What Is Your Cross?

Luke 9:23-27

Introduction:

1.      You can’t have Jesus without the cross.

2.      The condemned person had to carry his cross to the place of execution.

3.      The cross represents difficulties as well as the joy of following Christ.

4.      So, what is your cross?

Discussion:

I.     Your cross includes the irritations of life (v.23).

        A.    He must deny himself.

        B.    The cross puts selfishness to death (v.25).

        C.    The cross puts success to death (v.25).

        D.    The cross puts status to death (v.26).

        E.    “A man’s self is to him the prime cause of most of his miseries.”

II.    Your cross includes the interruptions of life (v.23).

        A.    We take up our daily (Rom. 8:36; 1 Cor. 15:31).

        B.    Christ requires the sacrifice of your safety (v. 24).

        C.    Christ requires the sacrifice of your independence (v.24).

III.   Your cross includes the instruments of death.

        A.    We must follow where He goes – even the cross.

        B.    Christians must be willing to serve (v.23).

        C.    Christians must be willing to suffer (v.23).

Conclusion:

Consider this quote from C.S. Lewis:

“Christ says, ‘Give me all.  I don’t want so much of your money and so much of your work – I want you.  I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it.  No half-measures are any good.  I don’t want to cut off a branch here and there; I want to have the whole tree down.  I don’t want to drill a tooth, or crown it, but to have it out.  Hand over the whole natural self instead.  In fact I will give you Myself, My own will shall become yours’”

Borrowed from a sermon by Robert Lambert