Daily Embrace The Lord's Will Series

Recently, over 60 people from all generations gathered for a two-hour time of prayer in the Worship Center led by Pastor Kyle and the Mainspring ministry. 15 people led this guided prayer time, following the acrostic CHAT (Confession, Honor, Ask and Thanks). There were times of silent and corporate prayer.

We began by focusing on the names and attributes of God as we remembered His faithfulness. Then, we moved to a time of both personal and corporate confession. I was gripped by Reagan LaBerge’s words to set up our prayer of confession: “Overall, we don’t typically think about corporate confession when we are confessing our sins. Usually, we tend to think about our own sins, if we confess at all. But when we look to the Scriptures, we see that God holds both individuals and communities accountable for their sins…unless we fully feel the weight of our sin, and the ugliness of it all, we cannot see how badly we are in need of rescue.” Then, we confessed the sins of racism, abortion, human trafficking, and pornography.

This was followed by interceding for the persecuted church, unreached people groups, our global and community Go Team partners, our country, and for our spheres of influence.

Also, I was impacted when Chasity Holmquist led in prayer for the persecuted church and Shalom Warrington prayed for unreached people groups. Both of these women wept while they interceded. It hit me the only way persecuted Christians are able to remain faithful is because they have engaged their desire, they are denying themselves, they have died by carrying their cross and they are devoted to fully follow Christ. Then, I had this thought – the only way the unreached will be reached is if people like us will line up our desires with His, if we deny ourselves, if we die by taking up our cross, and if we are totally devoted to Him.

We ended by thanking God for His faithfulness, for the highs and lows of life, for God’s provision and protection and for us to line our lives up with His will. It was extremely moving. One couple told me they had not experienced a two-hour prayer time since college.

Christianity was never designed to be comfortable or for us to approach our relationship with Christ casually. No, Jesus Christ is looking for devoted disciples who are completely committed to Him. He doesn’t want fickle fans; He wants faithful followers.

As I mentioned last weekend, we’re taking three weeks to drill down into one verse, Luke 9:23: “And He said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” We summarized the sermon this way: Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life.

After considering the call to discipleship, we fleshed out two of the four conditions of discipleship.

• Desire. First, a person must desire to be a disciple – “If anyone would come after me…”

• Denial. The second condition is a call to deny self: “…let him deny himself…”

• Death. Today, our focus is on the third condition – death. We see this in the next phrase: “…and take up his cross daily…”

• Devotion. Next weekend we’ll unpack the importance of devotion: “…and follow me.”

Listen to Luke 9:23 again: “And He said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Let’s look at this third condition more closely: “…and take up his cross daily…”

The word “and” could be translated “also,” indicating what comes next is a continuation from the conditional clause before it: “If anyone would come after me, let Him deny Himself and…” After making sure we desire to be a disciple, and we’re denying ourselves, the next step is to “take up his cross daily.”

To “take up” means, “to pick up.” It essentially means “to lift from the ground” and is an aorist imperative, meaning it’s a command to do it now, with no delay.

Interestingly, in Matthew 14:20, after feeding the 5,000, we read the disciples “took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.” After bending over to pick up leftovers, now they are called to humble themselves and pick up the very thing that will take their lives. The same word is found in Matthew 11:29 when Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you.” It was also used of Simon of Cyrene when he was compelled to carry the cross of Christ.

The command to “take up” shows crosses are not forced on our backs because they don’t come against our will. The cross is not something we HAVE to lift; it’s a burden we CHOOSE to bear for Christ’s sake. To “take up” is a conscious decision to be a cross-bearer by picking up what is difficult, and distasteful, and leads to death.