Good day, welcome and thanks for joining CrossPointe Community Church’s online Word worship presentation. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May They bless you this day as a result of your choosing to worship them.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
SCRIPTURAL CALL TO WORSHIP
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, My faithful love promised to David. . . .
Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and He will have mercy on them, yes, turn to our God, for He will freely pardon.
A mother reports that her four-year-old daughter was learning the Lord’s Prayer in her Sunday School class and the first time she recited it for her mom at bedtime prayed, “And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.”
The issue of forgiveness is one that touches all people. Sometimes it’s a major crisis that forces us to choose between forgiving and not forgiving; a betrayal by a spouse, a family feud, someone stole our money or something else of value. But thankfully, it’s those pesky lesser offenses that we must deal with: when we get passed over at work for a promotion that we were expecting, or when a colleague spreads a lie about us, or a friend betrays us.
The issue of forgiving another person who has wronged us is one that touches all people.
The issue of forgiving another person who has wronged us is more of an issue for those who call themselves Christians because we know that we are called upon to forgive others. We were just reminded by Jesus and Paul that it is incumbent upon those who sing It Is the Cry of My Heart to Follow You to forgive as Jesus forgives.
My hunch is that not all of us have become as adept as Jesus was in forgiving those who put trash in our baskets.
Good day, welcome and thanks for joining CrossPointe Community Church’s on-line Word worship presentation. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May They bless you this day as a result of your choosing to worship them.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
CrossPointe Community Church’s Mission, should we choose to accept it, is to “Share God’s Grace with Our Community.” By the way, ours is not a Mission Impossible! Ours is a Mission that is more than possible because according to Paul in Ephesians “God is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think” (3:20). One of the premier ways that God works through us is through the power of prayer. And so one of the most effective ways we can Share God’s Grace with Our Community is by praying for our Community.
To that end, our Church Leaders are asking all of us to participate in Awaken Medina County, in which we will pray for 30 days starting next Sunday for people who live in Chippewa Lake. After you visit www.awakenmedinaco.org to register, you will receive the names of 10 households and access to the free materials that include among other items a 30 day prayer guide that will assist you in how and what to pray for your 10 households. What a wonderful opportunity this is to join forces with God to bring about His will in our community as we pray.
Our leaders would like to invite all of you to gather here on the late afternoon/evening of Saturday, September 18th for a little soirée at which we will enjoy fellowship, food, fun and a little music.
Many of you have already noticed that we have Randy Hall today. And we are very blessed to have him as our special speaker today. Randy is a member of the Wadsworth Camp of the Gideons. The Gideons started in 1899 in Wisconsin and has grown into a world-wide Christian organization that excels in distributing Bibles. He has been with us several times over the last decade and each time he comes you folks tell me that I missed a very special blessing. And so we look forward to hearing what Randy has to bring us.
By the way Randy, did you hear about the very gracious lady who was mailing an old family Bible to her brother in another part of the country. When she took it to the Post Office, the clerk asked, “Is there anything breakable in here?” “Only the Ten Commandments,” answered the lady.
Today, we have the added blessing of celebrating the Sacrament of Holy Communion. If you haven’t already prepared the sacramental elements of your choice, you may want to stop here and do so. All who desire to draw closer to God through faith in His Son are invited to participate.
Good day, welcome and thanks for joining CrossPointe Community Church’s online Word worship presentation. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May They bless you this day as a result of your choosing to worship them.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Our Church Leaders have made a decision to join a Greater Medina County Prayer Initiative titled, “Awaken.” Participants will receive the names of 10 households to pray for beginning September 12 for one month. You are all invited to participate. To do so visit awakenmedinaco.org
You can read about the program, register your name and download the free materials. One of the latter is a 30 day prayer guide that will assist you in how and what to pray for your households. Once you register, you will receive your names. When I talked to the point person, I asked about praying for the people in our mission field and when I received my names, I noticed they all do live in Chippewa Lake.
SCRIPTURAL CALL TO WORSHIP
Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
Good day, welcome and thanks for joining CrossPointe Community Church’s online Word worship presentation. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May They bless you this day as a result of your choosing to worship them.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
I am so very grateful that we are a Community Church and accomplishing our purpose, which is to “Share God’s Grace with our Community.”
