'm showing you power. But despite that power, there was no life. I want to talk about this matter of His cross because the cross is where the church is missing it today. The cross is where the church is missing it. That's I'm talking about miracles. There have been miracles. Or please, how do you explain a man... it is easy to read Samson's story in the Bible when you just read it. Samson killed 1,000 Philistines, he took the jawbone of a lion and killed. But please, let's put it practically. Is it that when he's facing this one, Angel Gabriel is at the back to hold the one that want to spear him from the back? Do you know what it means for somebody to be in the midst of 1,000 people and he killed the 1,000? Please explain how. Those are the things we watch in Spider-Man, Spider-Man. You get power... you know those Spider-Man things. It is just fiction. Somebody just does something... but please, how do you want to explain in real life that one man will just stand like this and then nobody could kill him from behind? Nobody could hit a stick on his head and he will fall down. What I'm trying to talk about is that when the Bible says Samson killed 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a lion, those things are mysterious. Those things are things we cannot ordinarily explain. But what was the problem in that Samson? At the height of that display, he was in the pitch of ungodliness. He could not live the life of God. He was busy sleeping with harlots here, sleeping with that one there. Do you get the point I'm making? And in the midst of sleeping here and there, he also got Delilah. You know Delilah, the liar, they look de-lila, the liar. And of course, you know how the whole story went. But what I'm trying to make you see was that the issue was this issue of the life of God. What I'm trying to make you understand is that Abraham, Jesus said he rejoiced to see my days. They were all waiting for somebody to be lifted up on the cross. They could not get eternal life. And that is why you notice that despite all those things we saw in the Old Testament, how will one man just stand like this and the whole army of terrorists were coming and he said, "God, smite them with blindness." He didn't carry any AK-47. I'm trying to explain dimensions to you. The whole army of a country could not capture a man. The man was not carrying no bodyguard, no escort. And they just came. The servant was busy running here and there, the man was not moved. He was operating from the frequency that I've not seen any of us operating today. I'm talking about, I'm trying to make you understand the matter of the cross, where the church missed it. I'm trying to make you know what makes us to be different. But unfortunately we have left what was given to us. We shifted to some other things. And as they were coming, they were coming, the servant was busy running here and there, and the man just said, "Young man, don't fear. Those that be with us are more than those that be with them." Please, he wasn't praying to see those that be with them. That was a level of operation that somebody operated written for us to see. And as they got close to him, and when his servant could not rest, he said, "God, help this small boy, open his eyes so he can come to my level." Are you following me? The reason why I'm showing you these things was that these things, they were not fictions. It's not as if Elisha had adverted that, "When they come, all of you will now close your eyes as if you are blind." They were not acting a drama. They were not shooting a film. So when you are shooting a film, you already preempt what the other person will do. "Once I just do this, all of you will fall down, just like this." "Okay, not perfect, not perfect, take the camera again, they repeat." That was not what was going on. And he just said, "Okay, when the boy was now stable," and they came, he said, "Lord, just smite them with blindness." And they began to do like this, like this. He said, "Okay, who are you even looking for?" They said, "Actually, we are looking for—" "Oh, this is not the place, let me lead you." One man led the whole army of a nation. When they got it to the king of Israel, he said, "Okay, give them party, give them food to eat, and then release them to go." The Bible says they never came again to Israel. Who can do that today for the terrorists that are attacking us? Who can do that today against the gunmen? These people operated on something that still did not have eternal life. Eternal life had not been given as at that time. Eternal life was to be given where? In the cross. I'm trying to make you understand the background to the matter of this cross. What actually is the problem? It was the cross of Jesus that divides the Old Testament from the New. If it is miracle, they have done miracles before. If it is raising the dead, Jesus was not the first. That is why you notice that when He started doing it, they said, "Ah, some of the old prophets have come back to life." So He has not done anything new in the miraculous sign. If He feed ten thousand or five thousand, that is nothing new. Moses fed over one million people. They were not farming. Their clothes was growing with them. Have you thought about that? Their clothes, as they were growing. How do you explain that? People were not farming. The Bible says they were eating the food of angels. As at this time, there was no eternal life. I'm trying to explain to you the importance of this cross, what this