Do You Have Enough Cross In Your Life

— i want us tonight to — speak to the lord with more than just rhetoric more than just form or ritual — i want people in this building tonight that literally — i'm talking about in actuality you want god to breathe upon us tonight — with his desire and with his word and if you do i want you tonight to lift — your hands with me and i want us to pray and i want you to pray for the lips of your — feeble pastors efforts tonight pray for the lips of your pastor pray for — the ears of every individual in the building but i want us to pray most of all for our hearts — that we could receive what the word of the lord would like to get across to us — praise god it's hard for me to set the stage sometimes — i just very awkwardly sometimes to try to prepare you or build — a frame for what you're about to hear all i know to tell you is that sometimes — the lord speaks to you and you're just driving down the road and it happens sometimes — you're studying or reading and it's quick and sometimes you're hearing another preacher — and god will quicken something to your heart that's maybe related to what he has to say and maybe totally unrelated — but i i suppose that some of the sweetest things that the lord has ever shared with me was — sometimes in that twilight zone brother brother barnes explained that to me one time he said it — sometimes it's in that twilight zone that god can speak to you when you're unencumbered with — the cares of the day and — you you you're not really asleep and yet you're not really awake it's that time when god has total access to your mind — and some of the sweetest things that i've ever gotten from god has been in that particular time messages for sermons — funerals special occasions well all i know to tell you is that's the way — it happened this afternoon when i tried to rest the lord spoke to me in that twilight zone and i — heard i heard the scripture that i'm going to use and i heard the subject — as it came to me while i was in that twilight zone — so with that setting tonight if there's a wise heart anywhere in the building — hint to the wise is sufficient i'd like for us to prepare our hearts — i'm not going to preach a long drawn-out sermon tonight i've got most probably of what most of what i'm going to say written on a piece of paper which is — very unusual but i want us tonight to receive what god has and the only way we'll do that — is to humble our hearts before god humble ourselves in the presence of god and just ask god — speak to me tonight let me hear your voice let me hear your word — let me hunger for your way of thinking let's let's lift our hands and our voices and let's talk to the lord — father i love you tonight i love you so much i love you so much i — love you so much i love you so much i love you so much i — love you so much i love you so very very much — god please and honest please enormous please enormous — please an honest lord please an honest god anoint the lips of your feeble — servant the ears of your people but god stir our hearts tonight — oh god stir our hearts tonight stir our hearts tonight

— stir our hearts tonight stir our hearts tonight — in jesus name in jesus name in jesus name — thank you father thank you father — if you want to mark your bible rather than for there to be a lot of — hustling and bustling right now if you have your bible handed just quietly turn the book of romans chapter 11. — verse 13 reads for i speak to you gentiles inasmuch as i am an apostle of the — gentiles i magnify mine office if by any means i may provoke to — emulation them which are my flesh and might save some of them — for if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world what shall the receiving of them be — but life from the dead but if the first fruits be holy the lump is also holy — and if the root be holy so are the branches and if some of the branches be broken — off and thou being a wild olive tree were grafted in among them — and with them partakers of the root and fatness of the olive tree — boast not against the branches but if thou boast thou bearest not the root — but the root thee thou wilt say then the branches were broken off that i might be grafted in — well because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by faith — be not high-minded but fear but if god spared not the natural branches — take heed lest he also spare not thee behold — therefore the goodness and severity of god — on them which fail severity but toward thee goodness if thou continue — in his goodness otherwise thou also shall be cut off — and they also if they abide not still in unbelief shall be grafted in for god is able to graft them in again — for if thou were cut off out of the olive tree which is wild by nature — and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree how much more shall these — which be the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree for i would not brethren — that you should be ignorant of this mystery lest ye should be wise in your own conceits — and blindness in part is happened to israel unto the fullness — until the fullness of the gentiles be come in take note of verse 22 — behold therefore the goodness and severity — of god i thank you for your kindness — you may be seated