To that end, Jim and I will be providing the music for the annual Chippewa Lake Pride Committee’s Fundraiser today at 5pm down at Point Park.
And we are also excited to announce that the brothers Tresch will be flying in from Texas and Florida next weekend and there will be a Bridging the Gap Reunion down at The Village Inn next Friday at 7pm. We, and they, would love to see you there!
Next Friday is also our last Friday of the month free Community Dinner. John and Amy tell me the menu consists of Italian stuffed chicken, roasted redskin potatoes, green beans and for dessert… pineapple upside down cake! We will again be serving it to folks as they drive up in their cars. So if you would like to help out, please come by 4:50 and you will be here until about 6:10 pm. Please let me know if you plan to help.
Annie Dean and Gale Arthur will be offering Grief Share beginning this Thursday here at the church between 12:30 and 2:30pm. Grief Share is a ministry offered to folks grieving the loss of a loved one. If you know of anyone who could benefit, please pass this on.
Last but not least, since next Sunday is a fifth Sunday, it is what we call Gather to Scatter Sunday, whereby, we ‘gather’ for worship and then ‘scatter’ into the community to share God’s grace. COVID has set us back a little in this regard. However;
Now to give you a clue as to our theme for today:
How do cats measure the gracefulness of their leaps? In fluid pounces!
What do you call a chicken that moves ever so gracefully? Poultry in motion
Modern technology has never matched the simplicity and grace of the traditional pen. In fact, you could say that there is still no e-quill.
My wife is such a terrible cook, we say grace after we’re done eating.
What do pastafarians say after saying grace? Ramen.
And all the vegetables gathered around the meal that lay before them and decided to say grace… Lettuce pray
Good day, welcome, and thanks for joining CrossPointe Community Church’s online worship presentation. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May They bless you this day as a result of your choosing to worship them.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
As a reminder, we are having in-person worship at 10:00 AM on Sundays. Because the numbers in Medina County remain low, vaccinated individuals are not yet required to wear a mask. If you are not vaccinated, we ask that you wear a mask and sit on the right side of the sanctuary where the chairs are spaced out further. If you wish to sit six feet apart from someone else, make sure that there is one chair between you and them.
Okay, to get the gray matter and the funny bone working; whereas an Astrophile loves stars, a Bibliophile loves books, not the Bible, a Hippophile loves horses (not hippos) a Lexophile loves what? And the answer is ‘a play on words.’
For an example, or two, I know a guy who’s addicted to drinking brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time.
A thief who stole a calendar got . . . twelve months.
When the smog lifts in Los Angeles . . . U.C.L.A.
I got some batteries that were given out . . . free of charge.
This girl today said she recognized me from the Vegetarians Club, but I’d swear I’ve never met . . . herbivore.
I couldn’t find a phile that describes someone who loves God. Religiophile, as a person who loves religion is close, but no cigar. We’ll just have to make up our own. Since all these philes are Greek terms; ‘phile’ being one of the four Greek words for love, in this case, affectionate love and since the Greek word for God is Theo, we could say that we are all Theophiles; lovers of God. Or more specifically I suppose we are Christosophiles, lovers of Christ. Theophiles and Christisophiles that’s what Paul has in mind for us to be in today’s . . .
Good morning, welcome and thanks for joining CrossPointe Community Church’s online Word worship presentation. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May They bless us this day as a result of our choosing to worship.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
As a reminder, we are having in-person worship at 10:00AM on Sundays. Because the numbers in Medina County remain low, vaccinated individuals are not required to wear a mask, yet. If you are not vaccinated, we ask that you wear a mask and sit on the right side of the sanctuary where the chairs are spaced out further. If you wish to sit six feet apart from someone else, make sure that there is one chair between you and them.
SCRIPTURAL CALL TO WORSHIP
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know that the LORD, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the LORD is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.
Good morning and welcome to CrossPointe Community Church. I thank God for all of you and for the opportunity to spend this time with you. My name is Jim for those of you who may be new. I am filling in for Randy this week. He is in the sunny state of Florida visiting.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
On Tuesday the parking lot will be sealed by Grainger Paving. They asked us to not drive on it for 24 hours, which means Thursday at the earliest.
