The Church Leader and the Cross — Al Henson

Let's pray together, Father, Lord, I acknowledge even at this moment, apart from thy Holy Spirit, I am absolutely destitute. I can think of nothing in my being that has any ability to accomplish anything for eternity.

And so, Father, I come here, cast before thee again as one who is destitute, but yet because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, Father, I have a deep desire to glorify my Savior and my Lord, to see his kingdom expanded.

And so, Father, I come and I praise thee, O Lord, that you joyfully give unto us the Holy Spirit to carry out your work. We praise you that even much more than if my son asked me for bread, I would not give him a stone.

And if I am evil and have this kind of heart to my own son, Lord, how much more of a heart do you have to give unto us the Holy Spirit if we ask? And so, Father, I come asking. I don't ask to consume it upon my own lust.

I only ask it that I might ask for him that I might decrease and that Christ might increase even in this time. And I pray, O Father, for my dear brothers and sisters and co-laborers in your kingdom as we've gathered here from all over.

O God, would you pour your Holy Spirit out upon them and give them ears to hear, eyes to see, and a receptive heart. And again, Father, I come and I ask personally, O Lord, I not only want to minister the truth of thy word, so I pray for the mind of Christ and the mind of God, but I want to minister your heart, O Lord, your life through the word.

So Father, I pray right now that you would give me your heart for these people at this time. I want to know how you feel toward them, O Lord. Perhaps you're grieved because of some, and yet you have great hopes for all, great desires.

And Father, as you compel men and exhort men and plead with men in the Spirit, I want to enter in union with that, O Father. So I lay my heart out before thee, O God, willing to be spent for thee. And Father, we pray that in Christ's name that Satan, any distractions of time, any distractions of the world or thoughts, that he would be bound now with the word of God, the power and the energy of the Spirit of God would have free course in this place at this time.

And Father, we praise you that you're a prayer-hearing God, and that you are hearing now and answering these prayers, and we give thee thanksgiving. O how our hearts adore thee, and all that is within us, we bless thy holy name.

How it's so beautiful and wonderful to behold. Thank you that through Christ and his ascension and the descending of the Holy Spirit that we now can participate in divine life. Praise thee, O Father. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

The Church Leader and the Cross in Matthew's Beatitudes

If you have your Bible, turn to the book of Matthew, if you would, and I'm going to be looking at three different things today. The importance, the subject that's been given me as the pastor or the church leader, not just the pastor, but the church leader and the cross.

The church leader and the cross. First of all, just briefly out of Matthew, I want to share with you, out of Matthew in chapter 5, the importance of this message of the cross in your life as a church leader.

Then I want to take out of the life of the disciples and show you how they were not affected and how Christ yearned and was burdened for them. Even though they were deeply surrendered to the Lord, he was burdened for them because they had not come to the cross.

And then thirdly, so you know the direction that we're going, whatever time allows, if it's 5 minutes or 10 or 15, I want to take some time to give some application or teaching just on the cross and what it means in your own heart and life when it is applied.

So that's the direction that we're going. Quickly, so I want to flow as quickly as I can through these first couple of points here. Point number one, the importance of the cross in the pastor's life. Now here in Matthew in chapter 5, we have the Beatitudes.

Christ is teaching here and just, I want to read the first three of the Beatitudes and make a comment briefly on each of the three. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they which mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Now Christ in the context here is teaching. Remember John the Baptist had preached, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

And then Jesus picked up the same message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he takes the opportunity in the beginning of his ministry with a crowd of Jews gathered perhaps on the side of a mountain somewhere.

He takes the opportunity to begin to express unto them the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the Lord, and living in the kingdom. And truly his kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. Dear brothers and sisters, you must understand that it's a spiritual kingdom.

And as Brother Don was sharing this morning about, we take up on his physical things and we try to carry out the work of God in the realm of physical things. But spiritual is first. Now God does a spiritual work through physical instruments like you and I and through a piano and organ and promotions.