— that was romans chapter 11. — i'd like to turn to romans chapter 2 now and read a few scriptures in romans 2 beginning with verse 1. — therefore thou art inexcusable o man — whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein — thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself — for thou that judgest does the same things — but we are sure that the judgment of god is according to truth — against them which commit such things and thinkest thou this o man — that judges them which do such things and do us the same — that thou shalt escape the judgment of god or despises thou the riches — of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering — not knowing that the goodness of god leadeth thee to repentance — but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasuriest up unto thyself — wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of god — who will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient — continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor — and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious — and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath — tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil — of the jew first and also of the gentile but glory and honor and peace — to every man that worketh good to the jew first and also to the gentile — for there is no respect of persons with god — for your consideration tonight verse 4 of chapter 2 — i lift for our spotlight tonight of observance — not knowing that the goodness of god leadeth to repentance — would you say that with me tonight not knowing that the goodness of god leadeth — to repentance and then in romans chapter 11 verse 22 — behold therefore the goodness and severity — of god the goodness and — severity please tonight please — behold both ends of the spectrum — please be apprised of the total picture — for those of you tonight that have wandering eyes you represent the fact that you have a wondering mind — and i humbly beg of you for your soul sake give undivided attention to what the holy ghost — would like to say to you it is of utmost importance — that we get a clear picture of both ends — of the spectrum our lives must

— be balanced would you say that with me our lives must — be balanced there was a calvary — and there was a pentecost — my sermon tonight is simply a question that asks this — do you have enough cross in your life — i want you to close your eyes with me right now and i want you to ask yourself as i ask myself — just simply close your eyes and ask yourself the question do i have enough cross — in my life — the scriptures that i have read tonight one tells you emphatically that it is — the plan and the heart of god that the goodness of god — would lead men to repentance it is not the plan — nor purpose of god that catastrophe or disaster or tragedy — drive men to repentance the plan of god — is that the goodness of god lead men to repentance — now when i don't get any more response than that it it it creates a wonder in my mind did you get it — if you didn't get it there's no need for me to go on i'll have to stay there until everybody — gets it remember our lives must be — balanced behold the goodness — of god but please don't forget to behold — the severity of god — to see only the goodness of god would blind us — to judgment and to see only the severity of — god would blind us to the joy of salvation — one who sees only death and judgment has no victory for living — while one who sees only grace and mercy has no place in his life — for a cross i ask you again — do you have enough cross in your life — while our new testament counterparts desperately needed pentecost — to lift from from the deep hurt and the gloom of calvary — we who revel in the glow of pentecost fire — need desperately to feel the weight of a cross to keep our — right perspectives — the feel of a cross reminds us of certain things — that we cannot afford to forget just the feel of the weight

— of a cross on our back reminds us of duty — honor responsibility the weight of a cross — reminds us of repentance forgiveness loyalty — the weight of a cross reminds us of submission servitude — and faithfulness the weight of a cross reminds us of tears — humility and compassion i preached to people — in this very congregation tonight who have experienced — the exhilaration the liberation and the joy of pentecost — but your lives are still out of balance because you have — no cross i do not speak that verdict — unkindly tonight and i perhaps do not speak that verdict to every individual — but i do preach to people in this congregation tonight that your life — has been totally void of an understanding of the place of a cross in your experience — i preach to people who have tried in every conceivable manner — to rid yourself and to cut free from anything that would — tend to be cumbersome or weighty or inconvenient — because your concept because of what you're seeing is that there's nothing — in living for god except victory power glory — and liberty deliverance healing and miracles — but i preached to you tonight that for us to not have — a concept of the severity of god for us not to have a concept of the — other end of the spectrum that tends to rob us — of the very entities in life that we need that bring — our human flesh under subjection — no tears no repentance no sorrow — no repentance no remorse no repentance — no guilt no repentance and i'm preaching to you tonight that somewhere in our lives — there must be the influence that whips us or draws us or compels us — or restrains us back into line because you and i as human beings don't — have the understanding to direct our own path we've got to have an influence — other than human reasoning to guide our lives in the right place and the right perspective — i wish that you and i had such a profound — knowledge and such an incomprehensible wisdom — that you and i could as it were play god and that what we thought about things — was the way it was that our ideologies about things were concrete and sure — that when we made a decision about something that it was as good as the law of the medes and the persians

