Jesus on the Cross

It was in the mid-seventies, not very long after the so-called House Church Movement had started, now called the New Church Movement, that we went through some very difficult and tumultuous times, and I can remember a colleague and I would drive from the Cobham, Leatherhead area, where I was based, down to Farnham, just a little less than 20 miles away, to Waverley Abbey House, where Selwyn Hughes and his colleague Trevor Partridge had purchased Waverley Abbey House to develop it into a teaching, training, prayer revival centre. As far as I recall, they were the only two people we shared all of these difficulties with, and we knew that the advice we received and the outcome was very important. Selwyn Hughes was a wise father then, and remains so today, and I went to see him just a few days ago to talk about some of the things in my own heart and mind, and he was able to reassure me on a number of things in terms of what God had put in his heart, the future of his ministry and what our nation, indeed our world, needs at this time. It's very, very rare to find someone who writes so lucidly, and then is such an articulate speaker. Most speakers aren't good writers, and most writers certainly are not good speakers. This is certainly not true in this case. And it was three years ago that our heart for revival and transformation of lives, communities, towns and cities brought us together, so that while Selwyn Hughes and CWR own and remain at Waverley Abbey House in Farnham, I also now live there with my wife, and I have my office there and my support staff, praying and working toward revival with evangelists across the country, revivalists, working in alliance with CWR. He's 73. He travels around the world continually. He meets very demanding, tough deadlines for writing. He's actually read by around half a million people every day around the world, primarily with Every Day with Jesus. I would like you to welcome, very warmly, as a father figure and statesman of the church, Selwyn Hughes. Well, after such a wonderful introduction, I can hardly wait to hear what I'm going to say. I wonder, because you hear so many speakers at Spring Harvest, I wonder can I ask you a question as I begin, and I hope that you'll be absolutely honest now in your response. Whenever you hear a speaker for the first time, do you wonder if he's going to be interesting or not? Well, let me tell you how I learned when I was a young child. Whenever a speaker came to my church, and I'd never heard him before, I learned a little technique on how to tell in the opening moments whether a speaker was going to be interesting or not. As a boy of 12, 13, I would sit in church on a Sunday night, and in Wales, which as you know is the center of the universe, speakers would come, and in the opening moments, I knew instinctively whether he was going to be interesting or not. I would wait to see how he began. And if he said, take your Bibles and turn if you will, and went straight into his text, then usually he was a turn-off. And I would take out a piece of paper and begin to play noughts and crosses. But if he began with a story and took a little time just to engage with the audience of the congregation, I should say, and just ease his way quietly into the evening, then usually, not always, there would be some exceptions, usually he would hold my attention right throughout. So, here I am, a boy of 12 or 13, a new preacher comes, a new speaker to the church, and I'm waiting to hear how he begins. And if he says, take your Bibles and turn if you will, and went straight into his text, then I knew that probably we would not have an interesting evening. But if he told a story, then usually he would hold my attention. Now, just in case any of you use that same criterion, please note that I began with a story. Now, take your Bibles and turn if you will to Luke chapter 23, which is the portion that's been allotted to me tonight. Luke chapter 23, and I'm reading from verse 26, and I'm using the new international version. Luke 23, commencing at verse 26. As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, cover us. For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals. One on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, He saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself. There was a written notice above him which read, This is the King of the Jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him, Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other criminal rebuked him, Don't you fear God, he said, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, I tell you the truth, Today, you will be with me in paradise. Throughout time, it has been the custom of this world to uplift its great men. Those who have distinguished themselves in some career or some branch of learning of the arts are usually given a pillared prominence high above the heads of the people. London, for example, has striven to show its admiration for Lord Nelson by giving him a high position in Trafalgar Square. Hull has done the same for Wilbert Wilberforce and Glasgow for Sir Walter Scott. The world, it seems, likes to uplift its great personages and give them a high prominence, as if to say, look how much greater these men are than us. Now, around 2,000 years ago, there stepped into this world someone who by mere earthly standards alone was greater than any other person. His name was Jesus of Nazareth. His life was exemplary and his words the very epitome of divine wisdom. Now, on the principle that I have just illustrated, we would look to the world to uplift him, and so it did. But not upon a marble pillar. It was on a rough Roman cross. The surprising thing, however, is that when we read the record of the life of Jesus, we see that he looked at his death on the cross not as