He can do a work through those things, but the emphasis is that this is a spiritual kingdom. And really when we talk in terms of revival, we are simply talking in terms of coming back to the life of the kingdom of God, coming back to kingdom life, enjoying kingdom life which John 10 .10 says is not only eternal life, but it is abundant life, abundant living.

Many terms, Canaan life, one of our brothers used here, victorious life, a life of peace and joy, a life that is filled with the fruits of the spirit. But Christ says here in one of his early messages of his kingdom, that my kingdom shall be after this state.

It shall be first of all, those that will be ushered in the kingdom, blessed are they which mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they which mourn, for they shall be comforted. So you find the mourning here, or excuse me, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The poor in spirit means simply spiritual beggars. Those who are destitute, those who are destitute, perhaps some of you come and you're already to step one. And I would encourage you, that's where you start, a recognition of the need.

That's simply what this verse is saying, one recognizes a need. And if some of you come and your church perhaps is a deadness there, there's a dullness in your own life, there's a dullness in your ministry and it does not have the energy and the power of God, your very recognition of that, you ought to praise God, that is step number one, a recognition of that, a recognition of your own spiritual place of destitution.

And all those of you that testify that you've met God in revival, don't ever lose that. If you lose that place of destitution, if you lose that heart of destitution, it is possible to be walking in victory, it is possible to be filled with God and sense a great destitution in your heart.

And I must confess, at least in my point, in my walk in life with God, that has been the case, that it seems that the more that I grow in the Lord, the more destitute I see myself. And oh, if you have met God in revival today and you can testify of something in the past, can you testify of something afresh in you?

Do you sense within your heart one of a spiritual beggar, one that would be like the blind Bartimaeus that is just looking and you've come in this week and you've come in these days and you're simply looking.

You realize that you are blind and you have heard the testimony through perhaps the Canadian Revival Fellowship that Jesus sometimes shows up there, that when they have meetings, Christ comes and you've heard that Christ has come, is going to be there, and you're blind and you've come this week.

Well, don't leave in these days without crying out, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Don't leave. I think if I had come in a destitute position with no answers and if Saturday had come and I'd met with God, I'd go grab somebody and say, please pray, I cannot leave.

Well, you remember the story there that Jesus didn't hear him and the men came to him and said, Bartimaeus, just hush, he doesn't have time for you. He doesn't have any time for you. Blind Bartimaeus, because of his faith and maybe not as much faith as it was, just his own destitution, and by the way, you may have little faith, but if you've got great destitution, do what blind Bartimaeus did, and the Bible says, and he pushed him aside and he cried ever the louder, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

And oh, my dear brothers and sisters, this is always where the beginning of the ushering in of kingdom life starts in your heart. You remember when you were saved? That's how the kingdom entered in within you.

You cried out, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me, a sinner, and save my soul. Why did we stop crying that out? Well, the attitudes go on here, and blessed are they which mourn. The mourning here, I think, simply comes because one sees his sinful condition, and that may be where you are in these days.

You may have come destitute. The problem is you really don't see your sin. You say, what do I do, Brother Al? Do you know that it is the mercy and grace of God that has shown you your destitution? Do you know that God didn't even have to show you how destitute you are?

We ought to praise God. If you feel destitute today, you ought to praise God. That is an act of God's grace in your own life. Do you understand that? And instead of murmuring and complaining, that may be the very thing that is hindering God from showing you your sin, that you're murmuring and complaining that you're destitute.

And it is God Himself that has done the work to reveal unto you your destitute condition, and you're murmuring and complaining, and God is saying, well, I can't continue this work in your life. Thank me that at least some of you ought to just right there in your own mind say, God, thank you that you've shown me my destitute position.

Now, God, show me my sin that I might mourn, because I want to leave here comforted in these days. And then you come to the third, and I'm moving through these quickly. I have a tape series there on the Beatitudes, eight messages, one on each of the Beatitudes.

