The 5 Minute Discipleship Podcast

#1,170: Take Up Your Cross

• Loren Hicks

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The call to discipleship is a call to deny ourselves. We take up our cross as we die to earthly sin, values, and lifestyle. It is to wholeheartedly embrace the life of Christ. It is a life of surrender to Christ and an abandonment to things of this world. To take up the cross means to identify with Christ in His rejection, shame, suffering, and death.


Main Points:

1. It’s common today when speaking of a hardship or difficulty someone has to live with to say, “Well, I guess it’s just my cross to bear.” Yet, in Matthew 16, Jesus is not talking about carrying burdens or living with adversity. He is talking about identifying with the suffering and death of Jesus.

2. The call to take up our cross is a call to absolute surrender to Christ. Although the call is difficult, the reward is beyond compare.  

3. Commitment to Christ means taking up your cross daily, giving up your hopes, dreams, possessions, and even your very life if need be for the cause of Christ.  Why would anyone be willing to do this? Because the reward is worth the price


Today’s Scripture Verses:

Matthew 16:24-26 - “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

Philippians 3:8 - “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.”


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