This sermon delves into the power and significance of the cross, a symbol that evokes both joy and hatred in the world. Despite being ridiculed and despised, the cross stands as a beacon of hope and peace. The speaker emphasizes the need for Christians to boldly stand for what is right and true, even in the face of opposition and political correctness. The message highlights the importance of embracing the truth of the cross to experience its transformative power and calls for a return to deep repentance, prayer, and revival in the church and the nation.

I want to talk to you tonight about the power of the cross, because it is, if we think of the cross, we think of probably one of the most recognized symbols in most parts of the world, especially in our nation today. Would you say that it is one of the most recognized symbols? You see the cross and we rejoice. It brings remembrance, but did you know it also brings hatred? The world hates the cross. They would title this message, the weakness of the cross, the foolishness of the cross, the despise, the shame of the cross. Shane, how can you talk about the power of the cross? That's what the world would say. There's no power in His name, it's weakness, it's foolishness. That's why Paul can say in Romans, the message of the gospel, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who believe it is the gift of God for eternal life and salvation. I mean the cross is being ridiculed, it's being despised. The city council wants to remove it across our landscapes. You can't pray in the name of Jesus. Get that cross off our county logo. Remove the cross from Mount Soledad down in San Diego. Get that cross out of the Mojave Desert in the memorial. And I think everybody else that's coming out of the closet, it's time for Christians to come out of the closet and start praying and contending for the things that are right. And I was reading the other day and looking into that cross, the memorial out in the Mojave Desert, they put plywood around the cross because it's offensive. Somebody's offended because of the cross. Well putting plywood around the cross offends me. So when are we going to stop going off what offends people and start going off of what is true and what is right? This politically correct society that we're living in is making me very upset. We must be biblically correct. There's too much at stake. There is too much at stake. You can despise the cross, you can ridicule the cross, but it'll stand. It'll stand as a beacon of light for hope and peace to a dying world. D.O. Moody said, I can look back and see the cross of Christ between me and my sins and know that I am redeemed and I am saved and I am set free. The power of the cross. How can we love it and the world hate it? Let me quote for you atheist Jane Everhart who is spearheading the atheist suit against the memorial on 9-11, that steel beam that sits there as a cross. She comes out and she says, and I quote, the cross is an ugly piece of wreckage that does not represent anything but horror and death. Well she's partly right. It is a place of death that brings life and it is a horror to people if they do not bow to Christ on this side of the grave because they will bow to him someday. So it represents that to people. The cross is, there's been many things done, atrocities in the name of the cross. I mean people, I looked up to many, you know, five, six, seven hundred years ago, John Hus, William Tyndale, you know, bringing the Bible to the people, calling the apostate church to repentance, were burned at the stake by men with a big red cross right here. Heretic, burn, no sir, you've got the wrong person up there. Things done in the name of the cross. What does the cross truly represent? And it's one thing, I understand atheists saying this, but it's being said a lot of times in the church and they say, Shane, we've got to get rid of this cross and this blood of Christ and all these things, our nation is progressing now, we're borrowing law from international courts, we're developing, we're progressing. And my remark always to that is we are not progressing, we are digressing. Anytime a people, a nation, a church move away from God, they are not progressing. That's called digression, that's going the wrong way, the opposite direction of which we should be going. We are in a nation on a collision course, and I was interviewed last night on a radio program and they asked me, Shane, is there any hope for our nation, is there any hope for with gay marriage being pushed and the cross being removed and all these things, and I said, you know what, apart from a national revival of God reviving His people and deep repentance and deep prayer and deep yearning for the things of God and a hungering and a thirsting for righteousness, I don't think so. Because the church is asleep at the wheel. We want to be politically correct, we don't want to offend people, and let me present this to you up front, I was going to say it later, that the truth about the cross, actually the power of the cross, lies in the truth about the cross. That's where the power's at, water down the truth, you have no power. You have a form of godliness, but you're denying the power thereof. And what's happening is we're seeing in the church days, we're not proclaiming the truth of God's word and the power of the Holy Spirit, and lives are not being radically changed. Now we go in thinking, how can I make people happy and I don't want to upset and I don't want to offend and I don't want to do this, there's no power in our pulpits anymore. I'm also reading a book, it was written in the 1850s, and the title of it, The Power of the Pulpit. The pulpit used to shape our nation, the pulpit used to shape the church, it would call people to repentance, revivals would break out, awakenings, stirrings in the land, people would be seen on the altar for hours because of God speaking, because of people proclaiming the truth of God's word, not watering down and avoiding these difficult things. And you say, well why are all these people mad at the cross, why are they wanting to remove Jesus' name from everything, don't talk about Jesus. You can have a Buddha statue in your front yard, you can have little statues of Mary in your front yard, you can have a Hare Krishna, you can have all these things, nobody cares. But when you mention the name of Jesus Christ, people get visibly upset. Why is that? Because it convicts the soul. Philippians says, God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, therefore at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord. Period, end of the story, no twisting that, no perverting that, no convoluting that, that is the truth. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. It's my personal belief that I believe all of humanity has in them something that wants to worship something. They either worship God or they worship the God of this world. They are worshiping something. And I think they know when they're on that wrong path that that name of Christ is a name I'm going to have to bow to someday. Even the demons believe and they tremble at the name of Jesus Christ.