A resident here in the Village of Chippewa is moving from his home and needs help moving things out of the house and garage. He is not in the best of health physically and could really use help. We will be starting at 9 am Tuesday morning. This is an opportunity for you to share God’s grace with the community. Anyone interested, please see me or Annie Dean after worship. There is a sign-up sheet with all the information on it. I am hoping that many hands make light work. There is much to do and a short time to complete it.
I saved the best for last. This is the first Sunday of the month and we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Holy Communion. This table does not belong to any denomination, church or organization. It belongs to Jesus. He is inviting everyone so that your relationship with Him can deepen. No matter if you have loved Him for years or are just getting to know Him. Come and meet Him here.
As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?” My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration! Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!
Psalm 42:1-5
We are in the third week of a seven-week series of messages that focus on the seven last sayings of Christ. Seven utterances that come from the lips of Jesus as He hung upon the cross for six long hours on a Friday afternoon about 2,000 years ago. Seven sayings that still bring fresh perspective and insight for living into the lives of people who consider them in 2020. Seven sayings that have the potential to bring positive new change to you and me if we will consider them, and consider them carefully:
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Mother, behold your son, son behold your mother” (John 19:26-27).
My God, my God, what have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34)
Truly, truly, I say unto you, today you shall be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
It is finished” (John 19:30).
Father, into Thy hands I commit My Spirit” (Luke 23:46).
That’s six. For the seventh, let’s turn to today’s text as recorded by John:
Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst.” A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips” (John 19:28-29).
Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst.”
That verse is pregnant with meaning for, in this one sentence, John brings us face to face with two extremely important truths.
The first has to do with the humanity of Jesus.
None of the other gospel writers record Jesus saying, “I thirst.” Apparently, they didn’t think it was worth mentioning. But for John, as well as for Christianity as a whole, that one word was extremely important.
You see, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all preceded John whose gospel was written about 40 or maybe even 50 years after the first three. By that time, a certain religious philosophy called Gnosticism was becoming increasingly popular. Gnosticism held, among other things that anything spirit was good but that all matter, that is anything we can touch and feel was evil. Certain conclusions followed: One was that God, who is spirit, is good, but God could never take on a human body because a body is made of matter and matter is evil. They, therefore, concluded that Jesus never had a body, but rather, that He was a phantom. They said for example, that when Jesus walked, His feet would leave no prints for He was a spirit in a phantom body. They therefore also had to conclude that since He didn’t have a body Jesus experienced the entire episode of crucifixion without pain. In this way, they thought they were honoring Jesus, but in reality, they were demeaning His work upon the cross in two ways.
First, as it concerned His sacrifice for sin. For if He was to free human beings from their sin, He had to become one of us. William Barclay writes,
If He was ever to redeem man, He must become man. He had to become what we are in order to make us what He is. That is why John stresses the fact that Jesus felt thirst; he wished to shoe that Jesus really was human and really underwent the agony of the cross.” 1
And second, the Gnostics denied Jesus identification with the human condition, especially concerning His identification with our pain. I will return to apply this point in a few minutes.
But for John it was very critical that we understand that Jesus did, in fact, have a human body. This is why John chose to include what the other gospel writers passed over; that Jesus experienced one of the most basic human desires: thirstiness.
Not only the humanity of Jesus; the second truth that surfaces in this text is that Jesus is at the same time divine.
Jesus, KNOWING that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst” (John 19:29).
Jesus, “knowing that all things had already been accomplished.” What things?
Psalm 41:9 “betrayed by a friend” Psalm 31:11 “disciples would forsake Him” Psalm 35:11 “falsely accused” Psalm 22:1 “forsaken of God” Psalm 22:18 “garments were gambled for” Isaiah 53:12 “numbered with the transgressors” Psalm 22:16 “pierced His hands and feet” Isaiah 53:12 “prayed for His enemies” Isaiah 53:9 “proven guiltless” Isaiah 53:7 “silent before His judges”
“Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished and in order that the scripture might be fulfilled.” What scripture? Now we’re talking Psalm 69, another Messianic Psalm which has been only been partially fulfilled:
Verse 2 says, “He will sink in deep mire.” I think we are safe in saying that. Verse 3 says, “He will be hated without a cause.” That’s certainly true. Verse 7 says, “He will bear reproach and shame.” Absolutely! Verse 11says, “He will cry out to God in distress.” He did that. And then verse 21 says, “they offer Me sour wine for My thirst.”
