Good Friday Service – Guest Speaker Bishop Gary Trail

2 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

It is a good evening. And I take good from coming from I think the old Saxon God So it’s God’s evening. And Jesus made Friday God’s Friday. But let’s look to the Lord. In his word I’m going to have a turn to first Corinthians to the second chapter. And I don’t know whether this will make my sermon any shorter but I’m only going to read five verses sometimes we don’t know exactly what will happen we have no choice but then the Holy Spirit is present here this word from God. And those are words from St Paul two that. Outstanding church in Corinth which I deem as the Andrius Church of the New Testament and that brother and when I came to you did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you except Jesus Christ. And Him crucified. I was with you in weakness in fear and in much trembling and my speech and my preaching were not with persons per the sway CIB words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit. And of power. That your faith should not be in the wisdom of band. But in the power of God. Here it is this reading Let us pray thank you Lord for this place dedicated and erected. To your honor and glory and to the blessing of people gathered in comfort. And in ministry and in fellowship. Thank you dear Lord for those who have decided to join us on the Internet Lord we know that your spirit has no bounds. And we believe that your word of power even just simply read. Can change hearts and lives and bring healing. In Body Mind and Spirit let your word go forth tonight and use your poor servant Lord that Hearts will be softened. To hear directly from you and in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen what is important. In any stage of life. And I really think it’s a second verse rather Turman not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ. And Him crucified what’s important in any stage in life. I guess I could make this sermon really short and say. Ever since I decided to follow Jesus. He’s been the most important in my life and I have no regrets. He has brought me through trials and tribulations. And the joys were deeper because he has worked in my heart and I marvel at where I’ve been and the wonderful people I’ve met across this planet from. Western Samoa to. Amman Jordan I had no idea what as a little boy growing up between the great metropolitan centers of Cheney’s will north of us. In the backwoods of Bedford County South Hampton township that I would ever have all of these life experiences. But. Now I’m approaching. The end. I’m not sure how far it is but I know I’m approaching it every day. And maybe we have a clue to the experience of John Wesley’s dead deathbed scene many had gathered round his bed to be with him as he passed over I believe the year was seventeen ninety one he was eighty seven years of age he had gotten up at four o’clock every morning preached at five the coal miners and people on the street who are years and years and years since his conversion and seven hundred thirty eight. And he was determined. That he would praise God. With his latest breath. He wanted to be able to do that as he breathed his last he wanted to go out praising God and the people gathered around him decided to sing one of his favorite hymns penned by Isaac Watts and incidentally altered a little bit by John Wesley to. And it’s entitled I’ll praise my maker while I breath I don’t know whether I can sing it or not but I might give it a try. Praise my maker while I breath and when my voice is lost in the earth praise shall employ my nobler powers my days of praise show ne’er be passed while a firm thought then being asked or immortality him do. And then the second verse is happy or they whose hopes rely on Israel’s God who made the sky and earth and seas and all their train whose truth for ever stand secure who saves the oppressed and feeds the poor for none shall find God’s promise vain the Lord poor is eyesight on the blind the Lord supports the fading mind sends the laboring conscience peace God helps a stranger in distress the widow and the father less and grants the prisoner sweet release and then the first verse is repeated again and they were saying that as they gathered around the scene of his death. And as they came to the last verse. He sang out praise my maker while a breath and then the next time it was all praise my maker and then the next time it was our praise. And then he sang praise and died. What a marvelous way to leave this earth. Now me. I don’t really have. A. Desire are to be that wonderful because I don’t think I can make it John Wesley was a wonderful man some so far ahead of me. And as I approach life and I approach the next world. I’m losing a lot of my memory it takes Mary and I both of us to remember something anymore and I think what is the last thing I want to remember before I pass on the last word as I pass over it’s the name Jesus I hope that I have enough mind as I pass over I can say Jesus Jesus means Savior deliver and he’s been that for me lo all these many years now polo and I’ll give you the context of the scripture Paul had left Athens and he had debated people on Mars Hill. Now he was a clever debater there he would have thought he would have done better because he was so clever that he saw all this inscription To the Unknown God and he said OK let me tell you who he is. It’s the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and he has sent Jesus to die on a cross for your sins where the Athenians were noncommittal people. They like to talk they like to debate they like to speculate they like to think about new ideas so they said well we’ll hear you some more some other time but a few people did accept Jesus at that point but not many so I think pole left Athens dejected and headed to Corinth and I’ll tell you I don’t know whether that was a smart thing or not and in the when the ways of the world or the way the human beings reason for he came to Corinth which I believe was a southern city of the first century the southern city the first century there were pagan temples with worship of sex which included male and female prostitutes. And that was very very attractive to the Corinthian people. It was a cosmopolitan city it was a crossroads where strange ideas and strange