Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.
We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.
We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will
encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.
Our theme for the year 2024 is set apart, and today we look at
how God sets us apart to carry our cross.
Jesus was open and honest with his disciples of the kind of
life they would be called to live should they choose to
follow Him. It's not one that's easy, but
one of great fulfillment and eternal rewards.
As you listen in, would you ask God to show you how better to
carry your cross and follow Jesus, his Son, into the spaces
he leads you? Hi Church.
It's such a joy and a privilege for me to bring God's Word to
you today. Even as we've been going through
this entire Lenten season, I believe God is working in and
through US, especially for those of us who are seeking God
specifically. We as a church have been meeting
every Friday here to pray. And I believe God is wanting to
do miracles. God is wanting to come through.
God is wanting to realign a lot of things in our lives,
especially our views, our understanding, our dependency.
And I pray even as we go into this series of BFC, Deny, carry,
follow that God will work in and through us, even as we've just
completed the first two parts, we're going to go into the third
part. And even as I spoke about this
the previous Sunday on Deny today, we'll be seeing on
carrying. But even before I, you know,
start speaking, I just want to quickly say a word of prayer so
that God's word. Will.
Open our hearts will open our minds so that we'll be able to
receive what he has to say. So, Church can I pray especially
for those of you watching and listening.
Loving Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you all for this time.
But I thank you that even as we are listening to your word that
you would speak to us, minister to us, I pray even as I speak,
it will be you who's speaking through me.
Go before us, Lord Jesus, that even as we receive your word, it
will bear fruit. Lord, that seed will fall in our
hearts. And in time, as we meditate, as
we put it into practice, you will see a harvest come about.
And we have to give glory and honor to your name, Your most
holy name. We pray.
Amen. Amen.
Our reference passage has been from Matthew chapter 16, verses
24 to 26, and this is what it says.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, whoever wants to be
my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and
follow me, for whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet
forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in
exchange for their soul? Many a times in our Christian
walk we've highlighted certain passages, certain portions of
the scripture, and I think as we meditate on this verse 24, it
says whoever wants to be 1 disciple.
I remember emphasizing this even last time.
If you truly want to be his disciple, you have to deny
yourself. And we saw we deny ourselves so
that we understand that we can reach out to Christ who first
reached out to us. We saw that our vision, if it's
one painted, if it's one which is blurry, he will clear that
vision for us when we deny ourselves.
And we also saw that when we deny ourselves, we suddenly see
others who are running this parallel race and we are
encouraged by them. But today we're going to
emphasize and look specifically into carry your cross.
And when I say taking up your cross or carrying your cross and
amplified it says to take up our cross is expressing A
willingness to endure whatever may come.
Jesus clearly said, if you deny yourself, you have to take up
your cross. And the more I spent time
looking into it, each of us are carrying our own crosses.
We are so unique, each and every one of us as human beings, as in
the image bearers of Christ in this fallen world.
We have so many things that are happening in and through our
lives and we need Jesus more than ever before.
Anything. You need to take up your cross.
A lot of us today want what someone else have.
But Jesus saying, will you take up your cross?
What is it? What is in your pathway?
We are not called to live someone else's lives.
We oftentimes compare our lives with those of others and feel
you know what we're not. Having that same impact, we're
not doing but God saying if you take up your own cross and
because you've denied yourself, you will start seeing things my
way. And so today, if you have to
look deeper into our own lives, you would see that this requires
a lot of hard work. It says here we have to endure.
A lot of us want to just take part cross, you know, we just
want to take a piece of a cross, a section of the cross, because
because we deny section of ourselves, we choose to deny and
take only part of that cross. But God is saying take up your
whole cross. That's why you'll see when you
are called to be a Christ follower the And as as soon as
you've denied yourselves, you'll see the pleasure in which we all
have to live by. Satan knows that we are on a
mission. Satan knows we are wanting to be
set apart. Satan realizes that we've chosen
to follow Jesus and no one else. And So what does he do?
You know the minute you commit your life to Christ, he brings
temptation after temptation. The minute you decide to follow
Jesus and you, you know. Commit to the waters of baptism.