cross ordinarily manifest. So that you need to when we are talking about the exceedingly greatness of His power which God wrought when He raised Him from the dead, we are not talking of all this one that we have seen in the Old Testament. Because it was by that death and resurrection that we talk about what? The New Testament. He said, "And I, if I be lifted up, I will draw men unto myself." So the sum total, and you will notice it, that immediately He came back to life, what did He say? "All powers in heaven and on earth have been given. Now go." So when you talk about healing the sick, I will remind you that Elisha, they brought to him a man that was having leprosy, you remember, Naaman. Just like that centurion said, "You don't need to get close to my house, just speak the word." Elisha was in his house, he didn't come out. He said, "Tell him to go and wash in the pool... He's not, 'Hey, God, you!' there was nothing. Tell him to go and wash in the pool of Jordan, he will be well." So that Jesus healed leprosy, that's not the real thing about Jesus. That's not the big thing about Jesus. If that is what it's about Jesus, there's no different from the Old Testament. That's not the key thing about Jesus. I'm talking about this cross. So you notice that we have have dimensions and display of the power of God. I mean miraculous display of God's power, miracles, signs, wonders. And please, brethren, brethren, if I'm to ask you, those miraculous signs and wonders that were displayed by Jesus, how many were done for the disciples? How many? Was it not just that they healed Peter's mother-in-law? All the cleaning of lepers, all those things, raising the dead, who was that done for? Multitudes. To tell you that that is not even the children's bread. Those were just side attractions. They were not the key thing about Jesus. I'm trying to make you understand the cross. They were not the key thing about Jesus. They were not the key thing about the cross. So that you need to when we are talking about the cross of Jesus, you must have a clear understanding of this cross. You must have a clear understanding of what actually the cross came to do. Because if it's about miraculous signs and wonders, the cross did nothing new. It's doing nothing new. If it's about provision, it is not. I want to tell you, ever before the cross came, if you think that the cross is about financial prosperity, ever before the cross came, the Bible says Solomon made gold to be like sand. So the cross transcend that. The cross is essentially... it is important, it is essentially, we are talking about the cross and what you want to zero the cross into is financial prosperity, don't you see that you are limiting the cross? Because without the cross, men have prospered in a way that we cannot explain. Go and look at the architecture of the building that Solomon built. Go and please go and take modern day English and read those things, the structure, the length, the dimension, the columns, the pillars, the beam, those things that were constructed. So what I'm trying to bring out, if you are talking of if you are talking of if you are talking of I don't know which dimension again I want to go, but it is important to know that a lot had been before the cross came. Men were able to get it without Jesus. If men could get it without Jesus, then what did Jesus come to do? So if we narrow down the cross to all of this that have been before the cross, then what is the essence of Jesus's cross? Then why did Jesus die the way He died? It would not have been necessary. It would not have been necessary. So that you notice that what we are trying to look at last week with the Corinth church, utterance, spiritual gift, spiritual power, and they were thinking that, "Yeah, we have arrived." And Paul said, "I will describe you as carnal. For I've only fed you with milk, not with meat." Despite all the things that they were doing that were calling spirituality, he said, "They only have milk, they don't have meat yet." If you go to chapter 3, he said, "You are living just as men." So the point, what I'm trying to first try to do this evening, building on what we discussed last week, I'm trying to first address what you must not limit the cross to. Don't limit the cross, the cross because no, don't limit the cross. There is something about the cross that is beyond spiritual power, display of miracle, sign, wonders. There's something about the cross that is beyond that. Raising the dead, all of those things, they are wonderful but the cross is beyond that. Provision, supply, the cross is beyond that. Prosperity, riches, the cross is beyond that. The cross is beyond all of those things. But unfortunately, what have we centered the gospel to today? Brethren, what have we centered the gospel into today? Miraculous power, provision, riches. But I am showing you that the cross, ever before the cross came, those things have been there. Men were able to get it without Jesus. If men could get it without Jesus, then what did Jesus come to do? Somewhere saying that the cross give us covenant of long life. Methuselah lived for 900 plus. There was no cross. Yet there was no eternal life in it. Moses was 120. There are those that live for 730, this, that. Do you get the point I'm making? If you are thinking that the cross is about long life, the person who brought eternal life to us lived for 33 years. What I'm trying to say is disabuse your mind from all of all of these things. They are not the center