Joel M Bradshaw

38And whoever does not take his cross and follow me [Jesus] is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.–Matthew 10

I [Paul] have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

1. Someone might say, “I guess this is just my cross to bear.” But remember the original context of bearing a cross is a person marching towards their death, not a life inconvenience.
2. There are plenty out there who will tell you that your greatest passion should be in pursuing yourself, finding yourself, and loving yourself.
3. Those approaches are biblically misguided. The Christian is to be intentional about Jesus pursuit and self-denial. The Christian is to “die” to themself daily, not pursue themself.
4. Paul built on Jesus’ idea here. Jesus was literally crucified. I am to be daily metaphorically or spiritually crucified.
5. If you pursue your day as if you matter more than Jesus, then according to Jesus in our text today, you are communicating that you are not worthy of Jesus. That was a hard sentence to type. But it’s also a hard life to live, especially in a world that does its best to get you to compromise.
6. What about you needs to daily stop? What needs to daily start? Are you living this life to love yourself most? Or are you daily carrying that cross intentionally putting to death your selfishness to pursue Jesus? Therefore losing your life to find it.
7. This is about as counter-cultural as it gets. We all have much work to do here, and I am no exception. This is the great intentional battle of my every day.–JMB