You see treasure coming, You see persecution coming.
You see struggles coming. You see places which you least
expected to be struggling with become a problem.
So today can we do with the part denying and the part carrying?
It's not a part time gig. It's not a freelance gig.
It's a full time role, but God saying if you are my followers,
you fully deny yourself and you fully take up your cross.
And we see that Jesus who in fact came into this world did an
effective ministry of 3 1/2 years.
He was wholly committed to it. He wasn't moonlighting, he
wasn't doing something the side he wasn't like, you know, just
come here to do it and just figure things out.
Now he was clear. Our God is a God of clarity.
Our God is a God of clear communicator.
He tells us what he wants us to do.
Is this us who choose not to hear or choose to hear him in
part so can we be wholly committed to this call that He's
placing on our lives? So what does Jesus want?
What does this commitment involve?
What is following Jesus? What is what?
What good has it come? We see that it it's tough when
people truly repent, deny themselves and say, Lord, this
is the journey I'm committing myself to.
It's hard, but he's saying endure it because I am with you.
He's saying the nose that you're saying will be tough, but I'll
give you the grace to handle it. I'll give you the strength and
the courage to handle it. You know, even as I was
preparing, I was, you know, I'd I'd come across this quote from
a person who written a book on self denial.
And this is what it says as a quote comes up on the screen.
And for those of you listening, you can listen as I read.
Not one man has ever sacrificed for his Lord without richly
being repaid. If the cross is only contrasted
with earthly pleasures, it may seem hard and threatening.
But when the cross is weighed in the balances with the glorious
treasures to be had through it, even the cross seems sweet.
And today, if you and I are going to only carry the cross in
contrast to what the world has to offer, it will be painful.
It will be. You will have severe form, or
you will struggle with it every day.
But if we outweigh it, as he says, as we balance it out with
eternity in mind, honestly, you know, a lot of us want to have a
clear picture of what eternity is, but eternity is 1, which we
can't fathom. It says streets will be laid
with gold. It says that we would spend
eternity praising our Father, who is only worthy enough to
break that seal. And you know, she's the one
who's going to be seated on the throne.
There's going to be worship through what?
We cannot fathom what eternity is about.
It says in eternity that we would have, you know, newer
bodies where there'll be no sickness, no pain.
Church, can we start weighing it with eternity in mind, not
knowing that, OK, this is what we many at times want, in
assurance for what we believe and for what we are doing, if
eternity is the final goal, and that's all that we are shown
here in this world. Can we be fully committed to
what God's calling us to be fully committed to?
We look at the same reference from Mark 8.
Jesus mentions this right before his death.
He says in Mark eight, chapter 34.
He says then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples
and said whoever wants to be my disciples deny themselves and
take up their cross and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it.
But whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save
it. What good is it for someone to
gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
And the reason why I'm reading the 2nd portion is for the sake
of the gospel, will we be able to lose our life?
You know, there are different extremes in which we consider
losing our lives, some who are wholly committed to the gospel.
Who? Lay down their lives here on
this earth. Their prize has been to see
Jesus face to face. We see it in the life of
Stephen. We see others who are standing
the test of time for saying I'm a Jesus follower and they are
standing strong irrespective of whatever persecution their
family and their loved ones are putting around.
We see people who are solely standing and God says whoever
loses their life. For me, we are not here in this
world to preserve as much as we have hospitals and medicines and
all that. Preservation also has an expiry
date and I believe our preservation is not meant for
this earth. Our preservation is not meant
here. We are focused on eternity.
Everything I do is with an eternal perspective.
I was talking to one of my dear friends and he was saying,
Gesham, if you can build wealth with an eternal perspective,
everything changes. If you can do ministry with an
eternal perspective, everything changes.
If you can think of church and do things with an eternal
perspective, everything changes. So today we'll come down to the
question, how can I carry this cross?
After denying myself, we've decided we're not going to be
carrying it. In part, we're going to be
carrying it in full. So how do I carry this cross
after denying myself? When we look at the New
Testament, the imagery of a cross comes right when Jesus was
being crucified. And as a lead up to Good Friday,
I know a lot of emphasis is given around the cross, the
weight at which it was the. Wood that it was made and all
that, but when you look at the Roman culture, they send the
person who did wrong to the cross.