something to be avoided, but something to be achieved. From the time he began his ministry at 30 years of age, he talked about his death and predicted that the day would come when there would flow from his cross a power that would change and challenge the minds of multitudes. He knew that his mission to this world would culminate in an ignominious death. But he also knew that through that death he would be able to lay irresistible siege to the hearts of men and women. And that's why, that's why, that's why he said on one occasion, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men and women to me. Now, I ask myself, what is it about the cross that has this strange drawing power wherein lies its mighty magnetism? Why is it that the uplifted cross of Jesus has such a profound effect upon multitudes of men and women such as you and thousands and thousands across the face of the earth? That's the question I want to come to grips with tonight. And there are many answers to it. But before I suggest some of those answers, I want you to travel with me along the journey that Luke describes for us in the chapter that I have read. Now, Luke has a special way of describing it because he gives us three perspectives on the cross. He introduces us to some of the events that immediately precede Christ dying upon the cross. Then he tells us what actually happened on the cross and finally what Christ accomplished to the cross. And if you have a Bible or can recollect the reading as written by Luke, the spotlight as we begin this journey falls upon a man by the name of Simon of Cyrene. He was standing in the crowd as our Lord moved along the Via Dolorosa, as it's called, the journey from the judgment hall to the hill outside called Calvary. And because Christ was weak and fatigued through the loss of a night's sleep in which he'd been arrested, beaten and bruised and appeared before Pilate and then Herod and back to Pilate again, because of the tremendous fatigue that was in him, no doubt as he carried the cross, he might have stumbled. And one of the Roman soldiers, seeing the predicament, he looked into the crowd and he saw an able-bodied man by the name of Simon of Cyrene and constricted him to come and carry the cross. You know, my father was a preacher of the gospel and I remember him saying every time I heard him preach or most times when I heard him preach, he said, whenever I get to heaven and after I've looked at Christ for a billion years, the next person I'm going to look for is Simon of Cyrene and I'm going to go up to him and say, thank you, Simon, for carrying my Savior's cross. Now the spotlight falls, secondly, upon another situation. The group of women who traveled with him along the Via Dolorosa, who knowing that death by crucifixion involved such agony, these sensitive women wept for Jesus as they saw him moving toward the cross. And our Lord's response to that was this, don't weep for me, he says, but rather for yourselves and your own children. Now, what I find incredible is this, the fact that in the midst of Christ's suffering and pain, he has time to turn and think about us. What incredible love. You know, there are many definitions of love. Love Story, the film that was on about a decade ago, they gave a definition of love as never having to say you're sorry. I find that, quite frankly, unrealistic and idealistic. Charles Finney, the great revivalist in the United States, he said love is bringing about the highest good in the life of another person and I like that. But I think one of the greatest definitions of love that I've ever come across is this, love is when you are in the deepest pain and the deepest hurt that you can still turn and consider others. And I think that's one of the most fantastic definitions of love that I've ever come across and no one exemplified that more than our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the kind of love that fills his heart. Do you remember what he said to his disciples? A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. Now how did he love? Here's an example of it. In the midst of his pain and his hurt and his wounds and his injuries and the pressures that were upon him, he turns and considers those weeping women and has a word for them. You see, loving will is when we can move toward others even though there's pain in our own hearts. I'm not sure whether I've got there yet in my Christian life. Although there are many things I know that I can do well. I think I can write well. Now don't hear me being boastful or arrogant. This is a simple empirical fact because I'm read by half a million people every day. Most of my books become bestsellers. I won an award in the United States, the Silver Award in the Christian Booksellers Association a couple of years ago. There are many things I know that I can do that I can write well. I've even received an award as Preacher of the Year in the United States. So I know that there are many things that I can do well. But do you know what I do least well? It's to love as I'm loved. That's where I fail the most. And that's when I come to Jesus Christ and look to him and pray that something of that love that flowed through him, that other-centeredness that was so characteristic of Christ. Oh, how I long for that to be more evident in my life because we are so self-centered rather than other-centered, are we not? And it's interesting that when our situation or when our health or when our pleasure or when something connected with us is at stake, we can very easily forget that as Christians we are to be other-centered and we can become very self-focused. I heard the story of a little boy. I love this story. A little boy came home one day and he saw his goldfish, went over to give it some food, and he saw it on top of the goldfish bowl absolutely inert, and