Out of The Cross | Pastor Paul McGee

In the House of the Lord. Tell you what, as I get older,

it seems like I take more stuff and lay it out here, you know,

as I get older, got my reading glasses lay out there.

Lord forbid if I ever get false teeth and have to lay them down,

you know, my cane or something. It's just as I get older,

there's more stuff to put on the pulpit, Amen.

So Lord, help us all, Amen. So good to be here today.

See all your smiling faces, each one of you.

Have you here? Some of you haven't seen in a

while. And such good to see you here

that you're able to be back in God's house, Amen.

Such a blessing this morning to do so.

Ray, It's good to see you, Amen. I love to see that smiling face

of yours, Trent. It's good to have you this

morning with us, Ashley. It's good to have you and Asher

and Arya and Aiden and Abby and all all the 18 you know with us

this morning. We're so glad about that, Amen.

Today, each in the House of the Lord, Amen.

We're going to be turning to the book of Philippians and you

won't have to stand for long. I just have one verse so that

allows you to that that really indicates nothing, but I have

one verse that I'm going to read and you can be seated this

morning. I host the Lord so many things

like they said going on this weekend, shenanigans and things.

We had a yard sale at our house. I got up Saturday morning, was

taking toilet paper off everything so I could, you know,

have a yard sale and things and. Yeah.

And here's the thing folks, I'm doing this, you know, yard sale

start early and no disrespect, but you have all the vultures

that show up before it's ever time to open.

And just with my personality. It just kind of just whatever,

I'm out there in my house shoes, right?

Picking up toilet. Paper got a big old wad of it my

arm and someone stops by Rose. Down the window and says hey, do

you know where the yard sale is at?

He knew where the yard sale was. I say, yeah, it's here.

At 8:00, you know. And I went on put my he came,

but nonetheless, Amen. So all the different shenanigans

going on ignites had a busy weekend.

Philippians 310. I told you I wouldn't have you

stand alone, but I start talking.

Sorry about that, Paul says. That I may know him and the.

Power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings

being made conformable unto His death.

I might know him man for a little while today.

I want to minister this, and you'll understand this better as

we get along, but I want to minister out of the cross.

Out of the cross, Hallelujah. Can you help me today as we pray

that Lord would touch our hearts collectively, Father.

God, we need you this. Morning.

We need, Lord, to touch God. We're already thankful, Lord,

for your spirit God, that we have felt here, Lord, through

the songs, Lord, today, God, people giving themselves Lord

and praise and worship. We pray, O Lord, that we could

give of ourselves, Lord, through the ministry of the Word God,

that we might find someone, Lord, where they are today and

be an encouragement or strength or help.

God in their hour of need, and we will not.

Fail to thank you Lord, for what you do and accomplish in this

place in Jesus name that I pray a man you may be seated this

morning in Jesus name out of the cross.

Have you? Have you?

Ever rated your pain on a? Scale from zero to 10.

You ever done that? You ever?

Been to the emergency room or been to the doctor's office?

And if you have, then you're probably familiar with what I'm

talking about. When they have asked you.

Well tell me what is your pain on a scale from zero to 10 or

one to 10? And the reason why this is done

is because pain is. Deeply personal pain is deeply.

Personal and it can be challenging at times to really

describe or quantify pain in our in our bodies and in our lives

and one thing is for sure what. What may feel like severe pain

to you may not. Be that to somebody else.

We all experience pain even differently.

And for this. Reason they develop the pain.

Scale of 0 or one to 10, zero to 10.

According where you're at to to give us a way.

To express ourselves. And to be able to express our

intensity of of something that at times can be very.

Difficult to put into words. I know I, I I've.

Dealt with people before that the.

Pain that they were experiencing in the.

Life, even emotional pain, right?

It's just so so. Difficult to articulate or to.

Define that they didn't have the word sufficient.

In order. To do it.

Because let's face it, in these lives, we of course know that we

deal with physical pain, right? There's the aches and the pains.

Or something traumatic could happen that causes.

Physical pain. But there is also emotional.

Pain. There is spiritual pain, if if

you will. There's sometimes that we go

through some things in our spiritual lives that that bring

and, and, and. Offer pain to our lives,

researchers even. Said and I I was discussing this

with my daughter. Because she's reading a book.

That I have. Read and she hit something.

That I thought was interesting and she was paying attention to

all the. Places that I underlined in the

book, because that's what I do, and then I catalog it.