The personal probably stood up to them when there was mutiny
where they were against what was the law of the land.
And so someone was condemned and sent to the cross.
Someone was sent to the cross so that they they they'll feel
remorse, they'll be shame, they'll be, you know, they'll be
a spectacle to people who are watching so that others will
have fear they were punished for their wrong.
The one which the Romans used in terms of cross was one of shame.
We also see the weightiness of it.
It wasn't an easy suffering. It was a suffering which was
literally crumbling. Every blood vessel in your body,
it literally exhausted you, pulled you, drained you.
Literally. So even as we see this, a lot of
us are scared by the figure of a cross.
But I wanted to highlight three things as to why Jesus wants us
to carry our own crosses. And so, as we look into it, I
believe God wants to speak to us.
The first thing that I want to emphasize is the fact that we
carry our own crosses with no condemnation.
We carry our own crosses with no condemnation.
The minute we deny ourselves and we are asked to take up a cross,
we are not condemned in carrying our own crosses.
There was a man who went before. Us, the one who died on our
behalf, He knew no sin. He was born of a virgin.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
He did not sin here on this earth.
He received the Holy Spirit on obedience, and as He did
miracles, He went to the cross for you and me.
He who did not sin was condemned.
And so when He died, he was this sacrificial lamb that was paid
once and for all. And so today, you and I, we
don't have to walk in that condemnation of that of a cross.
We cannot let go of what our past is.
There are a lot of things that are associated with our past.
There are a lot of things that we are probably living out the
consequences of some of the choices we made.
But Jesus saying, now that you're following me, you can
follow me and carry it with no condemnation.
What does condemnation actually mean?
It means to criticize someone strongly for moral reasons.
And I believe a lot of us today are walking our Christian lives
with condemnation. We've not forgiven ourselves,
Jesus saying, I've forgiven you. Move on.
Carry it. Carry it.
We think it's one of suffering Jesus suffered on that cross
once and for all. There's no pilgrimage we need to
set out to. There's nothing that I can do
enough to earn it. Romans chapter 8 goes on to say
verses 1 to 8. There is therefore no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through
Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set
you free from the law of sin and death for what the law was
powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did
by sending his own Son, the likeness of sinful flesh, to be
a sin offering. And so he condemns sin in the.
Flesh. In order that the righteous
requirement of the law may be fulfilled, met in US who do not
live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
So today when we carry a cross, we have no condemnation because
we are in Christ Jesus and because we are in Christ Jesus,
we don't live by ourselves, we live by the Holy Spirit.
I love the fact that last year we just finished an entire whole
bunch of series about being dependent on the Holy Spirit
catching the wind, and it's putting it into practice.
So today, if you feel condemnation on the cross,
condemnation and carrying your own cross, you need to ask the
Holy Spirit to come show which area he needs to touch you,
which area he needs to work. In and through you.
One of the examples we see from Pauls life is when he accepted
Jesus Christ. When he met and encountered
Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, we see that he didn't
pursue the call of his Christian life in condemnation.
He pursued it in freedom. It's in Jesus.
He found freedom once and for all.
Remember, a guy who's actually going around killing Christians
because they followed Jesus? Suddenly, who became a Jesus
follower is doing what God's called him to do, with no
condemnation. We too can experience that
freedom carrying our own cross. And even as he writes to the
Roman Church, he's assuring them to not walk in condemnation.
He could have gone back. He could have, you know, sat
back in that guilt. He could have, you know, been in
that place where you know what I did so much wrong over here.
But that's what Jesus does. He sets us free.
So today, as we carry across, may we walk with the renewed
sense of approval that comes when we are in Jesus, and which
comes because the Holy Spirit is guiding us.
And I don't want us to just stop with Jesus.
I wanted to come to the everyday aspect of it.
Where we come walking knowing that the Holy Spirit is living
in and through us, is because without Him we won't be able to
overcome so many of the things that are in front of us.