he poked it, and it was stiff. And he turned to his dad and said, My goldfish is dead, dad. And his father came over and said, Oh, yes, I'm so sorry. And because he saw his son so upset because his goldfish had died, he thought that he would do something to help him. And so he said, What we'll do is we'll get a matchbox, we'll put the goldfish in the matchbox, we'll take it out into the garden, we'll bury it and have a funeral, and we'll invite all your friends, and then I'll take you to the ice cream parlor and buy you all a big ice cream sundae. And the little boy cheered up. And then as he was leaving the room, he turned and he saw that the goldfish was moving. He said, Dad, look, it's alive. And his father came over and said, Well, it wasn't dead at all, was it? Look, it's swimming around. And the little boy stood there and saw the visit to the ice cream parlor disappearing in the distance. And then realizing that there was a lot at stake here, he turned to his dad and said, Let's kill it. You know, it's so easy when our interests are at stake to really fall back on that innate self-centeredness that is in our heart instead of realizing that what God calls us to do as his people is to demonstrate that same love that he demonstrated as he moved towards Grimgold, Gotha. You see, the cross draws because it is the expression of divine love. There's something very powerful about love. But I think we've got the wrong idea about love. A lot of Christians think that it's something that starts in us, but it doesn't. You know, many years ago, I was having a very difficult time with the Lord because he wasn't running my life the way that I wanted him to. And I got very upset and I said, Lord, you don't love me. And I can remember coming before him and something happened to me that transformed my understanding of what love is all about in the Christian life. I wonder, did you ever play this game, those of you who are parents, did you ever play this game with your children that you would say to them something like this, how much do you love me today? And they would say, this much. And you would say, oh, just that much? Well, maybe this much. It's a game that we in Wales used to play with our children. My parents did it with me. I did it with my two sons. It was always interesting that whenever I had to discipline my children and send them to their room and then they would come out, maybe hours later I would say, how much do you love me? This much. But it was interesting that just before their birthdays or Christmas, you know, when I came before the Lord and said, Lord, you don't love me because you're allowing all these things to happen in my life, then in a wonderful way He took me to the cross. And there, as I looked at the cross, I realized that I was seeing the expression of divine love. And as I saw how much He loved me, the scales fell from my eyes and my own love flamed in response. And I felt myself loving Him back. And I realized, for the very first time in my life, even though I'd been a preacher of the gospel for many years, I realized what that verse meant when it says, we love because, finish it, so the love that you have for Jesus Christ, where did that begin? Did you reach down into your soul and say, I am going to love Jesus? You know, when people come to me and they say, my problem, Selwyn, is I don't love the Lord enough. Do you know what I say? No, that's not your problem. Your problem is you don't know how much the Lord loves you. That's your problem. Because when we see it, even feebly, something profound moves within our souls because we see that we are loved. And that love turns the machinery of our souls and we begin to love Him back. So if you are one of those Christians who are always trying to manufacture love and say to yourself, I don't love the Lord enough, then hear me, that's not your problem. Your problem is you don't know how much you are loved. And as you gaze upon that fact, so don't try to manufacture it or concoct it. Go to the cross. Because you see, heaven has no higher strategy for begetting love in human hearts by bringing us to the cross and letting us see what is happening there. And a God who loves like this can have my heart any day. When we see how much we love, then we are drawn by the power of that invincible force. We're drawn to the cross because it's the expression of divine love. And there, as Jesus travels towards Calvary, I see it so brilliantly demonstrated. But not only is the cross the expression of divine love, it's also the exhibition of divine grace. Now, Luke tells us that when they arrive at Calvary, the most amazing scene the world has ever seen took place. The Son of God, the Son of God remember, the creator of the universe, the second person of the Trinity, the great God who made this world and everything upon it, they take Him and they stretch Him out upon the cross and they hammer huge spikes into His hands and feet. The angels must have gasped at that moment. You know, crucifixion was the most evil of tortures. It's a wonder to me how even in hell they could have thought of so fiendish an act of torture as that. A living, breathing man was taken and put to death and left there on that cross to die in the most utter agony. And that cross, that cross, my dear friends, in Jesus was not made of gold or silver or bedecked with jewels. Jesus didn't die in a cathedral surrounded by candles and stained glass windows. It was out there on a rough, rugged hill called Calvary. His cross was not embellished with gold and silver such as we see in our churches. It was a rough, wooden cross. It hadn't been to the carpenter's bench to be trimmed and tidied and polished. And the only jewels on His cross were the knots of wood that were stained crimson red by the blood of the precious Son of God. And in the