But I won't get into all that. It's a process, all right.

But nonetheless, research has shown that the same part of the

brain that reacts to physical pain.

Also responds whenever we experience emotional hurt or

rejection. In other words, whenever you go

through. Emotional pain that very same.

Area of your. Brain.

Just starts to fire as. If you were feeling physical.

Pain, that's the reason why that you can come across people

that's going through emotional trauma, so to speak, and they'll

just say, but it just hurts so much.

They're speaking. They're speaking something very

literal, same area of their brain aspiring as though if they

were physically wounded or. Physically hurt and so.

Our brain process. Emotional pain and and physical

pain very. Similarly and so there are times

in our lives I don't know about yours, but I'll just speak for

humanity today. Since I'm a part of.

This fabric, There are times in our lives that there's not even

seemingly a scale. Or.

Words that that need to be understood to describe someone's

magnitude of pain. You'll remember several years

ago now, a girl by the name of Bethany Hamilton and they made a

movie out of it. She was a 13 year old surfer who

lost her arm to to a. Shark as she was swimming.

Off of one of the Hawaiian Islands, there was like a. 14

foot tiger shark that. Came and just took one of her

arms there in 2000 and. 3. And so in a situation like that,

I guarantee you whenever she entered in and they had her

brought into that emergency room there in Hawaii, I doubt someone

looked at her and said, could you rate your pain on the

scales? Just not going to do that.

What what they could see, what they could observe that the

suffering was obvious, that it was immediate.

It's profound. You don't have to ask.

In those scenarios. It's there.

And so whenever we encounter unbearable pain, our bodies,

even Fred McGee knows this. These guys that are first

responders, sometimes our bodies go into shock, right?

It's a survival mechanism that our body has, it's trying to

protect. Our organs from and stuff.

From further harm, it's it's just a.

Common response that our body. Can have and sometimes even some

that they went to in deep pain that their consciousness is

reduced. Your body's doing that to try to

protect you, just so that you can cope with what you're going.

Through in the moment. And we have different

adjectives. There's different adjectives out

there to describe our pain. I've heard people talk about a

throbbing pain, stabbing pain, aching pain, burn, burning pain,

Right. Oh, what do you go?

It's just a crippling pain, you know, trying to just, you know,

describe what they are facing because sometimes it feels

larger in life. My mom, she's been in pain.

My mom, sometimes she says, Paul, it's just so bad.

I just can't. Hardly.

Stand. I didn't have any other word,

but that's the only description. And so in the 1500s, a new word

emerged for pain that was so severe that that there was no

existing term up to that moment in time that could capture the

type of pain that someone was experiencing.

And the word was excruciating pain.

You, you can look at that, at the derivatives of this word,

but it literally means this out of the cross.

Out of the cross. It, it was, it was something

that people was trying to associate with with what their

pain was like they're saying it's out of the cross.

The only thing that they could point to, to associate it with

was a crucifix, particularly the agony that all of us know that's

written of in Scripture of Jesus Christ and what he endured on

the cross. And so it became since the

1500s, forward a go to word for pain, for severe pain, intense

pain, scale #10 pain maybe even scale 6 for you because it might

feel excruciating at six to you, but nonetheless, it is

excruciating pain at the torment of a crucifix out of the cross

type of pain, I say this morning.

But maybe there could be someone here today that's dealing with

some pain. And you might have physical

pain, yes, but you might be. Dealing with some emotional

pain. You might have some spiritual

pain. You might be sitting here on

these pews, those old hardwood pews this morning with some

pain. Hey, man.

And you're suffering maybe from a chronic illness or perhaps

you're suffering some, some type of term traumatic injury that

you've had in the past or, or maybe there's some that's not

too far removed from having had surgery.

You might have some post operative pain still that you're

dealing with, or you might have some unrelenting pain of a

terminal illness or you know someone that does or, or maybe

you're dealing with this morning, just some overwhelming

emotional pain. You've not talked to anybody,

you've not said anything to anybody, but in your heart and

in your brain, there's things that's happening, right?

Those same areas are clicking as though you're experiencing

physical pain and you go to work with it and you come home and

you lay down at night and all there is, is the emotional drama

of that type of pain. Amen.

Someone might be dealing with the emotional pain still yet,

sister Amen, Sam, of the loss of a loved one that could still be

skirting around, if you will, your life.

Perhaps you're dealing with the pain of betrayal.

