Deny self.

I heard several sermons the past few weeks on Matthew 16:24-27. It has made me do some thinking on these verses I want to pass along to you. Here is the first verse:



Matthew 16:24



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.



In the verses proceeding this verse Jesus for the first time tells them that he was going to beaten, killed and raised on the third day. This was a shock to the disciples and the Lord had to rebuke Peter for wanting to stop this from happening to Jesus. The Jesus shares the words of Matthew 16:24 to the disciples. Jesus tells them first if we want to follow Him we must deny self. This is a very deep statement if you stop and think about it. What are you denying self to follow Jesus? Anything or are we following just when we can work Him in our schedule? Look at what the disciples did to deny self.....completely surrendered their lives. Jesus expects the same from us. Not just when we can work Him in. Second, Jesus says take up your cross. The cross was a death instrument. What Jesus was trying to say is do whatever it takes to follow me even to the point of death. Can we say this morning we will follow Jesus even if it costs our lives? If we can't deny self we will never make it to taking up our cross. Think about the disciples again. All of them except one, history tells us died for their faith. Killed for following Jesus. Do we have that kind of faith? Third, Jesus says follow me. When we give our lives to Christ, He expects us to follow Him. It isn't easy. The disciples dropped everything...careers, family, hobbies, everything and followed. I must say it makes me drop my head in shame when I really consider how I am doing in following Christ. I must do better....deny self, take up my cross, and follow no matter what and no excuses.



Tom