midst of all this, listen, listen, in the midst of all this, what does He say? Does He look down at those who are hammering the nails into His hands and say, are you the brutes for whom I'm dying? No, He says, Father, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. In the midst of His extreme suffering, He reaches out with the offer of forgiveness. And you know, my friends, I really believe that one of the greatest needs that we have for our lives is to be forgiven. Much of my time has been spent in the counseling room in the 50 years in which I've been a minister. And I'm convinced that one of the greatest needs of the human personality is the need to be forgiven. You know, I've met many people in my time. They've had all kinds of problems, but the major problem is that they're carrying within them a load of guilt and they've never experienced the forgiveness of God, never experienced the release that comes from knowing that you are forgiven. And you know, there are a lot of people and maybe some here tonight that have never really found forgiveness. And you've been going to church for years and years, but really, you've never experienced this. And what the cross really says to us is that God's grace reaches down to us to forgive us in the most wonderful ways. You know, I had a woman in my church. I was a pastor in central London for five years and I had a woman who came to my church and she told me this story. She had been seeing a psychiatrist in Harley Street for a whole year with a guilt complex. Now, there is such a thing as a guilt complex where people feel guilty about things they ought not to feel guilty about. And I know this because when I was a boy I was brought up with very puritanical parents and they told me that if I cut my nails on a Sunday that God would put me with a man in the moon. And you know, I was 30 years of age before I cut my nails on a Sunday. Now, that's the kind of legalism that was around in those days. And this woman was so filled with guilt, she had a guilt complex that the psychiatrist and he was ministering to her or treating her for a whole year. Now, I don't know if you know anything about this kind of thing but when people deal with others who are in trouble like this they have a little word which they use called transference. For example, when someone is being counseled very often they will transfer their feelings of hatred maybe against their parents or some other. They'll transfer it onto the person who's counseling them. And this woman said to me, she said, I've been going to that psychiatrist for a whole year and the only transference I knew anything about was the transference of my complete bank account to his. And then she said, I was walking through London and someone gave me an invitation to go to All Souls Langham Place. I heard John start and he preached a simple but very challenging message. I went into the inquiry room that night and suddenly I was released because what I knew I longed for that night was not something to deal with my complex but something to deal with my real guilt I needed to be forgiven by Jesus Christ. One doctor told me that many of the symptoms he sees in his surgery are the involuntary confessions of people's guilt. What we're longing for is to be forgiven. Let me tell you about a young man in Wales. This young man was brought up in a Christian home and when he became a teenager he rebelled against everything that he'd been taught. And he became a person of such ill repute that even his non-Christian friends would sometimes be scared at the way that he would blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ and some of his friends would say to him they would say don't you realize what you're doing cursing and swearing and blaspheming the name of Christ. But he was all to no avail he kept on broke his mother's heart broke his father's heart and turned away from the things that he'd been brought up and turned away from the faith and went into a life of ill repute and shame and then one night he walked into a mission hall in a little mining village and he heard the story of the cross and when the preacher finished he invited people to come to the front if they would like to give their hearts to Jesus Christ and this young man full of shame full of sin he raced down the aisle threw himself on the front of the church in the front pew and wept his way to the cross and in a moment one single moment God forgave him and changed him and transformed his life and that young man now many years older is standing before you tonight that's what Christ did for me he saved me by his wonderful grace do you know what grace is? I think it was C.S. Lewis whenever I have a quote and I don't know who gave it I usually attribute it to Lewis I think it was Lewis who said that love can reach out on the same level but grace dupes down to pick you up and that's why I like that word grace you see love can reach out on the same level but grace reaches down to pick us up and it doesn't matter what we've done it doesn't matter how we've sinned it doesn't matter what sins we've committed in our lives the grace of God is so powerful and so far reaching that it will reach down to us and we can experience that joy of forgiveness I loved the sketch tonight, didn't you? I thought it was fantastic about someone getting into paradise I heard a story someone told me the other day of a man who arrived in paradise and the angel said to him now who are you? he gave his name why do you want to come in here? well, because I've heard that paradise is such a wonderful place how do you get in? well, he said you have to actually spell a word what is that word? grace oh yes, he said I know all about grace and I can even spell the word so he spelled it G-R-A-C-E and then the angel said now, I've got to go away for a