Perhaps you're dealing with the pain of estrangement from

someone that you cared for, someone that you loved and it

left a wound upon your life that seems not to heal you.

You might even be experiencing some some PTSD from physical

abuse when you was a kid, sexual abuse when you was a kid,

emotional abuse whenever you was a kid.

Hey man, certain little things kind of trigger you and bring

the emotion of feelings back up in your life.

You might be feeling the crushing weight of loneliness,

isolation, nobody around. Days stretch into months and

there's no relief. It feels like you're by

yourself, even in a room that's full.

You might be dealing with this morning, some spiritual distress

that equally, can be excruciating.

Maybe you're dealing with some unanswered prayers.

Maybe there's some circumstances going on in your life that that

doesn't make sense and you're starting to do the game in your

mind. But I serve the Lord and I do

this for the Lord and Lord, why don't you do this for me type of

scenario going on in your life and your mind.

Perhaps you're feeling feelings of guilt and saying things that

are tormenting you from the past.

And all these things seem to mirror to a certain degree, the

hours of darkness that was experienced on Calvary's

healing, all of the oppressive forces and the relentless fear

that was constantly coming there, even among the disciples

and those that waited. The spiritual attacks that

sometimes Pierce your soul. Do you ever feel like you're

being pierced? Amen.

And it's not natural and it's not emotional, but there's

something spiritual that's just piercing your soul.

But here's the truth this morning, the moment that we

identify our pain with the cross and with all the severity what

we're facing in life, once we take that and we identify that

without of the cross, something with the cross, you've also

identified in that moment with hope.

Amen. Because Christ changed the

picture of Gogolfa. Christ changed the picture of

Calvary as time would go prior to the day that Christ was on

the cross. It was a place of a curse.

It was a place that was a gory place, a gruesome place.

It was a place where death occurred.

It was a place where pain was almost unbearable.

It was all of that. But whenever Christ went to the

cross, Christ took a gory place and turned it into a glorious

place. The cross now just wasn't a

symbol of suffering and a symbol a pain.

It became a gateway to a new life and a powerful

resurrection. Craig Rochelle wrote once he was

sharing a powerful story about his grandmother.

And he said before she passed, he asked her, he said, grandma,

what were you thinking whenever you were laying on the floor and

you you had suffered that stroke and you were laying on the floor

by yourself in your house. What what were you thinking

during that moment? And her answer back to him was

unforgettable for them. She said this, she said, I never

been closer to God in my whole life than when I was in pain.

Said never have I been any closer than when I was in pain

because sometimes we mistakenly think that pain means pain that

we experience pain that we feel physically, emotionally, that

that means that God is silent and God is absent and God is far

from us and God is not close and God is forgotten about us.

But the reality of the fact is this, whenever you're

experiencing pain, that's when God draws close to you.

Whenever you're experiencing emotional trauma, that's when

God draws near to you. If he's not afar, he's he's not

on some journey somewhere, no, he might be there, he might not

be saying anything, but he's there in your dilemma.

He's there in your circumstance, he's there in your heart, the

psalmist said of Psalms 34 and 18.

The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart and save

us, such as be of a contrite spirit, the Lord is nigh.

It means the Lord is at hand. It means the Lord is among those

types. Those types that are broken,

meaning crushed and destroyed and shattered.

Those that are contrite, literally meaning those that

have been ground to powder, those that have been ground to

dust. Both the words broken and

contrite in Psalms 3418 are significant.

He been broken in a a pictoral way.

Broken refers to the grain that's placed on a threshing

floor with a threshing wheel taken over it for the purpose of

bursting the seeds out of the holes of the grain.

But when you look at the word contrite, it is a pictograph,

Amen, of someone that's grinding seeds with a pestle and like a

Crucible, just grinding seeds until they reach power powder.

Amen. So we have this imagery here of

sometimes what God does with the pain in our life.

He's bursting, if you will, new life out of the halls.

He's he's trying to do something in our lives and our hearts.

It feels as though we're being crushed and ground and thrashed

and broken. But in those moments, rest

assured, he said I draw near during those times.

And the reason why he can do that is because Jesus himself,

that even John said was the bread of life, endured a similar

process himself. Isaiah said it like this.

He said bread Corning must be bruised for bread to be made.

There's got to be grain on the threshing floor, and it's got to

be rolled over with something heavy for seeds to burst out of

it. For bread to be made, those

seeds got to be ground down to flour.