You may want to get them. Each of them, they're in an hour in length, so you can see how quickly I'm summing these up, moving to number three. Just because of the cross, I wanted to move to number three.

Blessed are the meek, and I believe that's the cross. That's the crucified life. Blessed are the meek. You see, a person sees his destitute position, and then he understands that it is his sin that has caused him to be destitute.

It's not God. It's not God's fault. It's not his wife's fault. It's not the church's fault. It's not anybody's fault. It's his own sin. It's his own sin. He bears the total burden. And dear pastor, your condition wouldn't improve if your church got revived unless you did.

Your problem is not your church, dear Christian leader. Your problem is your own, it's your own sin. And when one is in a destitute position, and God shows him that by his grace and mercy, and then God shows him his sin, he so wants to be free of that, that he comes to understand that the only instrument that can ever set him free is the instrument of the cross, Romans and chapter six, when it says there that he that is dead is free, and this old man has been crucified with Christ.

That's the whole message of Romans and chapter six, that the cross sets us free. And then when you are free, you are free indeed. And so one comes to the Lord and he says, God, I see that I'm destitute and miserable, and I see that it is my own sin and selfishness that has brought it about.

Oh God, I don't want that anymore. Oh God, apply thy cross by faith. I trust you to do that. Apply that cross, put to death all that is in me that is contrary to you, and in the next verse, the first thing that will happen, you'll begin to hunger and thirst into righteousness.

And then the Bible says there, and you shall be one, filled in the word literally means satisfied, satisfied. And importance of this message is this, no other way to resurrection, but by way of death.

I wish I could tell you that there was. I wish I could tell you you could memorize the New Testament and that would get you to resurrection life. I wish that I could tell you that there was some way, but if I could tell you any other way, it would be a work of your own hands and you'd have something to glory in.

There's no other way to resurrection life personally as a pastor, but by way of the cross. And there's no other way for your church to come to resurrection, but by way of the cross. Remember that, that is the only way there.

Jesus taught it all the way through the gospels, and then it's preached on through in the New Testament. Now that's the importance of the message of the cross. It's the forgotten message in most revivals that we study recently in the last hundred years or so.

They all came out of the doctrine of the teaching of the cross. But don't stop there, pastor. Don't stop teaching your people just the cross. You'll put them in a very morbid stage if you don't get them on to the resurrection.

The cross is not the stopping place. I can testify to that in my own life. I didn't have any other one to teach me, but I left seminary and I thought I was the only one thinking this way, and so I went to Nashville to start a church.

And I just sort of hid myself down there so that no one would know I was crazy. I really thought I was crazy, but yet something inside told me that I wasn't. So I hid myself there for years, and my song for a long time was Beneath the Cross.

It took me two or three years to go on into resurrection because I had no one to lead me or teach me. Oh, God, I think was blessing me in my own ignorance and in my own heart, but I had no one to care.

I think I was filled with the Spirit, but I had no one to tell me and teach me of the resurrection, and my song was Beneath the Cross. A couple of cautions before we move on. Just a couple of things I think I need to caution you with that I've seen in the last 10 or 12 years in ministering to church leaders and pastors, the revival conferences and different things like this.

I want to caution you with something. It's very easy in going to meetings like these, being around men who testify and ladies who testify at the cross, to agree with that, to make a mental assent, and even to get on your knees and to accept that message as true, and to walk away thinking you've come to the cross and you're deceived.

Only the Lord can show that to you in your life, but I have seen that happen so often to people, so often to people, so I want to caution you. The reason why I want to spend about 20 minutes in the message today on showing you the results of the cross in your heart, when it's been applied, is so you may first determine, have I truly come to the cross?

I want to show you the hearts of some men who were deeply committed to God, who had never come to the cross, and I want to see, and the hoping of the Lord will help us see, I think the Lord has really burned my heart the last two or three weeks as I've tried to pray fervently about what the Lord would want me to share in this message.