little while stand here and the next person who comes all you have to do is to ask them if they know all about grace and then if they can spell it so the angel went and the next person to arrive was his mother-in-law and his mother-in-law said how do you get in this place? and he said well, you have to spell a word well, what is that word? Czechoslovakia do you know what grace means? it means the unmerited favor of the Lord Jesus Christ that he reaches down to us to change our lives this is why the cross is such a magnet this is why it draws people this is why it drew me nothing else could have changed my life as a young teenager who was a rebel and as I heard that story that I never want to forget of Jesus Christ dying upon the cross for my sins we are told that there were 72,000 angels 12 legions a legion of Roman soldiers was 6,000 12 times 6 is 72 72,000 angels would have pulled their swords and would have gone to the cross God said no, let him die and do you know why? because every sin that you had committed every evil deed every wrong thought was picked up by God and placed upon Christ upon that cross and he became your sin that's the measurement of his grace that's what drew me to Calvary and to Jesus Christ and to be a follower of the Savior I felt those magnetic forces reach out to me as I saw that he had died and taken my place upon the cross save yourself said some of the men who were standing around the cross if you are the son of God come down and save yourself I'm glad he didn't respond to that request because if he had saved himself then you and I would not be rejoicing here tonight in the salvation that Jesus Christ has given to us the cross draws and magnetizes us because it's the exhibition of divine grace I know of nowhere in the universe where God's grace is seen than in the forgiveness of sinners and you know when I was forgiven in testimony meetings I would get up and I would say I'm forgiven I have never got over the wonder of being forgiven not even now and when I was a young Christian the youth meeting would come and we'd have testimonies and the youth leader would say has anyone got a testimony and I would get up and say I'm forgiven and then sit down and then the next week would come anyone got a testimony and I'd stand up and say I'm forgiven and sit down and then a few weeks later the pastor came in and he heard me doing this and he said so do you think you could just say a few more words and just add it to the sentence and build it up a little bit but you see I was so overawed by the fact I'm forgiven couldn't get over it and indeed I've lived in the shadow of the cross all my life when I was a young Christian and somebody would say anyone got a hymn I would say when I survey the wondrous cross oh there is a fountain filled with blood the cross and forgiveness for me was one of the greatest joys of my life I'm forgiven why that's enough to make even a Presbyterian say praise the Lord isn't it now the cross is not only a magnet and draws us because it is the expression of God's love or the exhibition of divine grace but also listen carefully to this next statement it's the extension of divine mercy you see there were three crosses set up there on the hill on which Jesus died there was that cross on which Christ was crucified from which there flowed even in the midst of his sufferings tremendous compassion but there was another cross on one side of him on which one of the criminals who was crucified at the same time of Jesus he railed upon him and said if you be the Son of God save yourself and come down I call that the cross of contempt and then there was a third cross the cross of contrition and on this cross was a thief a robber sensing that there was something different about this man he had seen others die no doubt because crucifixion happened to thousands of people in the Roman Emperor at that time but as he looked across at Jesus and saw him dying there and sensed that there was something taking place in his life that he could not understand but he knew that God was in this moment and he reached out and cried and said remember me when you come into your kingdom now at this moment Jesus summarizes the gospel in the most wonderful way you know there was a man called Bishop Taylor Smith whose job it was in the second world war to actually train the chaplains in the British army and he had a very unique way of doing it whenever a chaplain would be interviewed by him he would give them a bible and say I am a soldier dying on the battlefield I have three minutes to live what have you got to say to me and if they couldn't summarize the gospel within three minutes then he would tell them that they have to be retrained and come to a special class in order that they might know how to bring someone to Christ within three minutes now Jesus if you notice is doing something like this on the cross he has only minutes to live and yet he summarizes the gospel in the most wonderful way in thirteen words he summarizes the gospel and says today you shall be with me in paradise now notice that today that means that salvation is present it happens now there are people who think that you can't say you're saved until you go to heaven that's nonsense the bible says he that has the son has life and that's what an evangelical is someone who knows they're saved and they know that they've been to the cross and God has saved them and their lives have been changed and they know that it's a present salvation there's an old hymn we used to sing many years ago some of you may never have heard it but we used to sing it like this the vilest offender who truly believes that moment that moment from Jesus a pardon receives and once we come to the cross and once we ask God to forgive us he doesn't say I'm going to put you on moral probation and if you do