The Burden Of The Cross

Mark 8:31-38 The Burden of the Cross

• It used to be that we could carry our own suitcase and sometimes they were heavy

• . Now, we have wheels on the suit cases even back packs have wheels to make it easier.

• When I was at my last appointment we did a Cross walk from Gazebo to The Greenbrier.

• Young man carried the cross on shoulder but the agony of carrying that cross made him stop ever so often. It was hard, it was heavy, so we put wheels on it made it some easier. As we journey to The Greenbrier a ½ mile away I decided to stop along the way and pray over buildings, businesses, police station, people, and even we prayed over a truck that was broke down one time. After we returned to the Gazebo we had a cross service and crucifixion scene. The young was truly tired and burdened as a result of carrying that cross. But doing that changed him.

1. Today’s text tells us the burden of the cross is uncomfortable and we really need to accept our cross or even our wheels. Jesus says, “The burden of the cross is deny, Lose, and take up. There’s no wheels to help us

• Deny yourself (Summit ones will to Gods will) Denying oneself is not giving up earthly possessions, not giving up eating certain foods, or giving up the worldly stuff, it giving self-up.

• Lose yourself Jesus may mean to lose your fleshiness, you cannot still live in the flesh you become a born-again Christian. “You have to lose yourself in order to find yourself.”

• Take up the cross Consider The cross it was used to punish severely hardened type criminals. The cross is to die, and die hard, suffer pain that can be long. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s "When Jesus Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die."

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2. So being a Disciple is really dangerous and perhaps painful

• It’s dangerous to one’s health, It was not easy on the young man his shoulder hurt

• Jesus tells his disciples he is going to die Jesus’s disciple react with shock

• Taking up a cross we know He was rejected, He suffered, He was mocked, He was killed

3. Note when Jesus tells those disciples to take up their cross this is voluntary

• To take up a cross Is certainly a sacrifice for "my sake, and for the sake of the gospel" 35

• Taking up one's cross becomes a choice, what will I choose a cross? A cross today , a cross Tomorrow, and a cross the next day.

• This saying of Jesus was more than likely were confusing, and offensive. If Jesus were to get a cross this would be an indication that his followers would get a cross to.

4. Finally, What it means to take up the cross?

• It means complete commitment, It means we are the sacrifice, we are submitting completeness

• It means complete commitment because consequences are eternal. Remember the text “Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels" (v. 38).

• Disciples are challenged to take up their crosses and to follow they do not follow the flesh but deny the desires of the flesh, they do not follow the things of this world but they set their minds and affection on things, and they do not follow the temporal, but the eternal

• It means we need to accept our cross, and accept our wheels we must deny our self, Lose ourselves, and take up the cross.

• It means the cross is dangerous and painful. It hard to love the unlovable, the wrong

• It’s our choice wheels ( every now and then disciple ) or the cross Jesus carried had no wheels. Jesus’s Cross didn’t come with wheels.