My past shaped me and caused me to be weak and live in sin, but
my hope has given me life and I walk in freedom.
Whatever the weight of our cross looks like, in Jesus we are
free, so he will give us the grace to carry it.
So today you might be like, you know what?
I'm coming from a broken family. You know what?
I didn't have the right parents to who brought me in the right
environment. Whatever your circumstances is.
Or you know what? I've had such severe crisis with
regard to relationships. Or you know what?
My identity is so messed up. But when you give your life to
Jesus, when you deny yourself, what do we deny?
We deny our flesh. We deny everything that causes
us to desire something which is not of Jesus, which causes us to
desire something which you know, which just benefits me for a
short duration and doesn't help me make a decision with eternity
in mind. As we read in Romans 8 verses 26
to 28, this is what the Holy Spirit helps us to do, and the
Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.
For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for, but
the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be
expressed in words. And the Father, who knows all
hearts, knows that the Spirit is saying For the Spirit please for
us believers in harmony with God's own will.
And we know that God causes everything to work together for
good, for those of who love God and are called according to his
purpose for them and the emphasis of praying in the
Spirit. For those of you who've received
the gift of speaking in tongues, speak it out.
There is a time in life and we cannot just pray with words
which we find difficult to comprehend, to put together.
Find that space. Ask God got a desire for me, is
for me to speak it out in tongues, because the situation
is so dire, is so broken that I need you desperately.
The Holy Spirit plays a pivotal role.
There's a great confidence that God works in and through us for
those who love God, for those who are called according to His
plan and purpose. So even as I read from Romans
826. We see that it's in this we find
fulfillment. We see God working everything
out together for good. Yes, it might take six years
later you are able to see, wow, this is the reason why God
allowed this. This is the reason why I see God
working and then through me we see later, Oh, This is why I can
see certain things happening in my life and we give God the
glory. That's what happens when we
decide to carry a cross denying ourselves.
And you're carrying the cross with no condemnation.
If you're walking condemned, we will put our head down.
We will be ashamed of the gospel.
We will not experience the freedom that God gives.
And we see that in Joseph's life, when we see his life.
He was a guy who was prideful, you know, because he was
favoured, because his mum was loved most than the other wives
of his father. He got a Technicolor quote.
He got something which other brothers didn't have.
He moved. He stayed back when he wasn't
allowed to even go out and be a shepherd.
And we see everything turn around, but we see the instances
where life actually happened for him.
He was sold. There was an element of God
working in it through him. The fear of God was in his life.
As we see things happen, there comes a point when he reveals
himself to his brothers and he recalls everything that has
happened in his life is for God. Genesis 50, verses 19 to 20.
But Joseph said to them, don't be afraid.
I'm. High in the place of God.
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to
accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
And I believe that's the life story of all of us.
A lot of us are going through hardships because God intends us
to see greater things happen through our struggles, so that
His plan and His purposes will be fulfilled.
When we walk with no condemnation, we are in
submission to Him to say, God, I'm accomplishing your plan and
purpose. That's why I will enjoy that
freedom. And so today, would you walk in
that freedom that comes when you're asked to carry your
cross? Would you stop condemning
yourself? Would you stop selling yourself
short? Would you stop saying, you know
what? I don't think Jesus cares for
me. No, he does.
For those of you who've been part denying and part carrying,
you will feel the heaviness of the cross and you would move
towards the world, towards what the world offers you.
But I would plead with you, if you can come to a place of
saying God, I wholly give myself to you.
I deny myself, help me carry my cross with no condemnation.
The second thing that we see is when we carry our own crosses.
We need to carry it the Jesus way.
And what's that? With humility you'll see you'll
come across a lot of people who carry the cross and they make it
all about themselves. You can just all you have to do
is how did your day go. And they just start talking
about how their entire week has been one which was they they are
unable to find God leading them through those weeks.
I meet people time and again who magnify of things not going
right. The hardships that have gone.
They fail to understand that this is what God did in my week.
Our highlights have to be different.
You know, one of the things when we as video creators are called
to edit videos, you know, especially of events and things
that have happened, we do a highlight tree, which is
basically we take the best portions and we show.
