TAKING UP THE CROSS
Luke 9:23-25
Day 8
Week 2: Stripping Away (Self-Denial and Surrender)
MORNING LENT PRAYER WORSHIP SERVICE
Theme: Stripping Away — Self-Denial and Surrender
THE INTRODUCTION: THE CALL TO WORSHIP
Good morning, church! Good morning, good morning, GOOD MORNING!
(Clap your hands and greet someone near you)
I said GOOD MORNING! We are alive! We are breathing! We are in the house of the Lord on purpose, and that is worth celebrating right now!
Somebody shouts: "I showed up!"
Now listen. Settle in. Because I need you to hear me clearly this morning. We are in Week 2 of this Lenten season, and I need to correct something right now before we go any further. Some of you were told that Lent is about giving up chocolate. Giving up social media. Giving up your morning coffee. And while those things are fine, that is not the full picture. That is not the deep water. That is the shallow end of the pool.
Lent is not about giving things UP. Lent is about making room for the GLORY.
You are not fasting from Netflix so you can have more free time. You are fasting from distractions so that GOD can fill the space. You are not cutting back on comfort so that life gets harder. You are clearing the clutter so that the KING can move in.
This morning, our theme is Stripping Away. The title of this word is "Taking Up the Cross."
Now, I need you to look at this. You have seen the cross on necklaces. You have seen it on bumper stickers. You have seen it on church walls and coffee mugs and T-shirts. But the people who first heard Jesus say these words had never seen the cross as a symbol of faith. They had seen it as an instrument of execution. When a Roman soldier handed you a cross to carry, you were not walking to church. You were walking to your death.
Open your Bible to Luke chapter 9, verse 23. Jesus said, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross DAILY and follow me."
And in Galatians 2:20, Paul said: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."
This call is for ALL of us. Not just the pastors. Not just the elders. Not just the people who have been saved for thirty years. Jesus said "whoever." That means you. That means the person who just gave their life to Christ last week. That means the believer who has been walking with God for decades and still wrestles with the flesh. ALL of us.
(Tell your neighbor: "This message is for me!")
Let us pray before we go any further. Lord, strip away everything that is not of You. Strip away our pride, our preferences, our performance. And let what remains be YOU. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
1. DENYING THE EGO (THE DETHRONING)
Luke 9:23 says we must DENY ourselves. Not discipline ourselves. Not manage ourselves. DENY ourselves.
Now, what does that mean?
Turn to Philippians 2:3-4. Paul writes: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others."
Self-denial is the dethronement of the I.
Say that slowly with me. The dethronement. Of the I.
Every single one of us has an ego. And that ego wants to sit on the throne. The ego wants to be first in line. The ego wants credit. The ego wants recognition. The ego wants to win the argument. The ego wants to be understood before it tries to understand. The ego is not always loud. Sometimes the ego is quiet and religious and polite, but it is still running the show.
This is what I call the Idol of Ego. And an idol is anything you bow to before you bow to God. Your ego becomes an idol the moment you start organizing your entire life around protecting your reputation, defending your feelings, or advancing your agenda.
Let me show you what this looks like in real life.
You are in a traffic jam. Someone cuts you off. Now, you were minding your business. You were playing your worship music. Maybe you were praying. And then this person, without warning, pulls right in front of you. And something rises up on the inside. Something says: "No. No, sir. I have rights." And before you know it, you are laying on the horn and your worship playlist is still playing in the background.
Church, that is the ego defending its throne. That is the self refusing to be denied.
Or try this one. A family member says something that hits wrong at the dinner table. And instead of listening, instead of pausing, you go into full defense mode. You reconstruct the argument. You bring up things from three years ago. You want to WIN. Not because the issue is important. But because YOUR dignity feels threatened.
That is the ego.
Now look at Jesus. Philippians 2 tells us He did not count equality with God as something to be grasped. The Son of God, who had every right to demand recognition, chose the posture of a servant. He washed feet. He touched lepers. He let people misunderstand Him. He let people lie about Him. He let people kill Him. And He did not defend Himself.
THAT is what it looks like to deny the self.
(Tell your neighbor: "It's time to let go!")
The dethronement of the I does not mean you have no voice. It does not mean you are a doormat. It means you stop making yourself the center of the universe. It means you get off the throne so that God can sit on it.
The question this morning is simple. Who is on the throne of your life right now?
2.EMBRACING DAILY SURRENDER (THE RHYTHM OF DEATH)
Go back to Luke 9:23. Look at that word in the middle of the verse. DAILY.
D-A-I-L-Y.
Jesus did not say "once." He did not say "at the altar." He did not say "when things get hard." He said DAILY.
(Repeat after me: "Every day. Every morning. Every decision.")
This is not a one-time altar call, church. This is a Monday-through-Saturday lifestyle. This is a before-you-check-your-phone surrender. This is a before-you-open-your-mouth surrender. This is a before-you-walk-into-that-meeting surrender.
Paul understood this. In 1 Corinthians 15:31, he wrote: "I face death every day." That is the rhythm of the surrendered life. Every day, something in you has to die so that Christ in you has more room to live.
Now, I need to be careful here. Because some people hear "surrender" and they think I mean passive resignation. They think surrender means you sit in a corner, fold your hands, and say, "Whatever happens, happens." That is not surrender. That is fatalism. That is spiritual laziness dressed up in religious language.
Active surrender is different. Active surrender is you waking up in the morning and making a CHOICE. A trust-filled, faith-fueled, costly choice to say: "God, I trust You more than I trust myself. I trust Your plan more than my plan. I trust Your timing more than my timing. And today, I am going to live from that place."