And so, Jesus, “knowing that all things had already been accomplished and “in order that the scripture might be fulfilled,” said, “I thirst.”
How could Jesus know these things? The one inescapable conclusion is that Jesus is who He claimed to be as it has already been recorded in this same gospel many times, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). For John, it is vitally important to point out that Jesus is not only human but also divine.
“Oh what a mystery, manhood and deity.”2
Even the Apostle Paul in his letter to Timothy admitted “great is the mystery of godliness in that God was manifest in the flesh” (I Timothy 3:16)
Human yet Divine!
As a man, He slept in the back of a boat,
as God, He stilled the storm.
As a man, He wept at the grave of his friend, Lazarus,
as God, He raised His friend to life.
As a man, He died a terrible death,
as God, He was resurrected forever!
He was both Son of man and Son of God!
One unique individual possessing two natures, divine and human.
The God/man, Jesus, the Christ.
Now most, of course, don’t have a problem believing that Jesus was human.
It’s His deity we have a problem with because His deity maneuvers us into choosing between two alternatives. Either Jesus was who He claimed to be “I and My Father are one and the same” (John 10:30) or He was suffering from delusions of grandeur. If we believe the latter is true, that Jesus was a liar then what are we doing here? If on the other hand, He was telling the truth if the scriptures written about Him seven centuries before He was born are true; well then, that’s a game-changer!
“Bow down and worship, for this is your God.” 3
Having said all of that, I’d like to make one point of application that flows from this text; then give a concluding thought.
As for the application, His deity may lead us to believe that He is far removed from our human situation; nevertheless because He was human, He can identify with our human sufferings.
As the scriptures say, He is acquainted with our feelings. He not only felt thirsty and hungry, He felt sleepy, tired, exhausted. He knows what we feel like when the alarm clock goes off. He knew what it felt like to spring forward last Sunday. He understands when we tell Him that there is more to do than can ever be done.
This word from the cross reminds us that Christ sympathizes with His people, can sympathize with you and me when we suffer various heartaches, pains, slings and arrows, temptations, trials, and tribulations.
The writer to the Hebrews reminds us, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do” (4:15).
I don’t know about you, but that helps my faith to realize that He experienced what I experience and He can therefore sympathize. He understands how I feel, what I am going through.
When we go through various trials and sufferings, as indeed we are now experiencing, we can at the same time remind ourselves that God suffered too, that He understands that He can enter into our feelings and that helps. When we go to Him in prayer to share with Him what’s bothering us, we go to someone whose heart beats with ours because He’s been there. He’s been criticized, ignored, misunderstood, rejected. He knows what it’s like to be hated, offended, reproached. He understands loneliness, the feeling that no one cares, much less understands us. He knows what it’s like to have our best friends turn away from us.
“I thirst.” And because He did, we bow down and worship a God who fills us with faith for times such as these.
Jill Briscoe tells about the faith of a man her husband Stuart knew in England. This man and his wife had been praying for some time to have a child. They lived in an economically depressed area and he worked in an industrial plant that was greatly influenced by a communist leaning union. Because this man was a Christian, he didn’t have an easy time of it, often being ridiculed for his faith in God. Then one day his wife told him they were going to have a baby. They were elated at the prospect. When he told his co-workers that God has answered their prayers, they made fun, but it hardly fazed this man as he was overjoyed at becoming a father.
When their little girl was born with Down syndrome, the man began to dread the thought of telling the others at work about it. What would they say? Sure enough when they found out, they taunted him about his faith in God: “Are you sure God loves you?” One man said, “I don’t even believe in God, yet I have five healthy children.” Another said, “If God really loved you, why would he allow this to happen to you?”