And I feel many of the times we as Christians want to come
across as humble and, you know, think that our lives are human,
that we talk about our suffering far more than what God is
actually doing. God is actually doing so much in
and through our lives. That's why I constantly feel we
need to have the right lens for us to see in humility.
If we understand, we'll realize God, I don't really deserve
this, but thank you for working this out for me in my life.
Jesus committed no crime. Jesus committed no sin.
He did not deserve the cross. Yet with all humility, he
carried the cross that was destined for him.
And so today, a lot of us with have to carry our own crosses
with humility, which means things that have happened and
things that we're going through. When we say God, as I follow you
in all humility, I'm carrying this.
I'm not carrying it out of my strength.
I'm not carrying it out of being a macho and appearing that I
have everything going right. For those of us who are
intentional about carrying the cross the way Jesus did, we'll
realize soon that we'll be misunderstood.
We'll be looking foolish to the world's eye.
We'll realize that you know what?
There's nothing to show about it.
We just learn to enjoy the peace that surpasses all
understanding, and I believe that's where the Holy Spirit is
needed the most in our lives. Jesus could do everything
because he was full of the Spirit.
You and I, if you have to do this life, have to do it because
we are filled with His spirit, James chapter 4 verses 6 to 10
goes on to say. But he gives us more and more
grace through the power of the Holy Spirit to defy sin.
And live in an obedient life that reflects both our faith and
our gratitude for our salvation. Therefore, it says, God is
opposed to the proud and haughty, but continually gives
the gift of grace to the humble. Who turn away from self
righteousness. So submit to the authority of
God. Resist the devil, stand firm
against him and he will flee from you.
Come close to God with a contrite heart and he'll come
close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners,
purify your unfaithful hearts and double minor people.
Be miserable and grieve and weep over your sin.
Let your foolish laughter be turned into mourning and your
reckless joy to gloom. Humble yourselves with an
attitude of repentance and insignificance in the presence
of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
He will lift you up. He will give you the purpose.
So today, when you're carrying the cross, the Jesus way, you
carried, as I mentioned, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
You cannot take the Holy Spirit and try carrying it alone, but I
believe our carrying our. Own cross comes out of a place
of humility, and that humility is because we have an attitude
of repentance and an attitude of insignificance because a
significant one is the only one person who's Jesus.
You know, we all want to feel significant.
We all want to feel significant. And that's something we
constantly have to be killing our own inner man.
And it's tough because it's like those, you know, the that game
which is there in the arcade where these monkeys keep popping
up and keep hitting it with the hammer.
It keeps cropping up time and again.
And so today, can we walk the Jesus way by carrying our cross
in humility. It reflects both our faith and
our gratitude of our salvation. A humbleness in which we walk in
is a reflection of the salvation we received.
And it's also about our faith to say God, I trust you alone.
There's no one else I trust and I hold on to you alone.
Grace to carry a cross in
humbleness because our dependency is on him.
God gives grace to the humble. He turns us from our self
righteousness. He he turns us from a place of
just us, trying to justify everything.
And as we read this, there's a visible submission to the
authority of God. A lot of us that's that's
directly proportional to the visible submission that we see
that happens in and around us. If we are unable to submit to
things that God's asking us to submit, we will struggle to
submit to God. What is submission to God?
Looks like? It's like God, I'm doing it your
way. I'm seeing your Kingdom, and I'm
like, if this is what God wants me to do, this is where I will
do it at. This is how I'll do it at.
So today let's kill that selfishness.
Just because we're following Jesus doesn't mean we get things
done our way. Just because we're serving Jesus
doesn't mean we get things done our way.
We need to learn to submit because the overarching plan is
by God. A lot of us think, you know, we
all are leaders, yes. But in in the body of Christ
there is this beautiful synergy, beautiful rhythm that's working
out where we work in submission with one another.
And I believe as we do that we will see God's glory being
magnified. We'll see things happen and
we'll say, Lord, this is all because of you.
There can be no pride in that place.
And so today I pray, even in US carrying that cross, every form
of arrogance and significance will be replaced with repentance
and insignificance because it's he who lifts us up.
