Bearing Your Cross

MATTHEW 27:32 “BEARING YOUR CROSS”

A) As we gather tonight in this auditorium, we all come from different backgrounds!

* We all have different levels of education – Social orders – Training for jobs – Lot of differences

I’m saying in our lives.

* But then there’s a few things that all of us have in common ... And one of the things that we all

have in common is, every last one of us knows what it’s like to bear a burden.

B) What is a burden? ... Webster: Something that is carried; Load; Something oppressive or

worrisome; the bearing of a load!

* The Greek word is “baros” (bar’-os) and means “weight.” ... So all of us in here tonight knows

what it’s like to carry a load.

* And if we’re not careful, we’ll allow those burdens to discourage us.

* As long as ___________’s been sick, it would be awful easy to just give up and get discouraged,

and when we do, it will allow the devil to rob us of our testimony.

C) But I found some help right here in this man from Cyrene this week!

* Now, he’s 800 miles from home ... Many people believe that he was a black man because Cyrene

is in the Northern coasts of Africa in the city of Libya.

* I believe he was a Jew that had settled in a Roman colony and came back to Jerusalem to worship

at the Feast of the Passover.

* That sets better in my mind, an African 800 miles from home for nothing. (There for a purpose)

D) And as he enters Jerusalem, this crowd bursts out the gate, hollering “Crucify Him!”

* And probably out of nowhere, the Roman Centurion, looked up at the crowd and the first person

he saw was Simon, and he said, “You, pick up His cross and carry it.”

* And Simon found himself under a great load – A big burden.

E) I believe that if you had of talked to him, 10 minutes prior to that, he would have told you that

things were fine in his life!

* I mean, you don’t travel 800 miles from home if your wife is sick.

* I believe he had money in his pocket being 800 miles from home ... I believe everything was

going good at home ... Not a care in the world.

* And here out of nowhere, he finds himself with a great burden laid upon him.

F) If you’re here tonight and you’re burden free, you ought to get on this altar and thank God

for that ... But before daylight in the morning your phone may ring .......

* There may be a knock on your door, and you’re gonna find yourself carrying a great load.

* A few years ago, we had a deacon’s meeting on Saturday night – Fish Camp .......

* 7:00 that following Sunday morning, I got a phone call – David Wisham. (Bill Neely)

G) Out of nowhere ... Things going great ... Then it happens ... And we all need to know how to

handle it, or the devil will get us discouraged to the point that we want to give up!

* Let me give you a few things tonight I think that will help us.

(1) THE LORD LIMITS THE LOAD!

A) Don’t forget 3 died on Calvary that day, but I find Simon carrying only one cross … Why

didn’t that Centurion make him carry all three of them?

* You say, “Well, that’s easy Preacher ... That Roman soldier had sense enough to know that he

couldn’t carry three crosses.”

* Well if that soldier knew that Simon wasn’t able to and had sense enough to know that he

couldn’t carry that great of a load .......

* Don’t you know that our God in heaven knows how much you can carry?

B) I’m saying tonight that God limits the load!

* Most bridges that you cross have a load limit sign .......

* Don’t you know that if those people who engineered those bridges and knows how much weight

that they can carry, the One that engineered me knows how much I can bear.

* What a blessing it is to know that our Lord knows how much we can carry.

C) Two little boys was helping one of them’s daddy get wood .......

* That father was being kind to the little visitor by not putting much wood on him ... But he was

really loading his son down.

* And when he turned to get some more, that visitor said to his friend, “Tell him you can’t carry no

more ... That’s all you can carry.”

* He said, “This is not the first time I helped daddy get wood ... My daddy knows how much I can