of the cross of Jesus. They are not the core. You know when you take a circle, you talk about the circumference, then you talk about the core of the circle, that is the center of the circle. The as well as of the cross have become the reason for the cross today. The as well as. And that is why that is why what have we centered the gospel to today? Miraculous power, provisions, riches. But I am showing you that the cross, ever before the cross came, those things have been there. Men were able to get it without Jesus. If men could get it without Jesus, then what did Jesus come to do? Does common sense not tell you that if FPS-14 was better than SPS-21, it's better not to move to the that 21? You stay with the old. That's why you still see some people, they will stay with windows, they will still stay with Windows 7. Am I not correct? They say "I don't want to move to Windows 10, don't move me on." It's Windows 7 is what is good for me. For them it is better. There are some men like that today who still believe that the law is better than grace. "No, no, the law, let's be, let's go back, the law is better. Let's stay in the law, let us not move to grace." But you know, unlike that of man, if God says it is better, we can be sure it is better. So we must move to that which is better. That's what I'm talking about His cross. What is His cross? The cross of the Lord. The cross of Jesus. Look at something that Apostle Paul said. I just want to show you something in the book of Philippians. I just want to disabuse your mind from what the cross is not. That's what I want to especially deal with this evening. Then we'll now begin to come gradually as we go on in the series into what exactly is the cross about. That is, what exactly is the essence of the gospel? What make it good news? Why is this news better than what happened before? What make it this one good? What make it better? Because we say we have a better testament, is that not true? So what made it better? That's the point we are trying to make. What made it better? If it is better, it must have all those ones with something additional, something different. Look at it from everyday life. You say new model of a car, SPS-14, SPS-17, SPS-19, SPS-21. What do you notice about it? It will be giving you something better than what the old one could do. If you use the old one, there are some things you can do but you will not be able to do except you move to the other better, are you understanding me? So if the New Testament is better, then we should be able to do those ones, but there will be something those ones could not do. But if we now say that the better is even below the old one, then of all men we are the most miserable. So we must move to that which is better. If God says it is better. So we must move to that which is better. That's what I'm talking about His cross. What is His cross? The cross of the Lord. The cross of Jesus. Look at something that Apostle Paul said. Let's look at something in the book of Philippians. Book of Philippians, let's look at something there, the book of Philippians. I want us to it should be chapter 3. Just want to show you something that Apostle Paul said just for to challenge our heart and to encourage us, brethren. There is something about this cross, this gospel, that our generation is yet to enter into. That's my belief. This gospel, if we, if we, if we... there are truths we still don't know. That's my belief. Honestly I'm telling you, there are truths we don't know because until we know the truth we cannot be free. You can't operate at a level of what you don't know. Just like salvation. He said, "how will they believe except they hear the gospel? How will they go and preach except they are sent?" So I, I, I, I... when I began to look at what operate in the Old Testament, I keep, I keep having a deep sense of understanding that there is something about these riches that we don't know. Please, what do you think, please, ordinarily please look at something. What do you think for example? Just I want to say something. Just I want to give you some flash, some of the things that bothered my mind that led to this matter of let's look at His cross. Somebody was speaking, that was Apostle Paul. He said, "we know that all this present suffering cannot be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us." He left that. He said, "look, I'm even in a constraint whether I should go or whether I should stay. If I go it's more beneficial for me." They were wanting to go. What were they seeing? Why we are wanting to stay. You're not understanding me. They are seeing something that we are not seeing. That is why somebody can just point one million to you and you say "tell lie for one million," you easily tell lie because you can't see where you are going. But if some people are seeing that ah, it is better to go to be with Him, what were they seeing? Could they be seeing what Jesus saw when Jesus said, "what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" Do you know that ordinarily, even if you put the whole world together, the value of it is less than the value of your soul? And yet, one billion naira, you say you will lie for one billion. If they put the whole billions together, the whole dollars, the whole pounds, the value still less than the value of your soul. So if you can really see the dimensions of God... are you understanding me at all? There is something about this cross. That's what I'm saying. There is something about this