We don't lift ourselves up today.
The the, the, the algorithm things it, you know, if you do
ABCD it will push content to everything and we'll be there.
But God saying would you just do it?
Even if there's no algorithm at work, would you do it, even if
it's just touching that one person that I'm calling you to
speak to? So maybe carry our cross with an
attitude of repentance and insignificance.
Lord, let not my will, but your will be done.
We make everything about ourselves.
Everything has to be in the comfort of us.
But Jesus saying, when you carry your cross, you're carrying it
my way. Inconveniences will come.
I will stretch you. I will ask you to give up that
one hour for someone else. Would you do it with all
humility? Would you do it with all
humility? Would you do it knowing that I
will be glorified and I'll use you as a tool?
And so today, God wants us to come to that place.
Even this last week I was with a person and you know, they were
sharing. Of they had come for a gathering
where they at that time Hungary was a communist country in 1989
and she was a young college going kid who was passionate
about doing children's ministry. And as she was talking she said
that time I got preyed upon by so many people and the heaviness
of us being in a country which is communist Bureau, you don't
have the freedom to share about Jesus.
And she's saying today, when I AM 65 years old, I'm standing
here and I'm able to go and pray in all humility for others who
are in restricted countries because.
Of what I've received, of what I've received.
And as she was speaking, that caught my attention.
Because that vision, understanding that and seeing
that will only come when we are walking with humility else, self
arrogance else. You know what?
This is bound to happen. We will belittle it.
But because you're walking in repentance, we understand the
power of repentance. We understand that Jesus.
I don't have it right. It's interesting when Paul
writes, he says the more further I come closer to Christ, the
more of a Sinner reveals its itself out.
I see that I'm I need more of him.
I need more forgiveness because so many areas in my life still
has a lot of self to carry across with humility means to
say Jesus, I'm here. I'm here so that I will operate
out of an attitude of repentance.
And out of an attitude of insignificance, the third thing
we saw that carrying a cross we carry it with no condemnation.
Secondly, so we carry the Jesus way, one of humility.
The third, we carry the cross our own crosses from a place of
rest, from the place of rest. Carrying a cross is not making a
show of. It.
But it's operating out for place of rest.
A spirit man is at rest. I love when I read verses in the
Bible it says my soul is at rest because I know my creator
Jeremiah chapter 6, verse 16 says this is what the Lord says.
Stand at the crossroads and look.
Ask for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is and
walk in it. You will find rest for your
souls. But you said we will not.
Walk in it. And it goes on to say why the
Israelites didn't want to walk on that path, even this year as
as a friend of mine just called and he was encouraging me.
And he said, Geshom, you're going to go.
Ancient paths will come across your way.
God's asking you to go ahead. And take it He had a prophetic
word. And I remember when he said that
I was like God, what? And I, as I was reading it,
there will be crossroads where we come, God's asking us.
Take the path which he's asking us to take, where his people
have walked earlier, where his people have sustained their
faith journey till the end. What does that look like?
The times can be different, but when the path when you're taking
is 1, where your eyes are focused on Jesus, where you're
carrying your cross and you're saying.
I want to operate out of a place where my soul is at rest.
We often times don't talk about a soul, but in this world, our
soul is downcast because of so many things that are happening
around us. Anxiety causes our soul to be
downcast and then causes it to manifest in terms of our body,
in terms of different areas of our life, our soul is not at
peace. We say our spirit is not at
peace, and many a times we, you know, we we we add.
We create a layer of a climate around our spirit, and we
control that. But oftentimes we do everything.
We change the physical, we change our emotional state, but
our soul is still not at peace. Maybe come to a place of saying
God, I want to. Carry the cross out of a place
of rest or my soul is at rest. We are trying to innovate our
way in carrying the cross. Jesus is saying you don't have
to innovate, you just have to listen and do.
The Israelites struggle to listen and obey what God had
called them. So inherently, there's a problem
for those who follow God where we choose to do things our way.
We feel because the world is talking about innovation a lot.