That is not a weakness. That is some of the strongest faith you will ever exercise.
The person who surrenders to God is not weak. They are free. Because you cannot control everything, and the sooner you stop trying, the sooner the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your heart and your mind.
Let me give you a morning ritual. Church, I want you to try this. Tomorrow morning, before your feet hit the floor, before the day gets loud, pray these words:
"Lord, today I choose You over me. I choose Your will over my will. I lay down my plans, my preferences, and my fears. Fill me with Your Spirit. Lead me where You want me to go. And when my flesh rises up today, remind me of this moment. I am Yours. I am surrendered. Have Your way. In Jesus' Name. Amen."
DAILY surrender changes the architecture of your life. When you surrender every morning, your decisions during the day begin to look different. Your reactions begin to look different. The way you treat people begins to look different. Because you already settled the question of who is in charge before the day even started.
3. GAINING BY LOSING (THE RESURRECTION PRINCIPLE)
Now we get to the part that changes everything.
Luke 9:24 and 25. Jesus said: "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?"
This is the Kingdom Economy. And it runs completely backward from every system the world has taught you.
The world says: accumulate. Protect. Advance. Hold on tight.
The Kingdom says: release. Surrender. Lose. Let go.
Let me give you a business analogy. Imagine a man goes to a trading post. He walks in with a bag full of garbage. Old wrappers, broken pieces, junk he has been carrying around for years. And someone behind the counter says: "I will give you something of surpassing worth. I will give you something that nothing else in this world compares to. But you have to put down the garbage first."
Now, is that a bad trade? Of course not! Why would you hold onto garbage when something of surpassing worth is on the table?
That is the trade Jesus is offering you this morning.
In Philippians 3:7 and 8, Paul wrote that he considered everything he had accumulated in his life, his status, his credentials, his accomplishments, he considered all of it LOSS compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord. He called his old gains "garbage." And he said it was worth trading every single bit of it for CHRIST.
Church, that is not giving something up. That is making the best trade of your life.
But here is what the enemy does not want you to know. The death comes before the resurrection. Friday comes before Sunday. You cannot have Easter Sunday power without Good Friday surrender. You cannot have resurrection life without crucifixion death. The two are inseparable.
This is the Resurrection Principle. What you surrender to God, He gives back transformed. What you release, He redeems. What you lay down, He picks up and makes new.
Your marriage that you have been trying to fix with your own strength? Lay it down. God will raise it up.
Your career that you have been white-knuckling, trying to control every outcome? Lay it down. God will raise it up.
Your reputation that you have been protecting at the cost of your integrity? Lay it down. God will raise it up.
The seed that goes into the ground looks like it is dying. But that is where life begins.
(Tell your neighbor: "What I lose, God restores!")
You lose to save. You die to live. You surrender to win. That is not the world's economy. That is the economy of the Kingdom of God. And it works every single time.
CONCLUSION AND ALTAR CALL
Church, let me bring this to a close.
This morning, we have walked through three non-negotiables of taking up the cross.
First: You must dethrone the ego. The I cannot sit on the throne. Christ must.
Second: Surrender is not a one-time event. It is a daily rhythm. Every morning, you choose.
Third: What you lose for Christ, you gain back in ways the world cannot measure. The bad trade is not surrendering to God. The bad trade is holding onto yourself while God offers you everything.
(Look across the congregation)
I want to speak to someone this morning. You came in here tired. Not physically tired, though you might be that too. You are soul-tired. You have been carrying something that was never yours to carry. You have been fighting a battle in your own strength, and you are running out of strength. You have been managing your life, your pain, your fear, and your future by yourself, and it is not working.
Jesus said: "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
Not rest from life. Rest in surrender.
The Cross is not a symbol. It is an invitation. An invitation to lay down what you have been carrying and pick up something different. Something that leads somewhere.
If that is you this morning, I want you to stand where you are. Do not look around. This is between you and God. Stand to your feet if you are tired of running your own life. Stand if you are ready to dethrone the ego and say: "God, You take it."
(Pause)
Yes. Yes. I see you. God sees you.
Now let us pray together. And I need everyone to pray this, whether you stood or not, because every one of us needs this.
CLOSING PRAYER FOR BREAKTHROUGH AND TOTAL SURRENDER
Father God, we come before You right now not with perfection. We come with honesty. Lord, we confess that we have been on the throne too long. We have made our opinions, our fears, our ambitions, and our preferences the center of our lives, and we are asking You to forgive us.
This morning, we take up the cross. We deny ourselves. We say NO to the ego, and we say YES to You.
Holy Spirit, fill every empty space. Every place we just emptied out by surrender, fill it. Fill it with Your peace. Fill it with Your presence. Fill it with Your purpose.
For the one who walked in broken this morning: God, raise them up. For the one whose marriage is on the edge: God, move. For the one whose faith has grown cold: Lord, breathe on them right now. Send the fire. Send the wind. Send the rain.
We are not asking for a one-day blessing. We are asking for a new way of living. A surrendered life. A cross-carrying life. A daily-dying, daily-rising life in the Spirit.
Let this be the week that everything changes. Let Day 8 be the day we stopped managing ourselves and started following You.
In the Name above every name. The Name that is higher than every ego, every fear, and every burden.
In the Name of JESUS CHRIST.
And all God's people said:
AMEN.
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Blessings,
Pastor JM Raja Lawrence
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
email: lawrencejmr@gmail.com
Mobile: +91 9933250072
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