Have you made up your mind to genuinely follow Jesus? Then go for the real Jesus and nothing else: settle for the cost! Go for the cost of following Christ who died for your sins to save you from the power of hell; who alone can lead you to eternal life. There is nothing that without a cost. The angels who came to rescue Lot told him what the cost was to escape the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah — they were not to look back! Oh, his two daughters understood that. It was painful they weren’t going to look back. It was painful their home would be consumed. But you could hear the heartbeat of God: “Once you have escaped the lusts of this world, don’t look back!”
Anyone in any generation who will follow Jesus must deny himself and take up his cross to follow. So if we have not yet denied ourselves and taken up each of us his cross, we are not following him. So it is not enough for us to say “Jesus I love ya”; it is not enough for us to go to church; it’s not enough for us to sing praise; its not enough for us to do good: we have to take up cross and suffer with him!
When Jesus began to reveal to his disciples how that he must suffer so many things and be crucified, Peter took him aside and said to him “far be it from you.” But Jesus rebuked him sharply for savouring the things of the flesh — the son of man had to through sufferings enter into his glory. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? ( Luke 24:26)
It is the cross we cling to that we will exchange someday for a crown, for if we suffer with him, we will also reign with him(2 Tim 2:12).
Royal Flock of Christ Church 