— it could not be revoked i wish that we were of that caliber because — it would save face a lot of times and it would cause well it it would save a whole lot of embarrassment — but the truth of the matter is we're all human beings and we're vulnerable because most of the times — we labor with less than a full deck because we don't know the total story — we don't know the total picture and our minds are are very fallible and we're very gullible — we can be swayed by things that are not supposed to enter into as influences — we can be marred by things that are supposed not supposed to contaminate we can we can be affected by things that — should never even enter the picture so as human beings we have got to have some influence — somewhere that can be trusted and counted on we've got to have some — power of influence somewhere that we can tie our mute to or hang our head on we've got to have — something somewhere that can be counted infallible and true hallelujah i'm preaching to you — tonight that we must have the influence of the holy god in our lives — and we've got to have the influence of a holy word in our lives we've got to have the influence of an — anointed preacher in our lives we've got to have the influence of faith in our — lives just because we said it doesn't make it so but when we align ourselves — with the truth of all ages we can echo truth and because we said it doesn't — make it a lie we can repeat truth and it is still true — it is not in man to direct his own path — it is not within his capability to find his direction — to his desired haven it is not within man's potential — nor possibility nor capability to save himself we — must have a savior we must have another influence — and we must give ourselves to those influences — and i want to thank god with the best of you for the beautiful miracle of pentecost — and i preached to you a few nights ago about god's perfected plan it was not god over us — or god out in front of us are not just god among us — god's perfected plan was pentecost god in us — that's his perfected plan but for us to only see the power of pentecost — without a knowledge of the cost of the cross — we're out of balance for us to see salvation free — born of repentance we're out of balance for us to seek god's love for humanity — without mankind standing before god one day in judgment we're out of balance — are you hearing what i'm saying tonight are you hearing what i'm saying eastwood so why the cross — jesus himself said if any man will come after me let him deny himself take up — his cross and follow me why the cross brother hearing follow the cross because the feeling of the weight — of the cross on our backs is the influence that brings us back into line

— without the weight of the cross to those — whose lives are still without balance because you have no cross — you can do wrong with no guilt you can sin — without remorse you can be unfaithful to god with no condemnation — you can live a life that's unholy — carnal with no fear you can abuse the standards of the — church and the confidence of the brethren with no sorrow — i'm preaching to you tonight when you have no cross — you live on the very brink of disaster you live at the edge — of a crisis you are inviting tragedy to your life — and you say brother ewing i don't understand why you say that because when you live without a cross — the thing that's supposed to be your influence the thing that's supposed to be — the lines that strapped to the bridle in your mouth that give you direction — the thing that is supposed to bring you back and urge you back into submission — when you have no cross you're void of that influence in your life and when you have no concept of the — cross in your life that means the preacher is just another voice he can — say what he wants to say but your idea is as good as his i'm preaching to somebody in this house — tonight something is gonna have to get your attention something is gonna have to get your mind — something is gonna have to tell you when you're wrong something is gonna have to be the standard to tell you this is what's — right and this is what's wrong somewhere something is gonna have to whip you back in the line and if the — cross and the ministry don't do it what else is there pray tell — when you have no cross and by virtue of decision you have no preacher — what else is going to correct your erring path besides tragedy — catastrophe disaster crisis — that's the reason some people live from one crisis to another from one calamity to another — is because they've never known the beauty of the submission of the feel of a cross — in their life then you can't tell them anything else because they don't want to hear it — they don't want to hear obey them that have rule over you they don't want to hear submit — yourselves one to another they don't want to hear confess your faults one to another — they don't want to hear except you repent you're going to perish because they don't need a preacher they don't — want a preacher they've known the beauty of pentecost and that's all they care to hear — i'm preaching to you tonight without a cross you're out of balance — would you say that with me without a cross you're out of balance without a cross — you're incomplete without a cross you don't have your right perspective