They got to be crushed in order, if you will, to create something

that will come forth as bread. The cross was similar to that.

It's called a tribulum. Amen.

It's what they would use to put over top of the of the seeds or

the the holes that was upon the threshing floor.

They would row that upon it. It, it, it had stones in it and

metal in it. In order to crush and bust those

seeds out of the holes. It was called a tribulum.

It's from where we get our word tribulation, trial, suffering,

pain that there was bursting, all of that out of there.

And I want you to know today that when we endure our trial

and when we endure our tribulation, whether physical,

emotional, spiritual matters not, Christ is close in our

brokenness. He draws near because we are

sharing in the process that something is being made through

what's happening. Someone say Amen.

Paul testified of it. You know what of it in your

scriptures? Paul testified of it.

He said that the suffering of the thorn in his flesh did what

For Paul? That's pain.

Evidently there was enough pain, enough aggravation?

He asked. For the Lord, concerning that

three times Christ answered to him, was this, My grace is

sufficient for you. Paul says I had a.

Thorn and what I learned. In all.

Of this was this. The sufficiency.

Of God's grace. The sufficiency of God's grace.

He was near, he was nigh, Paul said.

In another place. He said that we go through

tribulation and tribulation work of.

Patience. And patience, experience and

experience. Hope so, Pastor McGee.

How do you get then from Tribulation to hope, from pain

to hope? I'll tell you how the.

Cross, someone say Amen. The cross, Everything that it

once was known for is turned on its head because of Christ.

The things of the cross curse, defeat, justice, death.

Christ now made that same thing, blessing, victory, life, mercy.

The cross can take your pain to hope.

When Paul pleaded in our text today that I might know Christ,

he already knew Christ in the initial gospel way.

He'd already repented of his sins.

He had already been baptized in Jesus name.

He had already received the gift of the Holy Ghost.

He had already had his Acts chapter #9 Damascus Rd.

experience and had Ananias come and say, my brothers saw the

Lord Jesus even wanted me to come to you, that I would pray

for you and put my hands up on you.

And not just that the scales would fall off your eyes, but

also that you would receive his spirit.

And the Bible talks about that. They also arose and he was

baptized. He already knew the Lord in that

type of, of, of setting. But he's saying here that I

might know him and the power of his resurrection and the

fellowship of his sufferings being conformable to his death.

What are you saying, Paul? You've already seen the gift of

the Spirit. Yes, I have, and I know that was

initial and important for my life.

But there's something else that I want.

I want to experience the power of his resurrection not on just

one date, on the. Calendar that I marched back

whenever I received the Spirit or filled with the Holy Ghost.

I don't want it as a one day on the calendar that I celebrate

from year to year. I want to know the power of His

resurrection tomorrow as much as I did yesterday.

I want to know the power of His resurrection five years from

now. Just yes, I want to experience

that because to know the Lord like that is a experiential

knowledge or an experimenting type of knowledge.

You experience something to have that type of knowledge, he says.

I want to ungoing knowledge of Christ of this power.

JA Moore he said nothing is truly known until it becomes a

part of daily conduct. Paul says I've experienced the

gospel, but I want the gospel lived out in my life every day.

Many of us today have had the new birth experience a born of

water and spirit right. But do you know him in your

daily walk and I'm like Paul right.

Paul was really showing some humanity here.

I'm like Paul, my name. I mean we sure name.

I'm like Paul, what did he lead? With in Philippians 310.

That I might know him and the power every individual said on

the sound of my voice. Man, that's what we long for.

That's what we hope for. Sign me up.

I mean, if you have a sign up sheet of power, the

resurrections, fellowship of sufferings on the bulletin board

and say we want you to sign up wherever you want to, you know,

participate. We have all these other

volunteer things, you know, going on.

If you want to participate 1 I dare to say all the lines under

the power of the resurrection going to fill up quite quickly.

I want, I want everything to do with that.

I want to experience that. I want all everything that has

to do with the power of the resurrection.

And that's what Paul even LED with here in this in this first

he said I want to know him in the power of his resurrection.

When he said I wanted to know him, the first detail he gave

and how he wanted to know the Lord.

What's the power of his resurrection?

Sign me up. That's my humanity, brother

Ethan. That's what I want.

I want, I want the power. I want the miracles.

I want all those things, all the blessings, all the goodies of

God. Sign me up for the power of the

resurrection. But then he states the second

one, because he knew deep down he knew you have no power of a

resurrection without suffering. Hear me, you do not get

resurrection power without suffering or something being

buried in the ground. Paul says that's what I want.