this and that and the other thing and come back in a year or so I will forgive you as soon as we cry forgive me it's present and what's this what's this it's personal today you shall be with me in paradise you see salvation is not receiving religion and I'm not offering you a religion tonight I'm offering you a relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior it's not about religion it's about a relationship that we can have with the Son of God and it's also perfect today you shall be with me in paradise and here on the cross a robber and a Savior go hand in hand into heaven both of them died but they finished up in eternity and as you saw from the sketch which put it of course very humorously but that thief arrived in heaven with the same status as everybody else because he had received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior and reached out to him upon the cross it's a perfect salvation it starts here but it finishes in heaven that's our destination it's a perfect salvation a man said to me some years ago on his deathbed he said I'm afraid to die can you tell me what heaven is like what's it like on the other side I said I don't know much about what's there but I know who is there and I can lead you to him and he died happily having received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior you see my dear friends everyone will die George Bernard Shaw said the statistics concerning death are impressive one in one will die you know my grandmother was a very simple soul and she didn't have much education and we grandchildren used to love to go on Saturday morning while she would be reading the local weekly paper and she always turned to the obituary column and we used to laugh ourselves silly when she would say something like this she would read the obituaries and she would say isn't it interesting how people seem to die in alphabetical order I wonder are you ready to meet the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior do you know him are you sure where you are suggest that that is a question that you ought to be asking yourself tonight because not only does the cross draw people because it is the expression of divine love and the exhibition of divine grace but also the extension of divine mercy and without God's mercy we haven't got a hope of getting into heaven you know the wonderful thing about the story of the cross is how Jesus involves himself with us he didn't reach out and pick us up with the celestial tongues and say get saved he came himself and involved himself in the suffering of this world and that's what endears me to the lord Jesus Christ that he is not a remote God who sits in the circle of the heavens and shouts down to us through a microphone get saved he came wore our flesh measured its frailty knows exactly how we feel he's been in our condition and that's why he can speak to our condition he's involved himself with us you know when i was a young man i used to love to go down to carly farms park and watch the welsh teams slaughter the english there was an occasion when i can remember i think it only happened once but england were nil and wales were fifty six and england were lucky to get nil and i remember a very wonderful game of rugby in carly farms park and england and wales were level peggings twenty one each and then within minutes before the end of the game they had scored a try and now they were going to convert it and wales of course had their best kicker jpr williams and just as he was going about about to kick the ball he made the sign of the cross over it like that and then the referee came and pretended to rub it out and he said why don't we let god just watch this game well i want to tell you my dear friends that god is not watching our plight he has come himself in the person of his own dear son to save us and to involve himself with us in our sufferings oh you could turn away from some kind of god who is unfeeling and insensitive but you cannot you dare not turn away from this toiling suffering bleeding crucified savior he knows your pain he knows your condition knows where you hurt tonight and a god like this a god like this can have my heart forever i've referred in my seminars over the past few days to this and i know my friends who were there will not mind me repeating it in 1987 my wife died with cancer in the last year my two sons david and john left this world one with a liver disease and within ten months just last september my second son died with a heart attack my whole family had been wiped out and people say to me how did you handle this well i want to be thoroughly honest with you with difficulty there were times when i couldn't pray i've written prayers i've taught prayer for 50 years but all i could say was jesus jesus that's all there's something about that name as bill gaither wrote in his great song there's something about that name and when i would just say it god came incredibly close and he said i know how you feel i know where you're hurting i know your pain i know your suffering and the very fact that jesus knew and i was coming to a savior who had felt my pain and my hurt that's what gave me the courage and the ability to move on through that experience i wonder am i talking to someone here tonight who's really hurting and you're suffering and struggling maybe there's a problem in your relationships maybe your marriage is breaking down maybe your children are on drugs and you've come to spring harvest and there's tremendous pain pain that even the best singing cannot reach and you've looked at other people and you've sensed that they've been rejoicing and you've said to yourself but if i had my problem how would they deal with that i want to tell you that jesus is here tonight to touch your life and as he said two thousand years ago when i be lifted