Look at the Cross and See One Word: Relationship

Sermon outline

Integrate your natural life with the zoe life of God, so that relationship with Him and with people goes with you into the workplace, the kitchen and the marketplace, and the Holy Spirit renews your mind until you run your race without injury.

1. Be the crane, not the crutch

   Building on Pastor Thamie's word from the week before, to see people's pain, she takes it a step further into the how. You may be a crutch for a little while, but your job is to pick the person up, travel with them and hook them up to Jesus, the burden bearer, and keep them filled with the word.

   “You never leave the person in the pain that you found them in. You leave them a better person.”

   • 2 Corinthians 3:6

2. Look at the cross and see relationship

   The arms of the cross sit high, not halfway. The upright is your relationship with God, which is easy at first because you are growing alone and gaining strength. As you become a son or a daughter, He broadens your horizon and expects you to help others, so pick up your cross and follow Him. Your dependence on Him must never fall away until you meet Him face to face.

   Illustration: She describes the shape of the cross itself, the crossbeam set high up the upright, and asks the church to see the word relationship every time they look at one.

   “When you look at the cross in the future, I want you to see the word relationship. Relationship with God, relationship with one another.”

3. Integrate your natural life with your God life

   Everyone has a religion; the point is not to announce that you are a Christian but to let your light shine. A relationship with Jesus is not a Sunday thing with a God language of 'blessed and highly favoured'. There is an inward change and an outward manifestation, so that people at work, in business and in the shops know there is something different about you without asking.

   Illustration: A woman she spends time with, from her old faith, rises at three or four in the morning and prays five times a day, and has no peace. She needs Jesus, and believers have access to Him.

   “Jesus is not only alive in church, he's alive in your workplace, in your business place.”

   • Matthew 11:28
   • Jeremiah 33:3
   • John 14:12
   • 2 Corinthians 5:21

4. Let the Holy Spirit work through your ordinary abilities

   Peter could ask to walk on water because water was his life; it came from a familiar skill. When the natural mind kicked in he took his eyes off Jesus and put them on what he could interpret. Involve the Holy Spirit in everyday tasks, and let the spirit of wisdom, counsel and might rise when a difficult client picks at your weak spots. Then you have taken the church to your workplace.

   Illustration: Those who cook: ask the Holy Spirit when you start, never mind how good you are, and watch Him do something through your hands that has never been done before.

   “You just became the church to your client.”

   • Romans 12:2
   • Matthew 14:28

5. There is a grace to go where God sends you

   When God sends you somewhere, a grace comes on you to succeed in that journey. Abraham had grace to go; Lot prospered only under Abraham's covering and was corrupted in the territory he chose for himself. So listen to your pastors, elders and teachers, who speak from the grace on their calling, and do not let pride cost you.

   Illustration: She tells how she and her family moved to Johannesburg for promotion and money. They had more money than they knew what to do with, but there was no grace for them there and the family came apart.

   “Don't have pride and arrogance, or you'll be like Lot, you lose a lot.”

   • Genesis 12:1
   • Genesis 13:5-12

6. Learn how to run again

   Your spirit was saved perfectly the day you were born again, but your soul, your thinker and your knower, is renewed progressively as the Holy Spirit leads you. Injuries and disappointments come from not walking circumspectly or running with grace. Like the runners in the story, change the way you run, and set the sole right, because Jesus is the foundation. 'That's just how I am' is an excuse for never letting God in.

   Illustration: A fourth-generation Japanese sock maker in his late fifties, losing sales, went to a race and noticed how runners land. His old sock had once been a running shoe, so he changed his business. The shoe only became sustainable when the sole was fixed, and a nineteen-year-old runner who had always run on his heels kept getting injured until he learned to run a new way. She also has Pastor Thamie stand to picture the perfect spirit man walking ahead while the soul learns to keep up.

   “That's a lie. It's a cop out. It's an excuse. You just never allowed God in to change you.”

   • Ephesians 5:15
   • Hebrews 12:1
   • 3 John 2
   • Romans 7:19-24

7. Lay aside the old self and live a sustainable double portion

   Live as one who has died to sin and to the desire for wealth so that others will notice you. You cannot lay aside the old Adam life in your own strength, so invite the Holy Spirit into every part of the day. She wants the double portion to be sustainable: not debt cancellation for a day but living debt-free, not healing once but health. Speak to the mountain, and refuse the world's report about age and sickness.

   Illustration: She runs almost a hundred kilometres a week, and says that is not her natural strength but the ability of God in her: if He can do it for an old lady with grey hair, what can He not do for you.

   “I don't want wealth and debt cancellation just for today. I wanna live debt-free.”

   • Colossians 3:5-9
   • Mark 11:23
   • 1 Timothy 6:12
   • Revelation 12:11
   • Psalm 103:5

In this message