Standing there in the midst of that arrogant atheism, the man bowed his head. Shame filled his heart as he realized their voices were an echo of his doubts. And then he had a vision of Jesus suffering on the cross and saying, “I thirst.” Suddenly, he was overcome with a sense of Christ’s empathy and compassion and sympathizing and understanding for him and his wife and his little girl. As he looked up the men were amazed at the change in his countenance, as filled with the Spirit, he said to them, “I am so glad, so very glad, that God gave her to me and not to you.” 4
“I thirst.” And because He did, we bow down and worship a God who fills us with faith for times such as these.
John Stott, in his fine book, The Cross of Christ, writes,
I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross. … In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries, and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing around his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I’ve had to turn away. And in my imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me. He laid aside His immunity to pain. He entered into our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of His.5
God knows and invites us to “cast all of our cares upon Him because He cares for us” (I Peter 5:7). He knows how it is and somehow, I can’t fully explain it, it helps. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! But there are times when we are restored by remembering that God became flesh and dwelt among us. Our Master knew what it meant to be a crucified carpenter who got thirsty.
Concluding thought: Jesus is not only expressing a basic human need not only is He divinely carrying out the fulfilling of scripture but on a deeper level expresses His desire to be with His heavenly Father.
Bible scholars suggest Jesus has in mind here another Messianic Psalm: the 42nd:
As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after You. My soul thirsts for God, for the Living God. (1-2).
We cannot leave this scene without realizing that Jesus was thirsty for God and recognizing that only God in Christ Jesus can quench the thirstiness in our souls.
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale tells about having lunch with a famous surgeon in NYC and asking him, “What was the greatest operation you ever performed?”
“I don’t know about the greatest, but the most meaningful concerned the sweetest little girl who was only given a 10% chance of survival.”
At that time in my life, I was going through a sort of mid-life crisis. My marriage was in shambles, our son was constantly in trouble and despite the fact I was very well off and could buy anything I wanted, I was very unsatisfied with life.
Just prior to giving this little girl anesthesia, she said a little prayer in a sweet voice “Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me. Bless Thy little lamb tonight. Through the darkness, be Thou near me, Keep me safe till morning light. And dear God, please bless this doctor.”
And then she added, “Okay I’m ready now and I’m not afraid because Jesus loves me and He’s right here with us and is going to bring us through okay.”
And the doctor told Rev. Peale, “I was blinded by tears and had to feign another wash-up before I could perform the operation. As I stood at the sink, I prayed, “Dear God, if you ever help me save another human being, help me save this little girl. I operated and the miracle happened; she lived!
Leaving the hospital later that night, I realized that I had been the one operated on, for that little girl taught me that if put my hands and life in the hands of Jesus, He will see me through. And that’s what I did and my life has never been the same.” 6
Christ alone can quench the thirstiness of our souls! He alone can impart that peace which the world does not know. He alone can satisfy the deep longings of our hearts. Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37-38).
The last words uttered by a person before death are often of great significance.
Many final words have been recorded. Some of them are quite humorous:
“He’s so tame you can put your head right inside his mouth.”
“Clip the red wire first.”
“They only attack when they are hungry.”
Others are more of a profound nature:
Martin Luther said “God is our goal from whom comes salvation.”
John Wesley said, “The best of all, God is with us. Farewell! Farewell!”
Dwight Moody said, “This is my triumph, this is my coronation day; it is glorious!”
Or take the last words of Jesus as He hung nailed to the cross. He didn’t make one statement; the eyewitnesses’ recorded seven different statements uttered by Jesus as He endured approximately six hours of suffering on the cross. People down through the centuries have hung with bated breath upon these seven dramatic, awe-inspiring, faith-building statements spoken from the lips of the Christ.
During the six Sundays that lead up to and then including Easter, I’d like to re-examine each saying:
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
“Mother, behold your son, son behold your mother” (John 19:26-27).
“I thirst” (John 19:28).
“My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34).
“Truly, truly, today you shall be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
On Palm Sunday, we’ll examine what Jesus meant by, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Then, on Easter Sunday morning, we will be greatly encouraged by His last, last words: “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46).
Final words; each one a window through which we can better see and comprehend the heart of Jesus.
These 7 statements cannot be fully appreciated apart from the context of the crucifixion.