I feel that this is the point that God's Holy Spirit has made, that there will be many sitting here who think they've come to the cross, who have a knowledge of the cross, and they really have not come to the cross at all.

So I want to bring out of the Gospels a 15 or 20 minute teaching that will deal with the inner heart of you, and will give you indication, have you burst forth from the cross into resurrection heart attitudes and life.

The Disciples' Ambition and Christ's Burden in Mark

Now let's go to Mark, if we would. I want to teach on the subject out of the Gospels, the subject that burned in the heart of Christ, the subject that he knew was not in the disciples. Mark, in chapter 9, if you'd turn there with me, this burned in the heart of Christ for his disciples that followed him.

Quickly, I just want to read the first and then the second, the three times he preaches this message. These are days just prior to his crucifixion, months prior to that, and it's burning. You can tell that it's burning in the heart of Christ.

Something he perceives in these, his disciples. Notice if you would, in verse 23 of Mark, or 33 of Mark 9, and he came to Capernaum. Being in the house, he asked them, what was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?

Now Christ, apparently as Christ was walking along, the disciples often would perhaps be a little bit behind him and they would be talking among themselves and Christ, even though he hadn't heard it with the physical ears, he had heard it with his spiritual ears and they had been disputing over something.

Now verse 34, but they held their peace. Now that was their problem. Christ would have perhaps been able to help them if they hadn't held their peace. And let me beg you in these days, do not hold your peace.

If nothing else, just stand up somewhere and just shout, please, somebody help me. And if that doesn't get somebody's attention, run up here and get on a mic and say, please, somebody help me. I can't go on.

My personally, in my relationship with God and my wife and my children and as a pastor, as a Christian leader, a worker, there's nothing there. Do not hold your peace in these days. God will meet you just where you are.

But they held their peace. They didn't tell him. They should have shared. They held their peace. They should have shared what they were talking about, but they didn't. For by the way, they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest, who should be the greatest.

Now Christ knew that. By his answer, we know that he knew that, but it's interesting, Christ knew their problem. He knew their need, but they wouldn't open up and share it. So he simply gives them some teaching and then they walk away.

Now you need to understand, they walked away thinking they were living what he had said, but they didn't know that they weren't because they'd never opened up their heart to Jesus. They held their peace.

So he says to them in verse 35, and he sat down and called the 12 and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, and that's what they were talking about, the same shall be last of all and servant of all.

Now I want to read the other two passages and then we're going to comment on them just a little. Going to Mark 10, Christ's heart's still burdened for this. It's obvious in these chapters prior to his death and burial and resurrection that he's trying to get this last message across to his disciples because he understands that they'll never be used of God to see the kingdom expand.

The very kingdom that he is going to die and be buried and risen for, they'll never expand until these disciples come to this point in their own hearts and lives. Remember the story of the rich young ruler?

Well, we're going to pick up right after that story in Mark 10. The rich young ruler is gone and Jesus has made the statement that with men things are impossible but not with God, for with God all things are possible in verse 27.

Then in 10, 28, Peter, you know, Christ says, God can do anything and so Peter sort of stands up with a little pride there, the leader of the bunch, and he began to say unto him, lo, we have left all and have followed thee.

And the next couple of verses he talks about all that they've left. Jesus mentions all that they have left. Verse 31, but he comes right back with the same teaching again, but many that at first shall be last and the last first.

So I want to say that the cross is much, much more than you forsaking everything and selling your houses and your properties and quitting your job and going into the ministry and becoming a church leader.

It is much, much more than forsaking your mom and dad and your children. They had done that, but there was still, they had not come to the cross. I want to share with you, I do not know if this is theologically correct, but I find it an experience, practical experience, generally the case in those that I've spoken with.

When you are saved, you might want to jot this down. When you are saved, you might want to take the word salvation and put onto that two words, Lordship and the cross. Now positionally, when a man is saved, Jesus is positionally his Lord.