— without a cross you don't have a balanced influence in your life — i thank god for the preaching of the love of god but i cannot allow — myself to be drunken beyond what the love of god represents in my life — the love of god has given me chance after chance and mercy is still pleading my case but you hear me there will be a — day when god says you've had enough now it's time for mercy to take a seat and — justice take the stand so i cannot allow myself to be drunken — on the preaching of the love of god without a concept that i will meet my lifestyle — somewhere down the road in judgment am i preaching to anybody tonight — i'm asking you in order to avoid tragedy in order to to avoid crises — in order to avoid shipwreck and the thing that's so that's so pitiful about people who get into that — particular area when you go so far as to be part of the cross and you go far enough that the preacher — becomes your enemy if he were to tap you on the shoulder and say i need to talk to you about some infraction or — something that's not right in your life i wonder tonight how many of you are mature enough that if i as your shepherd — were to walk up to you and say i need to talk to you about something in your life that i feel is not exactly up to par how — many of you would still be my friend if i accosted you and called your hand at some things that i felt was wrong in — your life i'm telling you there's people in this church tonight you have done things that were wrong you have gone — places that were wrong you have committed things that were wrong but the ministry dare not — call your hand at it because i would become like paul said — i'd become your enemy for telling you the truth but i got news for you — it don't matter to me which one of you it is nor who it is no where you come from all i wait on is a signal from the holy — ghost to talk to you about anything that i feel is not right — and if you happen to be one of those that feel yourself above and beyond the — need of a pastor i'm sure you don't need me as your pastor because i happen to — labor under the opinion that everybody that's going to be saved has to have a preacher and i'm going to do the best i — can to feel that praise of god's calling in my life — but when you get beyond the need of a preacher or if the preacher were to tell you something you didn't want to hear — i'm telling you you heard me say it some time ago and i'll tell it again tonight the only concept that some people have — of a preacher is to and the only reason they ever want to tell him anything is because they know they're skirting — the brink of disobedience and they want the preacher to confirm to them that it's all right for them to do — what they're already feeling condemned about talking to him about and when the preacher tells them something they — didn't want to hear when he says i have another opinion that's all they want to hear and they — can change churches they can do anything they want because they don't want a preacher telling them what he feels god — would have them to know if you happen to be that kind you're looking at a preacher that's going to — keep on telling you whether you want to hear it or not and i'm telling you if there's nobody left around here and thank god for — revival and i don't want to sound negative but i'm preaching to you the same thing that my dad preached years — ago if there's nobody left around here that i've got anything to eat but cornbread and branch water i'm going to — tell you what the holy ghost somebody that believes the preaching shout hallelujah

— let's clap our hands and magnify the lord god of glory in this house tonight — you don't have to you don't have to feel duty-bound — that's just somebody trying to inflict you with bondage you don't have to feel — responsible that's somebody trying to tie you with their apron strings — you don't have to feel to live honorably representing anybody else live your own — life do your own thing you don't have to repent you were made like you are — you don't have to forgive they shouldn't have done it in the first place you don't have to be loyal — because you're as good as they are you don't have to be submissive because nobody has the right — to tell you what to do you don't have to have servitude an attitude of a servant — because the days of slavery were done away with a long time ago you don't have to be faithful — because who's to say you've got to be tied down to an obligation if something better arises that you — wanted to do you don't have to cry because he made us to laugh enjoy — everything you don't have to have humility don't be humble stick out your chest and be proud of who — you are you don't have to have compassion because every man has the right to live his own life — he's created equal nobody can inflict their desires — upon him i'm telling you we've never lived — in such a critical hour where the minds of humanity with the few — little entities and cliches like human rights women's lib — and a few things like this we've never seen a day where the minds of humanity was so warped — as it is tonight and so — because of the warped minds of human beings there — is more and more the void of a concept of a cross — in your christian experience but i'm preaching to you tonight that if you're going to follow him — it still says you must take up your cross and follow him — and without that cross it's impossible because there are no other influences — that will subject you to the proper concept of things — not the only way that we are ever brought under subjection — is when it is made very clear to us that it is our hide — that's at stake about the only way — you're going to get anybody to stand up now for anything that's right is if their hide — or their pocketbook is affected — but you hear me tonight there should be an influence in our life — that is stronger than what somebody does to affect my pocketbook there should be an influence in my life — that goes beyond my fear of hell there should be an influence of love in