cross. There are, there are heritage, there are riches, there are, there are, there are things that have been given to us in Christ which because we don't know is making us to operate at a level, at a frequency, at a point where distractions are becoming attractions. I was discussing with somebody. I said, "Listen, right now they have not put gun at your head and say Jesus or your life, choose one." You have not gotten to that point. You cannot live for God. What is distracting you now is just something on WhatsApp, you saw one naked woman and you're running to pornography. That one is not distraction, distracting you away. If you cannot live above distraction, when it comes to they now put gun at your throat, will you live? Will you be able to live? You see I'm saying all of these things, but what do you think will make men one by one they were seeing lions, they were seeing this, said "Okay, deny Jesus or you're thrown to lions," and they were joyfully going to the lions. What were they seeing? Kinri? Or how do you explain that you took a man that Peter was much older in age. Okay, if you don't even know whether he's much older in age, you know there was a wife. They went to visit the mother-in-law, so he's a married man. What do you think will make them take a married man, giving him cane, why, why, why, and when they were through with the beating, they began to thank God? "Moshorire o, moshorire." What were they seeing? What were they seeing? Are you understanding me at all? What is it that they were seeing that our generation today, suffering for the cross is not a glory? Rather, we'll go and commit suicide. Do you see the way I was disgraced and embarrassed today? Do you know what kind of embarrassment to cane an elder in the public? Do you know the shame and embarrassment that goes with that? And yet after the caning, the Bible says they began to, they were, it was a matter of joy and rejoicing. Is there not something about this cross that we are not seeing? Do you notice that our own glory today is not in the cross? The what we glory in, what is making us happy today, do you know it is not about the cross? Do you narrowly see that there is more joy in promotion in your career than over a soul that is that gets to heaven? I'm talking about a shift. There is a shift. And the problem is, the problem is that we have not seen the cross. That's what I'm trying to make you understand. What is the... I'm trying to make you see that the glory of the cross, it does not surpass all that we have seen before? Then it is not better. So there is something that we are not seeing, that is why we are leaving the cross. That's why the cross is not our glory. That's why the cross is not our rejoicing. For example, when Jesus said, "Blessed are you when men persecute you, do everything," He said, "Rejoice and be glad." How many men today really rejoice and are glad? How many people really rejoice when He says "Rejoice and be glad for great is your reward in heaven"? How many men are really rejoicing? Let's look at it today. As the object of our joy, the object of our rejoicing, is it in that suffering for the cross? Don't you see that there is something about the cross that we have not seen? Look at what Apostle Paul said in Philippians. I just want to show you something. Philippians chapter 3. I read from verse 1. "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe." Hallelujah! Even the way things are today, brethren, let us rejoice, let us rejoice. The times are hard, they are so difficult, honestly, but we can be joyful. "For me to write the same thing to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe." You need to, do you know that sometimes when I see a light in scriptures... maybe a sentence in a scripture... I see the light. The light in a scripture... maybe a sentence in a scripture. Sometimes that sentence, the Holy Spirit can be with me on that sentence every day for a month... I don't mean weekly... every day, Monday, Tuesday, still on that sentence. You keep turning, you keep turning, you keep turning, you keep turning, you keep turning, you keep turning... it becomes flesh. That's what we call meditation. Meditation turns things to... it becomes a practical thing, it becomes flesh. The Word became flesh. It is by the power of meditation. We have lost that discipline today. Most of the time we read and study Bible but we don't meditate. Constancy, staying with something constantly, constantly until it becomes flesh. That's what he's saying. "For me it is not tedious, for you it is safe." Watch out for those dogs, those wicked men and their evil deeds, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship God in the Spirit. We worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus and we have no confidence in the flesh. Note those three things. "For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit. We worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus and we have no confidence in the flesh." For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus and we put no confidence in the flesh. For we who worship God in the Spirit are the ones who are truly circumcised. We who worship God in the Spirit. For we put no confidence in human efforts. We put no confidence in human efforts. Instead, we boast about what Christ has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort. Instead, we boast about what Christ has done for us. [Speaker 1] First, Christianity is first a worship in the