Amen? You agree? If he's not, he's not saved. And positionally, the man has already come or the cross is already within him. For he is indwelled by the treasure of God. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

What treasure, you might say? For death worketh in us, but life in you. You see, not only is the resurrection, are you indwelled with resurrection, you are indwelled with death. You are indwelled with all of the life of Christ, not only the death of Christ, but the life of Christ.

And actually the application of the cross is nothing more than what you already are indwelled by, you considering it a treasure, yielding to that and allowing what is already in you to flood your very being and inner being and put all to death in you that is contrary to God.

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that then there's the dying, you bearing it about day by day, moment by moment, by an act of faith in you will, you're bearing it about. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh. This kingdom life might be experienced inwardly and manifested through us, and as death then is working in us, then life in you.

Pastors, that's what you need when you go to the podium. When you go to the podium and death is working in you, then life will work in your congregation. But nothing less than that will get you to resurrection life.

But you see, the disciples here had forsaken everything, and you're probably gaining by now there's one thing they hadn't forsaken, themselves, themselves. So Jesus burdened with this message, and the latter part of 10 comes again.

Some time has passed now, a day or so, it's the next day. James and John in verse 28, and the mother of the other gospels tells us, comes and says to Jesus, Jesus, did James and John one set on one hand and one on the other?

And by the way, Jesus never rebukes them for wanting to set one on the left and one on the right. A holy ambition, there's nothing wrong with a holy ambition. There's nothing wrong with a spiritual covetousness.

Paul says, covet the best gifts. He never rebukes them, he just simply says to them, can you be baptized with my baptism? As it says there in verse 38, can you be baptized with my baptism? There's the death again.

Can you? What you think is only in those two, but the next couple of verses tell us that the ten had the same problem in verse 41. And when the ten heard it, they began to be much disputing or displeased with James and John.

All 12 of them were having the same problem. They had never come to the cross. Now, they had forsaken everything that you could list on a sheet of paper, but they hadn't come to the cross. Now, the doctrinal point that I want to make here is that I found that many come to Lordship and then to the cross later.

Many come to Lordship and then to the cross. And what I mean by that, many in the life that God gives them surrenders to the Lordship. Like the disciples, they had surrendered to Jesus as Lord. They had surrendered to Jesus as Lord based on the life that God was to give them.

But later in one's life, when they come to Lordship, later generally in one's life, God will bring them after Lordship to a place of dryness again and spiritual destitution, and he'll show them what Lordship is all about.

And Lordship is nothing more than death unto life. I don't know that you can theologically prove that that is theologically correct. It's true in the disciples' life. It was true in my own life and everyone I've ever talked to, unless they came at the cross and Lordship at the same time, because they had the right teaching, generally that is the case.

And one of the things I am finding often in those who are touched by revival in the sense that they recognize the need of it and they've read a lot of books and they put the two together and think because they've forsaken mom and dad and houses and lands and children and everything for the cause of Christ that they have come to the cross, and that is not necessarily so.

For you see, the real problem in the disciples was this. Now listen, the real problem in the disciples was this, is that they were following in the kingdom of God and they were coming into the kingdom of God and they were looking for nothing more than a selfish ambition.

They were looking for Jesus to set up a physical kingdom, and when he set up a physical kingdom, they were looking for places of prestige and places of honor and places of recognition in that kingdom.

They were following God for self. And oh, let me share with you, brothers and sisters, it's quite a time of breaking in one's life who has given himself to God and thinks he's honoring God and thinks he's glorifying God and then God through the power of the Holy Ghost falls upon him and shows him that everything that he or she has been doing has been for a selfish purpose and a selfish ambition.

I remember when the Lord did that work in my life and it was, and I'll share that, I'll wait to the end to share that, how it happened in my life and what God was doing, leading me up to that. One of the things I want you to understand is that God under Lordship can bless you some.

He can bless you some, he'll use you some there. He did me, he did the disciples here in the Gospels, he used them, didn't he? But there comes a point that God will no longer use you under Lordship until you come to true, what I would like to term true Lordship, or the cross.