religions passed back and forth from west to east to west and west to east and so it was thoroughly a place where you would think Paul will have hardly any success at all but the pole decided to change his tack and so he was actually more successful there in Corinth that he had been. Other in Athens even though this was the Army’s cure to the New Testament He is he’s like curly in the movie and I can’t remember it’s a it’s about some New Yorkers that want to be cowboys you know you’ve seen it many and and they ask early about his philosophy of life and he says one thing well that Paul one thing. He determines he’s going to have talk about one thing and that is a person and he’s going to keep talking about it and not wavering from other not trying to do sleight of hand or or cleverness among the Corinthians because they are so corrupt What in the world else would ever reach people so to pray VED and so he determines that he is not to know anything no anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Wow. To know. You know it’s not what you know but it who you know. And I could cite many examples and I think you could too. I can remember young lady she was so good at cheerleading. But she didn’t know the right people so she wasn’t picked for the cheerleading squad. I can know a person who is in university and she really should have been chosen for one of the top places in the class actually in assistantship. And even though she is first in her class in grades somebody else was chosen it’s not what you know it’s who you know and that’s true of eternal life and that’s true whether you’re going to be any body or somebody in this life in the economy of the Kingdom of God and that’s the kingdom accounts. The Kingdom of God is what’s going to last it has had lasted every nation said to since the first century. And I could I’m concerned about this nation are we still going to be under God or are we becoming the Sodom and Gomorrah of the twentieth century I pray not I hope not because. The only hope is Jesus Christ for our nation but poll it seems to me he probably figured why I have little choice. Among these people. I have to stick to just this core message because it’s the only thing that will change their hearts it’s the reality of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and he is a reality. And so he takes a take it or leave it message he doesn’t debate he doesn’t use clever Ari says you know Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures. Take it or leave it and folks I think that’s the only thing a work in a bid to pray for society. Like Corinth it’s the only thing that will work today Christ in you the hope of glory and His Christ in you. Do you know my Jesus or you on intimate terms with Jesus do you talk with Jesus every day. Do you know him as say as the one who has died for your sins you know him as a savior the the Deliverer do you know him as the one who has told you I have from drowning drowning in a sea of sin. You know Jesus as your Savior and Lord C.S. Lewis once said aim of heaven. And you will get through earth thrown in. Aim at Earth and you’ll get neither. I’ve testified to you tonight that is absolutely true. Oh yes I took a leap of faith back when I was eighteen years old and and trusted that Christ had died for Marcion’s and was the only one could take away my sins away. That was a leap of faith but I then had to trust. OK you take away a sin Jesus but do you have the best plan for my earthly life OK I know him go on but what about this earth and I decided in my weak way and I will say that I was great at obeying all the time but in my weak way obedience has led to life in Him was life and the life was a light of men in the Old Testament re read. I said before you this day blessing and cursing. Life and death therefore choose life in Jesus is real life on earth deep inside out so that you are pure within you don’t have to worry you don’t you’re not guilty any more because Jesus takes away the sin and the guilt and the penalty and more even more. And so that’s why there’s the power of God whenever say Paul preaches Christ and him proves crucified and he and he sticks to that very very. Message and won’t get away from it. I think. Was a Churchill said that once. A. Someone who is a fanatic is someone who. Can’t change his mind and won’t change a subject. Well by Jesus we can be fanatical for the world tell you something. You cannot love Jesus and people too much. You may have to show Tough love the some people because that may be the only thing the work in order to save them so that they have a decent life on Earth and eternal life to follow. Do you know Jesus there is no other name under heaven by which we may be saved do you know Jesus crucified here I accepted Jesus. I knew that he was the only one. Who could save me. Do I Know Him crucified Oswald Chambers’ on March twenty first. Devotions has this to say. Glaciers to twenty I am crucified with Christ in need titles this interest or identification. The imperative need spiritually is to sign the death warrant of the disposition of sin to turn off all emotional impressions and intellectual believes into a moral verdict against the disposition of C.M. That is my claim to my right to myself. Do you claim your right to yourself or do you say Jesus has a right to you Paul says I have been crucified with Christ he does not say I have determined to imitate Jesus Christ and He doesn’t say I will endeavor to follow him but I have been crucified with him in his death I have been identified with him in his death when I come to certain moral decision and that the bullet and all that Christ wrought for me or the cross is wrought in me the free Camillo of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the chance to impart to me the holiness of Jesus Christ as Paul says nevertheless on the earth the individuality remains but the mainstream spring the ruling disposition is radically altered the same human body remains but the old satanic right to myself is destroyed. And the life which are now live in the flesh not the life which I long to live and pray to live but the life I now live in my mortal flash of life which men can see I live by the faith of the Son of God This faith is not polls faith in Jesus Christ but the faith that the Son of God has imparted to him. The faith of the Son of