Because the world is talking about working smart a lot, we
are figuring ways in which we need to carry the cross in a
smarter way. No, we are carrying the cross
the way Jesus wanted us to carry it, where our soul is at rest.
But we're not hustling. We're not, you know, we're not
like, oh, you know, we need to do that.
We need to do this. We're not, you know, jittery.
We are focused and we're like, God, lead me through this path,
lead me so that my soul will be at rest, so that it won't be
downcast. Which means I need to dwell
deeper in the Bible. The more you read, when you see,
when the Psalmist writes, when the prophets write, they say
their soul is at rest. When they're meditating on God's
word, when they allow God's Word to permeate, it's like a drip
coffee where you allow it to slowly infuse through that paper
and it falls. It's got the essence, It's got
life in it to change us. And Jesus wants us to find that.
What does ancient Path teach us? We see that those who led it LED
it depending on God solely. Moses, who had to lead the
people to the Promised Land, LED it knowing that only God can
take him through. Joshua was able to settle in the
Promised Land and fight all those battles because God was
with him. Caleb, son of Japhne, was able
to occupy the land because he had a different spirit in him.
Samuel finished the work of a prophet that says that there was
no other prophet like him before.
What do we learn from our ancient paths?
We learn what not to do. We see from the life of Saul.
He was ahead above, which means he had height.
He was good looking, but he didn't finish well.
We see what we have to give up. Places where God does not want
us to be. We don't have to be.
We move on. We move on.
We keep ourselves glued to what God's calling us to do.
We learn from those who've gone in the ancient parts of what the
power of prayer is, why we need to pray through difficult
situations, why we can only pray through.
We always are looking to be prayed over.
But God's saying, would you pray yourself through the situation?
Well, how do we fight it out? How did the people who've taken
this ancient path fight it out? How did they hold on to their
faith? How do they hold on to their
conviction? Many a times we struggle to, you
know, stand up for our own convictions.
We think others have to testify for our conviction.
No, we have to be bold enough to say this is what I believe in.
We learn from others who walk this ancient path of what pride
can do, because many a times we make it about ourselves and
carrying this cross that we start erecting our own poles in
different places. We established compound walls
and gates and you know, fortresses thinking this is our
Kingdom. But God's saying, would you walk
and carry a cross in a place of rest where your soul is at rest?
Because when your soul is at rest, you're at peace with
yourself. You're always in a mode of
learning. You don't want to repeat the
same mistakes others have done. Your dependency is solely on
Christ. We walk, you know, as as
youngsters, as people who are, you know, in the forefront of
leading others. Many times we say we say these
words. You know we're standing on the
shoulders of others who've gone before us.
But many times we are looking for just.
Ground where we can stand and say this is who we are.
But God saying, would you be willing to lay down and say if
my soul is at rest, I don't care whoever gets the glory as.
Long as God gets the glory. So today the weight of carrying
this is real. The weight of carrying the cross
is heavy. That's why repentance is
important because we many a times try it in our flesh.
And God saying, will you allow me to be in control?
We feel unworthy. We say God with my past.
This is not I I don't think I'm worthy enough for Jesus saying I
have made you worthy. You can carry the cross.
As we read, we read from Matthew Chapter 11, verses 20 to 29.
Come to me, all of you are weary and heavily burdened by
religious rituals that provide no peace, and I will give you
rest, refreshing your souls with salvation.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, following me as my
disciple. For I'm gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest, renewable, blessed, quiet for
your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, My
burden is light, you know, even as right now, as you watch this
clip, you're going to watch this clip where this farmer is
actually taking the yoke and putting it on top of two oxes.
And even as I was filming this. I and as I was preparing, I was
reminded of the scene because I just filmed it like 8-9 months
back. And as I was seeing this, I I
was reminded many a times, we want to push away God who's the
one who's walking next to us, the other person.
And I think we'll carry this. OK, we want to make it all about
ourselves, of how we've achieved it, but God's saying if you want
to have your souls refreshed with salvation, if you want.
To. See an operator of a place of
rest, which is renewal and blessed quietness.
We need to learn to share. The beautiful thing about Jesus
coming alongside us is as we carry our cross is that he will
walk at the pace that we are walking.