If I could say it like this, that's what I want.

But this is how I understand it comes.

I want the power, but I understand I'm a fellowship in

the sufferings. I want to have my hand on that.

But in order to reach that grasp, that experience, that,

understand there's going to come some suffering, some fellowship.

It's easy to want the power of the resurrection without the

pain of the cross, but true resurrection power that raises

our spiritual death requires a willingness at times to endure

some suffering. Oh yes, the late Timothy Keller.

He pointed out in the Bible that the Bible records Jesus weeping

20 times for every. Time he mentions him, the Bible

mentions him laughing. Jesus wept. 20 times for each

time you see him laugh in Scripture, Isaiah prophesied,

said He's a man of sorrows. He's not a man of sorrow.

Because he's just a naturally depressive man.

He's a man of sorrows. Because oftentimes he has

compassion connected him deeply to human pain.

He's among the multitudes. And they're sick.

And the scripture says he had compassion physical.

Emotional, spiritual, it didn't matter.

There were those that had unclean spirits.

And he has compassion. He's a man of sorrows.

Because his compassion links him.

And connects him to human pain. Listen to me this morning.

That's just not a 1st century. Doing of our Lord.

That's a present day. That's a reason why he still

draws near. That's why he still draws near

to you when you're suffering from pain.

At whatever spectrum he draws near, his compassion draws him

in. The Bible tells us in the New

Testament says we have not a high priest.

It's Speaking of Jesus Christ as our high priest.

We have not a high priest who cannot, which cannot be touched

with the feeling of our infirmities.

That means when you hurt, he hurts.

When you experience pain, he experienced pain.

When sorrows entered your life, it's entered his life.

When you're confused, he's looking down on the situation,

saying how can I direct their mind?

When you're emotionally distraught, he's there.

He's drawn clothes. He cannot, he can't ignore what

you're going through. Look at it.

God's compassion responds over and over again.

In scripture to pain. When we look in the Old

Testament, when the children of Israel was in bondage for some

400 years, Egyptian bondage, the Bible says that they cried out

to the Lord. The Bible says that that in

their moment of suffering that those people were afflicted.

And God was aware of all of this.

He knew that they had rigorous taskmasters that all time beat

them and mistreated them. He knew all of their sorrows in

so much that in Exodus chapter #3 Christ the Lord, Amen.

The Lord finally said, taking in all of this, He says, here's

what I'm going to do. I am going to come down to

deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

What was that suffering? What was that affliction?

What happened? God says I'm going to draw near

to them, I'm going to draw near to them where they're at, and

I'm going to help deliver them from where they are.

I'm going to come down to them. Here's Hannah.

She's going to the temple one more time.

She's bearing that she can't have any children.

Amen. Her husband's other wife seems

to have children, always criticizing her, mocking her,

making fun of her. She's in the presence of God.

She's got tears going down her face.

The priest that is on duty that day even looks down upon her

thinking and that she's drunk when she was just in the

bitterness of her soul. She was in emotional pain crying

out to God and then God finally responded to her in that

emotional pain and said according to the time of life,

you're going to have a child. What happened in the middle of

her mess? He draw near into her.

He well, what's going on, Hannah?

I'm having a out of the cross moment.

I'm dealing with some pain right now.

I can't put it to words. Perhaps there were some

groanings. Perhaps there were some

utterances that couldn't be articulated.

She's having a out of cross moment.

The cop says I'll come near. According to the Time of life

New Testament, there's a woman had a chronic disease for 12

years, 12 years. But at one touch, her touching

Christ, virtue flows out of him into her.

He draws an ear. Lazarus has been in the.

Tomb for four. Days messengers came to the Lord

and told him, Your friend Lazarus is sick.

He's going to die. The Lord tells his disciples,

Let's continue here for a few days.

He shows. Up on day that's been 4.

Days he even says, I'm glad that I wasn't.

There when it even. Happened that the glory of God

might be. Shown, but he shows.

Up on the 4th day and look the scripture.

We have it up there. I'm pretty sure we do.

In John chapter #11 look at the scripture here.

And verse #33. For the Mason when Jesus.

Therefore saw her Speaking of. Of Mary here and Martha.

Weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her.

He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.

Verse 34 And said, Where have you laid him?

They said unto him, Lord, come. See now notice he shows up.

The first one to come to him was, Martha said.

