Thank You For The Cross My Friend

Dear Father God, it's thanksgiving. You're giving, and very often we're not

thankful. Help us to offer an offering of praise to you for Jesus' sake.

Yours in the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I'm

looking at our clock and I'm going to summarize my message today because we have

a fellowship meal and we've had a lot of blessing today. So let me

just kind of pull it together. Can I do that with you? Christ

came into this world to end the works of the devil, to put an

end to it. He came to cleanse us, clean us and make us

his that's a fact. And Zachari three to nine, And you don't have

to look at it, but there's a prophecy. Joshua, the high Priest,

is standing before the door of the temple. Satan is standing there.

Christ as the Angel, the Lord, is standing there. And Christ took

the form of a blue sapphire stone in the Old test it. In fact,

we learned that he had seven eyes, just like the seven eyes on

the lamb, and Zachari had three. That stone before Joshua, he says,

behold before the stone before Joshua referring to the Angel of the Lord.

I will open its opening, and I will remove he says, with seven

wells, I will open this opening, removed the eniquity of the land in

a single day. Now, that's what Zacharai thirteen one is getting at.

On that day there will be a fountain open for the house of David and

the inhabitants of Jerusalem. What does it say in the text to cleanse them

from sin and uncleanness. I don't know about you, but I want to

be clean. Christ hung on that cross for me. My sins put him

there, Your sins put him there, And that Roman spear reached deep into

Jesus's side, and from jesus heart came out blood and water. And we

are clean. We are forgiven because of the sacrifice of Christ. I am

thankful for the cross in verse two of Zacharai thirteen. And on that day,

says the Lord of Hosts, I'll cut off the names of the idols

from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. I will

remember. I remove them from the land, the prophets and the unclean spirit.

We have idols in our lives at times, don't we where we think

of things more than Christ, where we don't spend the time with the Lord

when we could. And God is saying, look, when you really come

to grips with the sacrifice of Christ, when you really come to see what

I went through in the cross for you, You're gonna get those idols out

of your life. I'm going to remove them because I want Christ in you,

the hope of glory. When God makes our hearts clean, they will

be clean. Verse three. And if anyone again appears as a prophet,

his father and mother who bore him, will say to you, you will

not live, for you speak lies in the name of the Lord, and

his father and mother who bore him, shall pierce him through when he prophesies.

This is a hyperbole for saying, never again will there be a mixing

of truth and error. God spokespeople will speak the truth. It will be

God's truth. It will be uncompromised. I'm grateful today for my Bible.

What about you? I mean, this book contains the wisdom of God for

salvation for you and me. It is all complete. Christ lives and breathes

within our Bible. Thank God for the word of God. And the prophet

is saying, one day God will have clean spokesmans for his word Verse four.

And on that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision. When

he prophesies, he will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive.

Now, who wore a hairy mantle in the Old Testament as a prophet?

You know it was Elijah, the prophet who wore the same thing in

the New Testament, John the Badness, two of the greatest prophets. But

someone else wore our harry mantle. Who was a prophet in the Old Testament?

Who was he? Do you know Jacob? When he deceived his father

to steal the birthright? He later became a prophet, So he's mixing the

two here. Will not be like Jacob bitnymore. God's word, God's truth

will make a difference, And the prophet, the false prophet, will give

up his bad trade because he'll be enamored with what has happened. When the

fountain is opened up, even the wolf in sheep's clothing can be changed Verse

five. But he will say, I am no prophet. I am a

tiller of the soil, for the land has been my possession since my youth.

Instead of tearing down the work of God, he will build it up

by farming for God, sowing seeds for God. About you, there are

people in my neighborhood who need kindness? Are they yours? There are people

in my life who need it. God will have a soul on good earth,

the truth for his people. And then verse six is the focus of

our study this morning. And one shall say unto him, what are these

wounds in thy hands? Then he shall answer those which I was wounded in

the house of my friends. John tells us that Jesus was in the world.

The world was made through him, Yet the world didn't know him.

He came to his own home, his own people didn't receive him. He

was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity in the house

of his friends. He had guarded the nation of Visrael for centuries, and

he came to his own people, and they put him on a cross,

and they pierced him. They drove nails in his holy hands in the house

of his friends. So the prophet writes prophetically with pain. And one shall

say to him, what are these wounds in thy hands? Then he shall

answer those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Matt

Redman once wrote the lyrics to a song called Once Again and verse seven,

God says strike the shepherd. God says, strike the shepherd. Matt Redmond's

song. It's all about praise. It's all about thanking God in the house

of his friends. Thank you, Mervin. I'm okay for this morning,

bit boy. Makes me feel good to have it. Thank you, and

I want to end by just reading the lyrics of that song. Jesus Christ,

I think upon your sacrifice. You became nothing, poured out to death.

Many times I've wondered at your gift of life. And I'm in this

place once again. I'm in this place once again, and once again I

look upon the cross where you died. I'm humbled by your mercy, and

I'm broken inside once again. I thank you. Once again. I pour

out my life, pour out our lives to you. Now you're exalted to

the highest place, King of the heavens, where one day i'll bow.

But for now I marvel at your saving grace, and I'm full of praise

once again, full of praise. Today, I'm full of praise once again,

and once again I look upon the cross where you died. I'm humbled

by your mercy and I'm broken inside. Once again, I thank you.

Once again, I'd pour out my life. Want I pour out my heart

at your cross. And once again I look upon the cross where you died.

Jesus, I'm humbled by your mercy and I'm broken inside. Once again,

I thank you. Once again, I pour out my life. We

bring our grateful heart to you, thanking you Lord, your sacrifice. We

thank you Lord. And then he gets repetitious in a good way. Five

one, two, three, four or five six times. Thank you for

the cross, Thank you for the cross. Thank you for the cross,

my friend. Oh, thank you for the cross. Thank you for the

cross. Thank you for the cross, my friend, Thank you for the

cross. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for the cross, my

friend. Say it with me, thank you for the cross, Thank you

for the cross. Thank you for the cross, my friend, Say it

with me, Thank you, Lord for the cross. Thank you for the

cross, my friend. And one more time, thank you for the cross.

Thank you for the cross. Thank you for the cross, my friend.

My friend. One day in the not too distant future, we will

shake a familiar hand that has guided us all our lives, and we will

thank God because we will reach into the palms of that hand that was wounded

in the house of his friends because of our sins. And we will thank

God that Jesus went to the cross for us. Thank God and God bless

you this Thanksgiving season. You're heavenly Fathers. We bow our heads today and

we hold these candles in our hands. We thank you that Jesus is the

only light we can ever have. That we are not light. We can't

give light. Only Jesus can grant it to us. Lord, help our

hearts to always be grateful. May there never be a toxic attitude in our

mouth, our minds, and Lord, on this Thanksgiving season, help us

to honor you and thank you so much. Lord, Thank you for the

cross in Jesus' name. Thank you for the cross. Amen.