— my life to reciprocate for calvary's price by willingly carrying my cross — and its weight with dignity — so without a cross you can do wrong with no guilt — everybody that was young couples — could i have you to stand please all of our young couple — beautiful beautiful how many of you — were involved in a sunday school department this morning if you were involved in the sunday school department you may be seated — if you were working this morning if you were in sunday school this — morning you may be seated — if you were sick you may be seated you may be seated — oh brother you and you're so cruel am i — for you not to have been in the house of god this morning without a reason that would be a valid reason to stand — before god in judgment you did wrong somewhere — in the course of the operation of the ministry in this church it's got to be instilled — that you don't miss the house of god just on a whim or a fancy — or because you didn't get enough sleep or because you didn't get enough rest or because you didn't get enough whatever — it's got to be learned that to not be faithful to the house of god you have done god and injustice — besides you've done yourself an injustice — oh brother you and it's been quite a while since we've seen that you — there was a time when god allowed me to see some things that — needed to be corrected in my own life and you're looking at a preacher — that wants to preach truth more than anything in the world but you're looking at a preacher that also wants to preach it in the right spirit — there was a time when i preached the things that were right for people to do i preached it because there was — something welled up on the inside of me that literally made me sometimes so infuriated — i'm telling you people that knew better it would make me so angry — and i realize that anger has its place and you say oh i didn't know that but the word of god says be angry and sin not — but i've lived to see the place where i've matured enough that i preach things tonight because — you don't make me angry when you don't do it you hurt me when you don't do it — when i see people that don't measure up to the standards of the church it don't make me mad now it hurts me — because people don't have any better respect or that don't have a greater grip on things — because they don't have enough cross i ask you again tonight — do you have enough cross in your life

— and if i hadn't got angry with me for saying what i did and having you to stand if you got angry with pastor for that — that is a sure sign that you don't have enough cross — humiliation preacher you mean that's what he did — nobody's humiliating you because you did right there just comes a little humiliation sometimes because we do wrong — we have to be corrected i have — i have witnessed among people of the church in this — in this hour that we live right now in this warped concept hour — i've seen people that were able to go out and do just about anything they thought they were big enough to do — and they didn't have enough remorse to even know the hurt — that they caused to the church of the living god or to the people that had confidence in them — or to a pastor that was trying so hard to get them over the hump to be strong — enough to not be vulnerable to fall to such things i have seen — the attitude of the younger generation to think hardly any more of immorality — and they think of taking a drink of water out in the world i'm preaching to you tonight — that when we can have young people our elders or whoever it is that can sin and still call yourself a christian — without remorse and sorrow we're living in a sad day there's no cross in your life — there's not enough cross and i have seen i've seen a day where and i thank god for my heritage i thank god for my — gospel i thank god for the truth of what we proclaim but i want to also thank god for the standards that identify us as — tongue-talking pentecostals and i want everybody in this church — tonight i want to serve you notice now i don't care what you have heard and i — don't care who has blabbed their guts to you or misconstrued or anything else i want you to hear me tonight this church — has not changed any of its standards — and i'm not saying that for an amen tonight i'm saying that as a matter of truth and i see some of you — little by little and it i i have to admit to you i i don't i don't look — at at at people's apparel sometimes as much as i should and i guess god has favored me sometimes — with giving me an oblivious mind to some of that because if i'm telling — you if my if my spirit got all my indignation arose every time i saw it in — fraction of the standards of the church i never would be in any shape to stand in this pulpit and preach to you what god wanted me to say because i'd always — be so upset that i'd have a message every time i saw somebody that didn't have the right kind of an apparel on you understand what i'm saying so i i — realize that sometimes things slip my mind but john would you come here please — now joan has got a dress on tonight that that that the hemline is is long enough — she's not sister cox from leesville but — but her dress is is is and i'm not saying that your dress has to be as long as hers tonight but i am telling you — that your dress needs to be to where it will cover your knees — and it needs to be full enough that you don't have to keep pulling and keep — scrounging and keep yanking and snatching trying to keep your modesty in

— the presence of the opposite sex some of you ain't never heard me preach — like this but honey tighten your seat belt you're about to hear what god loves and that's the truth — hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah i'm preaching to you tonight there's a — world out there that says no man should tell you what to do nobody has the right to inflict anything — on you but i'm preaching to you tonight that unless you have the feel of a cross — in your life you'll never feel remorse — guilt sorrow you'll never feel the need for repentance — and you'll have no guideline to keep you in the bounds of reasoning — and when it comes to dress the scripture calls it modesty