For no better terminology there, true Lordship. I don't want to say the cross is something beyond Lordship, I want to say it's Lordship from God's viewpoint, not man's viewpoint. But generally man comes to Lordship from his own viewpoint as he sees in the lives of others.

The Servant's Heart in Luke 17

Now the message of servanship, if you would, I want to take the time to show you out of the Bible the heart of a servant, so that you may compare, as we take a study through a parable that Christ said, that you can compare your heart to the true heart of a servant and see, is this heart developing in you?

Now all I'm going to share, I'm not perfected in my own life, but I can say by the grace of God it is becoming more and more real in me. And I'm going to share the heart of Christ as a servant, not mine.

I don't want to preach anywhere beyond where I'm at. But I want you to know I am not sharing Brother Al's heart, I am sharing the heart of Christ concerning this issue of servanship. You say, how important is this issue to Christ?

Notice what he says here in the next verses, 42, 43, 44 and 45. Jesus called them to him, and he said unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted by the rule of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and their great ones exercise authority upon them.

But so shall it not be among you. That's positive enough. My dear brethren and sisters, Jesus Christ will not let it be among you. If this is true among you, that you are seeking and following the Lord and even have surrendered to God, and the root problem with all of that is self and the selfish nature of God, will not let it continue.

He will not let it be among you. For he, it says here, but whosoever shall be great among you shall be your minister. Whosoever will be chiefest among you, and verse 44, shall be, there it is, servant of all.

For even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. And there it is, there's the cross again. It's when you give your life a ransom for many.

I didn't intend to say this, but let me give you a definition of what it truly means to surrender to the Lord. Many of you have surrendered your lives to God, but I ask you a question. Have you surrendered your lives for God?

There's a difference in the two. To God is directional. One who has surrendered his life to God can simply still be trying to gain from God and his energy and his power that which would bring him gain.

But one has given his life for God. He says, Lord, whatever you need me for, that's what I am for. Those who have given their life for God, if Jesus was to appear right now and say, I need a volunteer, I need someone to die, right?

I need someone to die. I've got a group of people who would come and be saved if I had someone who could die in a certain situation. Those who have given their life for God would stand up and say, please God, let me, let me, that's what I'm for.

If you need somebody to die, that's what I'm for, God. That's what I'm for. Are you given to God or are you a ransom for God, a ransom for many? You see, when you give your life for God, then God will say, now give your life for my people, for my people.

In Luke, in chapter 17, there's a little parable told here, a little story that Jesus tells his disciples. It's interesting what it comes on the brink of a question they ask. What he tells doesn't seem to have anything to do with the question they ask, but I think that it does have much to do with that question.

It wouldn't seem at first glance, but it does. Notice the question in verse 5, for the request of God, in Luke 17, 5. And I'm going to hurry through. I'm going to give you the five hearts of a servant quickly here, and let the Lord use, I want this time to be a time that the Holy Spirit deals with your heart concerning the five marks of the servant that Jesus was speaking about.

Notice here in verse 1, and I'll list them so you won't miss them. I'll give them one, two, three, four, five. You'll know when I come to them. And the apostle said unto the Lord, increase our faith. Now, the next verse, he simply says something like this.

If you had just a little bit of faith, you could say to a sycamine tree, be thou plucked up and cast into the sea. They've asked, Lord, increase our faith. And I think what the Lord is saying here, it doesn't, faith, you don't need a whole lot of faith, disciples.

If you had just a little faith, you could say to a sycamine tree, be thou plucked up and cast into the sea. But I think the premise of the teaching here is this. They're asking for faith. And the premise is, do you want faith, disciples, so you'll be able to say to a sycamine tree, be thou plucked up and cast into the sea?

All of us would like that kind of faith, wouldn't we? Because that kind of faith would bring us quite a bit of attention, wouldn't it? And then he tells a little parable in the next verses, and I really believe he's not stopping his train of thought.