He will tell us to stop here. Rest you don't have to prove
yourself. Allow my spirit to guide you to
be with you. We will see that this.
Yoke that is on us will suddenly seem lighter.
And soon, even though we are carrying across our own crosses,
our own things that we're dealing with, we will still be
on mission. We'll be able to do all that
he's called us to do. The worst that's explained here.
We see in Acts 15 where Peter is talking to the group of
Christian, Jewish, Christian, he says let's not impose things on
the Gentiles, let's not create a yoke on them.
And so today, whatever you have in terms of church art, in terms
of this is what the church has done, Can we take a step back
and say, but Jesus, I'm committing myself to you.
I'm not committing myself to a church, to a leader, to another
person. I'm committing myself to you.
I don't want someone else. I don't want my therapist to
carry my yoke and walk. I don't want my spouse to carry
my yoke and walk. I don't want my child to carry
my yoke and walk. I don't want my friend to carry
my You can walk my live in partner to be carrying this yoke
and walking. I don't want this person.
I'm having a feeling to be the one who's carrying me.
I want you to carry. She will guide you.
You'll soon realize there's only a certain distance.
When you start allowing Jesus to carry, he'll allow you to take a
lead, but then he'll remind hey, I'm not coming there at that
pace. Would you wait on me?
We will see certain breakthroughs stalled because we
are trying to push in a different direction.
But Jesus will be like, wait on it.
I know when is a good time to give it to you.
And I believe God wants us to walk to a place of wholeness,
walk to a place of seeing Jesus be glorified.
So church, even as they're close, I just want to pray
specifically that even as we all carry our own crosses, we'll be
carrying it with humility. We'll be carrying it with one
which says, Lord, I'm right now at the place where I want to be
repentant. And I want to be at a place, but
I'm not proving myself. I want to be at a place where my
soul is at rest. I want to be at a place where
I'm. Able to say that, Lord, I'm not
the significant one, I'm insignificant.
I want to carry the Jesus way. And even as we carried, may we
carry it with no condemnation that you would find rest for
your soul. Lord, I pray even right now
specifically for those who are struggling.
Lord Jesus, Lord, they've found it easier to deny the world and
follow you. But they have been struggling to
carry their cross. I pray if guilt is eating them
up, shame is eating them up. I pray that Lord, they will
realise the cross took everything once and for all and
you've given us freedom. And I pray even as they carry
their cross, whatever their life circumstances have been, they
won't be defined by it. They'll be defined by who you
are, what you say, because you are our God.
You are our Savior. I pray, Lord, we will carry
across your way, Lord Jesus, in humility, Lord Jesus, that we'll
be dependent on you, that we'll place ourselves, Lord Jesus, in
a position of insignificance because you are the significant
one, is because of you. We're able to carry.
We'll place and always be in a place of repentance where we'll
say God sorry for myself, which is coming, the forefront.
Lord, I pray even as we, Lord, wait on you that our souls will
be at rest as we carry our crosses because you are carrying
it alongside this I pray especially for those of weary
who are tired, who are in the verge of giving up because of
the add-ons that come because of following you.
I pray that they won't magnify the add-ons.
They'll magnify you. I pray your Voice will be so
clear, your arms will be so wide to reach out to them, be with
them, Lord, I pray that they will find healing strength and
rest in you. Lord Jesus, I pray a word will
start ministering to us, shaping us that as we are in the season
of Lent, it will reflect. It will mark us so that we will
be able to do this lifelong. We'll have a spirit of endurance
to run the race well and finish well.
We thank you. Go before us.
I pray for your blood covering over each and everyone of us.
The food and what of our homes will be blessed.
You will bless our going out and coming and bless our
conversations. Bless the people that we
interacted. Pray your peace will surround
us. Take charge in your most holy
name. We pray.
Amen. Amen.
Church, I pray even as you step
out, you'll step out in boldness.
That you'll have grace. You'll have his strength.
More than anything you'll have His purpose is being fulfilled
in and through your lives. I pray that you have a blessed
week and God bless you. Thanks for listening to this
message. We hope you were blessed to hear
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