up i will draw all men and women to me there's something about this savior this sacrificial lamb of god that as we see him dying upon that cross there's a kind of invisible magnetism that reaches out and he says come to me and that drawing that you feel tonight is the holy spirit calling you maybe you're not even a christian and you've outmaneuvered all the invitations this week and you're here tonight on the last night and you're still not a christian i'm going to ask you now in these moments if you will make a decision whether you're hurting in pain even physically whether there's a relationship problem whether psychological difficulty difficulties going on in your soul and you're needing the comfort and consolation of god i want to pray for you and i want to ask god to touch your life tonight and all over this tent i want those of you who are saying in your hearts selwyn pray for me i'm struggling with a problem in my life that the singing and the joy has not yet touched but i want to open my heart to him and go back and transform man and transform the woman and maybe there are those of you sitting here tonight you've never received the lord jesus christ you've never been forgiven and guilt is plaguing you and christ is calling you at this moment i'm going to ask right now that we bow our heads in prayer and i don't want to pray for you especially for those of you who have perhaps been missed during the week and no one seems to have addressed your particular plight you're hurting you're in pain you've got to go back to face a crisis perhaps you've come to spring harvest and really you were hoping that god would reach out and touch you and maybe that hasn't happened yet but not because he's unwilling but because maybe you haven't opened the door and taking the step toward him the bible says draw near to me and i will draw nigh to you you've got to take the first step and for those of you who really want prayer at this moment i'm going to ask you all over the tent now those of you that want prayer for any of those things i mentioned just rise to your feet all over the place and i'm going to pray don't be ashamed tonight you can have an encounter with jesus christ if you've never been forgiven he wants to forgive you now if you're hurting deep inside then i want to pray that god's comfort and consolation will go right like a laser beam into your soul and touch you and affect you for the power of his holy spirit tonight tonight maybe it's a physical healing that you need god healed me in 1958 when i had three days to live and i had a miraculous healing that's why i believe god can heal people miraculously there's a relationship problem in your life and you want prayer for that you stand to maybe your marriage is not bad enough for divorce but not good enough to be called a marriage either but it's a just going to pray in just a moment i'm going to wait for just about one minute and i believe there are others perhaps who are struggling at this moment maybe you're saying to yourself well if i stand will someone think i'm in trouble and i don't want to show them put that aside what is most important is that you meet with god have an encounter with him right now feel the magnetism of the cross drawing you you're coming to one who has worn your flesh he knows exactly how you feel and he wants to minister his love right into your heart heavenly father i come to you not in my name nor even in the name of spring harvest but in the wonderful incomparable name of jesus of nazareth the son of the living god honor now the prayer and ministry of your humble servant and grant me the miracle of your outstretched hand across the lives of these people who are standing whatever is their need tonight i pray that your holy spirit will come right into their hearts for those that need forgiveness then as they open up their hearts to you let the power of your invading love come into them and help them to realize that they have to do is simply ask to receive jesus and forgiveness comes for those who are physically infirm or sick then i pray that you lay your healing hand upon them and in the name of jesus christ my dear friend be healed through the name of jesus of nazareth not for those who are hurting and in pain maybe some recently bereaved but for those i pray that even now the holy spirit might just enter their hearts bringing them comfort and release from the pain let the power of your mighty love just overshadow every single one of us now and just grant that wherever there are problems like relationship problems or difficulties that your holy spirit will just move into the hearts of those who are standing for those who whatever is their need i pray that you will touch them by your father we thank you for what you are going to do for as we ask in christ's name we know that our prayers are heard and you're answering in the way that you know is best so for those standing and representing their problems i pray in jesus name that your power be upon them and your grace and your love and restore their flagging spirits touch their aching hearts and may a suffering savior who knows exactly how we feel may he just touch us afresh this night and send us out of here tomorrow with the realization that we have been in the company of the son of god who has touched us by his power and open out our lives to a new dimension of service and joy for him in christ's name amen god bless you let's all stand shall we begin let's continue responding from our hearts to the lord who loves us so much isn't it so moving how someone just shared with us there were times when he could only say the name jesus we're going to sing the name jesus jesus holy and anointed one the name is like honey on my lips let's lift up the name of jesus as a beautiful fragrant offering before the throne of god tonight