Taking Up Your Cross For Christ – Matthew 16: 24-26

Taking up your cross is a process and a hard thing to do, lat us have a look at some scripts.

Matthew 10: 38-39 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worth of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16: 24-26

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life he will lose it, but who loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Following Jesus, following in his footsteps is not as easy as some people may say it is. Following Jesus like he wants us to follow him can take a lot of sacrifice and can be a very hard road indeed.

Let him deny himself

This is like taking a diet from the world. Denying yourself? Have you ever heard of that? We know about dieting, that is condemning ourselves from certain foods that keep weight on, but condemning ourselves? Do we know what that is all about?

Paul knew that the Christian walk would be a hard walk for the people that joined the faith. He knew that a single person could serve with more devotion and the Lord would be the only person they would be interested in. That is why he wrote this to the church at Corinth.

1 Corinthians 7: 32-35

32 But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord-how he may please the Lord. 33 But he who is married cares about the things of the world-how he may please his wife. 34 There is [a] a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world-how she may please her husband. 35 And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction.

Who would deny the love of a women or a man man and remain single to serve the Lord with a devoted heart sold out for Him and him alone? A few days ago Gabriel had me quote this verse. If you are a young person can you die to self and decide to be single for the Lord and serve him as a single person? If you are divorced can you stomach serving the Lord as a single person for the rest of your days? It's a calling; It's something the Lord wants of you.

The Lord wants us to deny ourselves. Self denial; Is that taught in the churches today? Do not buy buy, buy, but give your money and sow your money into things for God and for his kingdom. Giving to God with no expectation for getting a return on your giving, but a giving out of self denial.

He who finds his life will lose it.

People search and search for life and they find a life that gives them pleasure and they simply will not let go. Jesus says these people that find life will lose it in the last day. People who live for this world and its lusts, that's all they are going to have this world and its lusts and when they die they will go to hell, sadly even Christians. That is why we have to die to this life.

And he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

It is such a joy to serve the Lord. For a year I ran a prophet website where I had a team of people who prayed for people and who saved them messages from the Lord. Today I still administrator a website but I have people in authority running that website. For that year while I was doing personal prophecies myself it was such a joy and our team got up to twenty requests a day via email from all around the world.

That site took a lot of my time. Doing five to ten prophecies a day took a lot of my time. I had lost my life for Jesus and oh what a joy that greeted me. It welcomed me such purpose and brave me such enjoyment to be ministering to the body of Christ like that. Today I am still happy as the people that serve with me on my site do a wonderful job.

Now the Lord has me writing articles. Each week I am constantly on the lookout for fresh material for the five articles / sermons I will do each week. I get so much enjoyment watching how many people read each article and seeing my readers go up about 1000 per week. I have earned no money yet from my articles, though I have made 66 into a book that should start selling when people see the value of it, but I get generous satisfaction sitting back a month later and reading articles I have put together in the middle Of a night.

Have you lost your life for Jesus?

Are you a person with the same sort of life as a person that is not Christian, but you just have faith? Or is your life totally different in every way?

Losing your life for Christ can mean one third of your income being spent on the Gospel when you are on a low income. Losing your life for Christ can be an hour spent a day in the Lords presence and walking in that presence all day.

Very few Christians are doing all they can for Jesus. Many want to be used, but few are out there being used because in some way they do not want to lose their life.

In every city there are churches feeding the poor and they all need volunteers. You could have a tremendous impact in people's lives doing that. There are hundreds of things that you could do, but will you lose your life for Jesus?

And take up his cross.

Have you gotten a cross over your shoulders? Jesus did not preach a gospel of a sinner's prayer and then sit back for the rest of your life in a pew at church. James said faith without works is dead. Jesus said, die to self, deny yourself and take up your cross. That's right we have to take a load a burden upon our shoulders and carry our own cross.

When you start to obey the commands of Christ and you start to do what the Holy Spirit directs you to do things can get a little tough. You find that you have to constantly be asking the Holy Spirit to help you out as you can not do things that you are being called to do with your natural flesh. This is part of taking their yoke of Christ upon you.

It's not an easy road, we were not promised an easy road. The preachers out there preaching this modern healthy, wealthy and wise gospel are preaching lies. The Christian road is difficult and even Jesus said it was rough and difficult. He said narrow is the road and few will find it.

I have to ask the question is a few 1 out of 6 that is reported to be the number of Christians in the world? Or is a few like 5 or 6 in a hundred? I think that it's more the second.

The cross is a hard cross. The more you do for the Lord the harder that cross comes to bear and as you bear with that cross the more of the fruit of the Spirit becomes manifest in your life. The fruit just oozes to the top.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but who loses his life for my sake will find it.

This verse to me speaks of the future as well as the present. I am one who does not believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. I firmly feel that the church is going to be on earth when the Antichrist is here and the Mark of the Beast is here. I feel that the people that have not denied themselves with their money and time now will find themselves in a position that they will feel they need to take the Mark. Yet those living and spending their every spare cent for Jesus will have open ears and hear the warnings that are sent out and will easily flee to the wilderness to be protected by the Lord for 1260 days as it mentions in Revelation 12. I am not dogmatic . I do not mind if the church gets raptured. I hope for the churches sake they do. But the fact remains that there has to be people on earth to lead those left behind through the tribulation and to Christ and I personally would like to be here to do that for the Lord.

When you are chasing for possessions and more of what the world offers your driving is never finished and yet when you only have a few clothes and two possessions worth money, you have no driving in you and you possess more of Christ in fuller measure and truly You find life.

In the future people will be giving me money in a ministry and they can be sure it will be getting spent as they will see it very rarely getting spent on my lifestyle.

The Apostle John spoke about the world.

1 John 2: 15-17

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; But he who does the will of God abides forever.

The Message says it like this:

1 John 2: 15-17 15-17Don't love the world's ways. Do not love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world-wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important-has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out-but who does what God wants is set for eternity.

Will not you lose your life for Christ today?

Why do not you start with giving him 10% of your money and then as you are blessed take that up to 20%

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

Many virgins, many people that are saved do not have enough oil in their lamps to last a whole night waiting for the bridgroom. Sadly if there is rapture much of the church is going to be left behind. Some people have the best houses, the best cars, the best clothes money can buy and they go to hell.

It would make no point to own all the possessions in the world and lose your own soul.

Jesus said it was harder for a rich man to go to heaven then a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. He was not joking when he said that as his apostles were so shocked at that statement and Jesus re-assured that nothing was impossible with God.

Paul has instructions for the rich.

1 Timothy 6: 17-19

17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

That is our job in the rich West. We are to b rich in good works, ready to give and willing to share. In doing that we build ourselves a good inheritance in Heaven where our riches should really be stored.

Of course if your do deny yourself, take up your cross and begin to walk a crucified life you will experience a joy that is out of this world. A joy I am happy to share with you is fantastic.

Be blessed.

Let me write a prayer you might like to pray after reading it.

Father

I acknowledge the message in this article. Father I want to deny myself more than this day and I repent for being so self centred up to this point. I confess me lack of faith and today I want to take hold of your promises that you will provide for me. I pray that you show me how you can better use me and Father today I commit more of my money to your everlasting gospel. Please forgive me, confirm this teaching for me and lead me in the narrow path I pray. In Jesus name I ask

Amen

Source by Matthew Robert Payne

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