Lord, if you had been here, our brother would have not died.

And then? Word gets to Mary, she leaves

the house, and the other groups follow her, thinking she's

probably going to tune, to weep, and to mourn.

But she goes, He's the Lord and. She is just like verbatim with

Martha. Lord, if you had been here, our

brother would not have. Died.

Look, he shows up, he knows what's happened, but he didn't

go to the grave. When he first showed up.

But when he seen. Them weep when he seared the

tears. Going down Mary, Martha and the

other Jews. Face, he says.

Where did you lay? Why?

Because he's starting to. He's drawing near.

I see your pain, I see your sorrow.

Just show me where you've put the body.

Show me where you have laid. Him.

Because nothing. Was done toward Lazarus

resurrection until there was identification with their pain.

He joined in sister Sheila the. The shortest.

Verse of the Bible is there recorded in John Jesus what's

going on? He's joining in that moment.

Although Calvary's not happened yet, but it will in just a few

weeks. He's joining in that moment in a

out of the. Cross feelings.

With Mary and Martha and the Jews.

And then he proceeds to resurrect.

In reality, folks, he showcases what he's going to do in his own

life before, before it's ever played out.

Suffering, then resurrection. Pain, then resurrection out of

the cross moment, then out of the grave moment.

I want to someone hear me today. The Lord has not turned.

His head towards you. And he, he.

Is not distant from you. And he's not indifferent to

whatever type of pain you may be.

Experiencing this morning. Quite the contrary, He is drawn

to you today and He plans on and wants to respond to your

excruciating pain. Because Christ puts the purpose

in the cross. Christ puts the purpose in your

pain. Christ puts the purpose in our

pain, in our agony. Hey, man, see there were those

that whatever even Christ was crucified, the Bible says there

was a malefactor on his left and a malefactor on his right.

It's horrible to suffer without purpose.

One is railing upon the Lord, one of the malefactor is a

railing upon the Lord, but the other one looks at him and said,

hey buddy, we're here because we should be here.

I think the scripture says this is our due reward, he said.

But this man, nothing unjust. They just didn't know because he

wasn't there on the cross without reason.

He wasn't there on the cross without purpose, the Hebrews

writer said. For the joy that was set before

him, he endured the cross and the shame and the pain.

Why? He says, I can make it through

this hour because my suffering isn't purposeless.

I can make it through this moment because I'm here to tell

somebody today. You need to get a new

perspective on where you are with your suffering, your

tribulation, and your pain. It's not purposeless.

You're not just hanging there. You're not just experiencing

something. You might have an out of the

cross moment for a resurrection, out of the grave moment in your

life. You can live your life.

So that you endured the pain. For the game.

Listen, folks. We in our own situations would

just be as equally powerless for the reason if we had a criseless

cross or a crossless Christ. Meaning in this life, if you

think man's trying to search for the meaning.

Of his life now, he'd be in a great grander.

Hopeless search if we had a Christ less cross or a cross

less Christ. People already told me, you

know, what's the purpose of the We already have all those.

Questions today. But they would be.

Magnified and amplified. If it wasn't for Calvary.

The apostle said in Acts, he said we.

Must, through much tribulation, enter into the Kingdom of God.

And so like Paul this morning, we were doing more than just.

Experiencing the gospel. We're living the gospel.

We fellowship in like manner with His sufferings.

We we want resurrection power in our daily lives, but that comes

without of the cross. Living.

Oh, Brother McGee, that's painful.

Yeah, it is. It can be.

And that, that, that's troubling at times.

Yeah, it could. That's emotionally.

Just over yes, All of those things.

All the above. The all the above, yes.

But you know the trade. Off is this.

I know him, I know him. Look at it this morning.

Second Corinthians Chapter 11. Here's Paul's portfolio.

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

Many of you have read this many times, but Paul says this

starting verse #23 and I'm jumping in just a little bit.

He's talking about his portfolio and labor's more abundant and

stripes above measure imprisons more frequent and deaths OFT of

the Jews five times received I-40 stripes save one.

Thrice was I beaten with. Rods once was I stone can

someone say pain? Thrice I suffered shipwreck a

night and a day I have spin in the deep in journeys, often in

perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own

countrymen. Nobody hearing me that slides

over into even emotional in. Perils by the heathen in.

Perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the

sea, in perils among false brethren that gets emotional in

weariness. And painfulness.

And watchings. Often in hunger and thirst and

fastings, often in code. And nakedness besides.