God It is no longer faith in faith but faith which has overlapped all conscious balance the dinner the identical faith of the Son of God. Are you crucified with Christ to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified are tied well. All’s well chambers again far ahead of me. John Wesley is far ahead of me St Paul’s far ahead of me although stakeholders give me whole. Someone has said that Paul when he started out after. Meeting Jesus on the Damascus Road he said increased Corinthians fifteen nine and the least of Apostles who am not worthy to be called in a possible because I persecuted the church of God So he started out that’s pretty humble and I’m not worthy to be an apostle not even worthy to be called an apostle if he’s in St A Some years later after he’s grown spiritually he says I am less than the least to the saints of the other or the believer saint here means believer. I’m less than the least of the believers again I was pretty humble and someone said then toward the end of his life he writes to Timothy in First Timothy one fifteen. I am the chief of sinners in fact the context of that I think is. I can plan this is a faithful service saying and worthy of all acceptance a Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am Chief I don’t know about you but that gives me hope that gives me hope and I’ll tell you why if poet experience that the father he had walked with Jesus and the more he had grown in the faith he sensed the dead even more depths of said it himself I’m with Paul you have walked with Jesus a lot of years I’ve trusted in Jesus but the truth is sometimes. The Holy Spirit Khana gets into another nook and cranny of my soul and shows me some things that aren’t really that good no matter how far journey I really need Jesus crucified. Because you see the crucifixion. Is so tragic and so dramatic and so awful that it shows us that that is so marvelous really tragic it awful that it’s greater than the Valas to of our MY see end the violence center. Even after we’ve been a Christian for a long time does that make sense. How to make sense to me I hope it makes sense to me I still have enough mind love to hope that it makes sense to me. I’m not sure how much I can remember but Mary and I were talking the other day. The longer we live the more we need Jesus or I’ll admit I needed Jesus before I accepted him I needed Jesus after I’d accepted him I needed Jesus when he called me to preach and said No OK go do seven years of higher education nobody in our family had done that for generations now my sister is pretty smart she made for years but she was valedictorian of her class I wasn’t there all these challenges. Then there was a board of ordained ministry I had to. Try to impress I guess I’m scared to death. I mean you could name anything then yet Jesus went with me all through that and it’s gone with me through many of the tragedies of life and the joys have been unspeakable. And full of glory but I look at myself and think surely. Surely about growth that and yet maybe I have. I love my wife Mary. She’s second God first and she Second I have to tell you this if God were not first in my life I wouldn’t treat her as good as he that’s that’s another paradox. The paradox the more we aim for heaven the more we get over thrown in the paradox is the more we love God. The better we’re going to treat those next to us. And even those far away from us and in some cases but as much as I love Mary. I still like to look at women said childcare. It’s got even worse since I had an operation in two thousand got twenty twenty vision. Oh Richard man that I am who will deliver me from this flash of sin but the thing is when you get older. Your sins are more thought you don’t have the energy to do the actual flashy SIDS. But it’s still bad. Jesus said there are sins of the heart weren’t there oh us a little Jesus help me you know how we not take a second look see that was David’s problem when he sold Bathsheba bathing he looked once but then he looked a second ta Jesus help me not to look so good that’s what I pray. Now maybe pray OK Jesus about look help me not to leave here. Oh we can laugh. But there’s still the struggle there isn’t there I need a crucified Jesus one who has done such a work that has demonstrated to me beyond a shadow of a debt that what he has done is greater than any of my sins all piled together my worst years of thought word and deed against the divine majesty of God and the Lavalas sinner that I will ever meet and I think that was Paul’s message to cause he probably meant some pretty vile simpers there in Corinth sure we still stumble and still we sin in our thoughts but God is so good. God is so good he’s always working on us when I need Jesus Christ and Him crucified more than ever the psalmist said remember not the sins of my youth now I have to pray Lord I need the need help with the sins of my. Age person you know forgive them to the thoughts of the flesh no. Actually I’m in good company you know the deeds of the deeds of the flash in Galatians five which are then follow bug elations five twenty two the the fruit of the spirit. But that’s a long list in there you know of really bad stuff one of us murder so I want to ask Ruth Bill Graham if she had ever considered divorcing Billy Her answer was No. Never ever consider divorcing Billy murder many times but not divorce. See we’ve all had those impulses. Oh it’s not sweet and light in America each. But there is a there is help from God in a marriage there is help from God There is the grace of God and God working to bring grace in each other. Let me see if I can bring this to a close. As America moves farther into Sodom and Gomorrah. We can only be saved by that message to Paul that single minded message Jesus Christ. And Him crucified. Let us pray to Jesus We do need you more than ever. We have achieved a place where family Crosby taught us to sing. This resting in my savior as well all in all standing on the promises of God there were not that place Lord. Where each thought the needs motive are beneath your control is another him right it would say but you know Jesus since you’ve been crucified we know. We’re going to get there and maybe we not praise you like John Wesley with our latest breath but maybe Jesus. You will be our last thought on earth and all the glory of heaven. Amen.