Spirit. Two, Christianity is not centered in anything apart from what Christ did for us. Now, look at what he now said. "Though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I have more." He began to count. "Circumcised on the eighth day." He began to count if you want to boast about confidence in the flesh... it's not as if he's not circumcised. Me too, if you want to boast, I was circumcised on the eighth day, of the stock of Israel. You know what that means? You know some went, some are the Hellenists, you have the Hellenist Jews and the Grecian Jews. Those ones that became part of the Samaritan... when Jesus was giving story of the Samaritan, the man was trying to justify his love for only the Hellenist Jews and not the Grecian Jews. Anyone anywhere, not just by sectionalizing. You don't sectionalize. He said, "Me, we are the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin." You know what he's trying to say? You know the 12 tribes? Only two were the actual wives: Rachel and Leah. The other ones came by competition, the concubines. You also notice that when Jacob was to face Esau, he arranged them in such a way... the concubines were in front. So if they want to begin to finish them, first finish the "as well as" some tribe. Although it's 12 tribe, it's the mentality even of the Jews. Some are special than some. We, we are not from the concubines. We are not even from the one that they exchange over the night. You know they were to sleep with Rachel, but they trick the man and they gave him somebody that is not what he labored for. When he woke up in the morning, "Ewo!" And I just wonder how Leah would have been talking that night, she want to talk like Rachel. I don't know how she would have tried over that night. Lighting was not like our day. And then by the morning, the man went back to, "Ah, Oga, you change my wife. This is not the one that I worked for." Then he now told him, "You will serve again. Do the feast for another seven days... but you will now serve for seven years for that one." The Bible says that seven years they were like seven days for Jacob because of his love for Rachel. That is what he's trying to say here. We, we are not circumstantial. We came from the core of affection. We are not just from all those Ruben, Danites, we are not from all those ones. We are the original, our gangan, we are the real wives. Those ones were not, they were not the correct ones. That's why he's saying that if people want to boast in the flesh, me too I have what to... how many of us today, you want to glory "do you know that I have a first class degree from the best university in the world, I have this, that." That you are even a Christian, we don't know. I make millions per day... have you seen that car? We have so many things in which we boast. That's what one want to be known by. That's the point he's making. "Hebrew of Hebrews concerning the law, a Pharisee." Experts in the law. "Concerning zeal, persecuting the church." If you want to have zeal for God, nobody have zeal up to me. I'm a zealous person... "concerning righteousness of the law, blameless." But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for what? For the excellence of what? Of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Do you see that? He's talking that we boast in what Christ have done. That is why I'm telling you that the reason why what Christ have done have not become the number one thing in your life is that you don't even know what He had done for you. That is why the things that you do, they are more excellent to you. What you do, they are looking the best to you because you don't know what He has done for you. You are ignorant of them. If you truly know them, there will be nothing again to boast about apart from... they will become the excellent. For whom I have suffered the loss of what? All things. And count them as what? As what? Dung. I count them as rubbish. I count them as garbage. I count them as rubbish. I dump it all as trash. All those things I count them as rubbish so that I can embrace Christ. I count them as nothing so that I can embrace Christ. I'm trying to show you something. Disabuse your mind from all of these things. They are not the center of the cross of Jesus. They are not the core. When you take a circle, talk about the circumference, then you talk about the core of the circle, the center of the circle. The "as well as" of the cross have become the reason for the cross today. And that is why... what have we centered the gospel to today? Miraculous power, provisions, riches. But I am showing you that the cross... ever before the cross came, those things have been there. Men were able to get it without Jesus. If men could get it without Jesus, then what did Jesus come to do? Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is like a land which a man discovered. He now went and did what? He sold everything that he had to go and... what is in that land? Something that is for the..." so do you know that if you have not sold some things in your property, in the things you count as important to you, you don't know what is in that land. The man sold everything. So you will notice that if you are still... give me small part of it. I don't need this side because I don't want to lose, I don't want to... I don't have the money and I don't want to sell this one that I have. What is it telling you? It means you must be blind. It means you must be unaware. It means you are ignorant of the actual estimation and value of that land. That is why the other land that you have is still more valuable to you. Something happened recently with us... a friend of ours was trying to sell a land that was facing the main road. And we were thinking that if they will sell that one to us, what we'll do, we'll go and sell the one that we have somewhere, add money to it and go and buy that one. Why? Because we saw facing the road as an advantage. What I'm trying to make you see, until you see the advantages that are in the cross, you keep gripping other things apart from the cross. Let us pray. We stop here this evening. The cross, the cross of Jesus, is all about Jesus. There is nothing outside this Christ. But what I tried to do is disabuse your mind from what you think the cross is about. The cross is more than all of that. The cross is more than all of those things. It's more than all of that. It's more than all of those things. It's more than miraculous signs and wonders. The cross surpasses that. Raising the dead, the cross is beyond that. Provision, supply, the cross is beyond that. Prosperity, riches, the cross is beyond that. The cross is beyond all of those things. But unfortunately, what have we centered the gospel to today? Miraculous power, provision, riches. But I am showing you that the cross, ever before the cross came, those things have been there. Men were able to get it without Jesus. If men could get it without Jesus, then what did Jesus come to do? Some were saying that the cross give us covenant of long life. Methuselah lived for 900 plus. There was no cross. Moses was 120. There are those that lived for 730, this, that. The person who brought eternal life to us lived for 33 years. What I'm trying to say is disabuse your mind from all of these things. They are not the center of the cross of Jesus. They are not the core. You know when you take a circle, you talk about the circumference, then you talk about the core of the circle, that is the center of the circle. The "as well as" of the cross have become the reason for the cross today. And that is why that is why what have we centered the gospel to today? Miraculous power, provisions, riches. But I am showing you that the cross, ever before the cross came, those things have been there. Men were able to get it without Jesus. If men could get it without Jesus, then what did Jesus come to do? Does common sense not tell you that if FPS-14 was better than SPS-21, it's better not to move to the that 21? You stay with the old. That's why you still see some people, they will stay with windows, they will still stay with Windows 7. Am I not correct? They say "I don't want to move to Windows 10, don't move me on." It's Windows 7 is what is good for me. For them it is better. There are some men like that today who still believe that the law is better than grace. "No, no, the law, let's be, let's go back, the law is better. Let's stay in the law, let us not move to grace." But you know, unlike that of man, if God says it is better, we can be sure it is better. So we must move to that which is better. That's what I'm talking about: His cross. What is His cross? The cross of the Lord. The cross of Jesus. The cross of Jesus. [Speaker 2] Dear Lord, we thank You so much for all that You have said to us tonight and all that You will still say to us. You are rousing our curiosity. We are looking forward to the understanding of the cross. Father, we pray You will bring us there in the name of Jesus Christ. You will open our eyes to see the essence of the cross so that we can embrace it better, so that we can carry it much more with jealousy, so that, Lord, we can prize it much more above every other thing around us, so that we can be confident in it. Oh Lord, please open our understanding in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You for Your son that You are using and You have used tonight. Help him to understand even much more, much better, much more than he has understood now. Help him to understand further. This cross that surpasses every other thing. And the man, Jesus Christ, was saying that parable, He said a man saw the land and went and sold everything he had, everything, nothing was left, and he carried the money and went to buy that land, bare land. There was something there. Oh Lord, we pray for Your son as he is leading us in this quest, in this finding, please open his eyes, oh Lord, clearly to see so that he can further point men to it in the name of Jesus Christ. As we go, please don't let the burden of this matter depart from our heart in the name of Jesus Christ. Help us even in our individual search for it, oh Lord, in Jesus' name. Thank You, Father, in Jesus' name we have prayed. Amen. [All] The grace together. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forever. Amen. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! [background music] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's Word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission hit. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday 5:00 PM, adolescents and singles club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM, marriage forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM, family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and every day counseling. For further counsel, you can reach us at our location Life Camp by the first bridge, Ileme community opposite very joyful filling station along Ijele Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.