Those things which are without. That which cometh on me daily,

the care. Of all the churches out.

Of the cross moments. And I'm not ignorant today.

I know some of our pain, maybe sometimes we bring on ourselves,

sometimes other people bring pain of honest.

And sometimes pain is just life. Listen, I'm I'm not of, I'm not

of the persuasion that I'm looking under the rock for every

time something goes wrong and it's.

You know it's the devil. Sometimes, well, pain.

Sometimes it's just part of life because life has been corrupted

since the very beginning. It's just part of life.

Some. Pain is life in Christ.

But all pain. When it reaches excruciating,

however, that may mean to you on a scale one to 10 is out of the

cross. If you can stand with me this

morning and. Brother Malone over behind.

This door over here, Lean back to the fellowship hall.

I have a cross if you don't mind to go get it.

Paul's desire to know. Christ, again, wasn't simply

just about knowing His glory and his resurrection to share in the

fellowship of his sufferings, because true resurrection power

comes out of the cross. And those moments this morning

sometimes are are deeply personal.

I didn't have time to make it so this thing could stand, but it's

going to stand as best as it can right there today.

Sometimes it's deeply personal. And even your personal suffering

isn't wasted. There are.

Opportunities for Christ to draw.

Near. To know him, I want to

understand today that there are sometimes that.

We. Have been given the opportunity

to know the Lord in ways we would have never been able to

know Him had it not been for our pains.

You hearing me? That had not been for.

Our pains. And here as we close this.

Morning. I know Jesus suffered on that

cross, and there's the resurrection, there's eternal

life, there's all these things. His life many times can be

manifested in our life. It's not indifferent to you and

I'm going to close this morning. With this, here's what I urge

you to do this morning. There might be people here

that's in pain, could be physical, it could be spiritual.

It may be emotional. But this morning, if you would.

Feel led to and I'm going to do it.

Here today I want you to come up and fill out one of those.

You can fill out three. Of those, they don't matter.

I just want you to write a number on it.

That number might represent the spiritual pain you're in right

now. I don't know.

You don't have to write spiritual on it.

That pain might be the. Physical pain you're in could be

the emotional pain you're just want you to write a number on it

whenever you've written that number I.

Just because sometimes. It just might be out of cross

pain. I just want you to stick it to

the cross and hopefully the sawdust doesn't prevent you from

doing that. Just write your number, whatever

it is. This is just for an example.

Write your number again, I don't know if it's physical,

emotional, spiritual. Just write your number.

Throw it on the cross. It's excruciating.

It's out of cross. Amen.

Just identifying with the suffering.

But if I do that, I can identify with the.

Out of the cross. Suffering of pain.

There's something on the other side of this.

It was gruesome years ago. It was torture and death years

ago. But there's another side to the

cross. I'm living in the other.

I'm not living in the. Shadow of the cross.

I'm living in the light of the cross.

Shadow of the Cross. With just all the agony, all

that, but now I've transferred to the light of the cross, life,

resurrection, power. Somebody might need to identify

Brother McGee. You don't even know.

And I don't have to know. And listen, you put up a number

up there. If it's even the 10, everybody

don't know if that's physical, spiritual, whatever, who cares?

What am I doing? I'm just it's excruciating.

It's out of the cross type of pain.

I've dealt with some things just here recently and I had some

things cross through my mind and.

It's been. Difficult just just go there

because the broken the contract. God will not.

He won't refuse. He'll draw near that.

He'll draw near that. These altars are open, there's

Sharpies, there's there's these things on either side.

Again, you don't have to write what it is.

You can just write a number, whatever that is to you and.

The thing is, your 5 might be my.

Three, you understand pain is subjective.

Your tent. Could be someone else's seven

vice versa. Pain is all subjective.

Maybe you just need to identify with the cross this morning and

out of the cross experience. God, I felt alone.

God, I'm still mourning the loss of a loved one.

God, I got some things that's went on in my spiritual life

that it seems like just the weight of guilt and shame.

It's it's, it's God. It's just feels like A7 to me

today. Feels like A7 to me today.

God having an out of the cross moment.

God, I can't always put it into. Words I I can't always find the

right. Adjectives to describe this

someone. Even would ask me what's wrong.

I don't know how I could even answer.

Them or put it into words. Maybe you just need a number

today and something that's just planted on a cross.

Oh yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, Lord, I love you.

It's another good to see you Sunday morning.