"Take up your cross" is not for the faint of heart

Why do you go to church? More specifically, why do you go to YOUR church? What attracted you there? Was it the closest church to your house? Was it the band? Or the people? Or even the furniture? Do you like churches that are big and pretty? Churches that have state of the art technology?

What if I told you I found the most amazing church that anyone could go to and wanted you to come? The only catch is you have to walk or ride a bike all morning to get there. Everyone arrives at different times throughout the day and you get started once everyone is there. You wear very non-formal clothes. The service is hosted in a small crowded room with poor lighting and lasts for many hours. Would you go? What if I told you that the spirit of God is felt every week and people are weeping, excited, praising, coming to Christ, praying, learning, and studying? Would you go then?

Rather than considering it a blessing and giving back, we have prided ourselves and want to show everyone what we have. Now, I'm not saying every big church, or any church for that matter, is like this, but I'm sure there are many out there. Before I continue let me clarify a few things. There is nothing wrong with having things. Having the latest and greatest is good and helpful. It is when the church is investing more time, energy and money into the things that are going in the church than it is for things and people going out that we begin to see failure through the church.

Hearing and reading story after story of believers coming together to worship in a way that many people here would refuse is amazing. It is so easy to become complacent in our walk with God. It is so easy to get in a flow and just go with it. I had a teacher in high school that always said "Repetition is the motherhood of all learning." That has a lot of truth to it. But if we go through the same motions day in and day out we always end up less fulfilled. We begin to loose interest in things and we get bored.

If you have read my post before then you know I grew up in church. After years of hearing sermons from many pastors, youth leaders and speakers, I learned the stories and meanings of the bible. I know most of them by heart. But it isn't until I really try to hear what God is saying through His word that I actually know it. Digging deeper to have a full understanding of the power of God's word should be our goal. A daily goal. one that I know most people, including myself, struggle with.

An example of this would be a story that has been pressing on my heart lately. Mark 8:31-38. These are the verses we talked about tonight in echo)), my churches youth ministry. Now to set the scene for you. This is early in Jesus' ministry and he has called his disciples already. He has already performed some miracles and people are starting to talk. In this part of the story Jesus and the disciples are together and Jesus is telling them that he has to die. Now, we know that Jesus died and we know why, how and what happened after. But let me shed some light on this situation. The disciples didn't know that. For years the Roman Empire had occupied Israel and the Jews hated it. Non-Jews taking over and establishing their culture, rules, unfair taxes, and lifestyles. The Jews had studied the writings and prophecies and believed that a strong militaristic man would free them from Roman oppression. That is who Jesus was supposed to be for them. So when Jesus told them he was to die it was a shock.

Mark 8:34 says, "Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.'" This verse should give you chills. But due to overplaying it to the point were we are tired of hearing this verse we don't get chills. We think of this verse as saying "stop being selfish and do what I did." We get this thought in our minds and then we totally miss the power of it. "Take up your cross" was not coined by Jesus. He didn't make it up, the Romans did. When you heard those four words that was it. It was time to die. You would be forced to carry a cross around town until a Roman soldier said stop and you would be crucified right there. And it wasn't you stop, you die, there is a funeral, life goes on. You were on the cross for days. Pleading for help, food and water that nobody could give unless they wanted to suffer in the same way. Screaming in pain as your muscles twitch and spasm making splinters into open gashes. You then drift in and out of consciousness until you died. Then you stayed there for possibly years. No funeral. No ceremony. The sight and the smell from your body due the weather and animals lingered. Your family and friends were constantly reminded by your disgusting body or bones about how you died. And as a tactic by the Romans it worked well. It was a radical show of the power and fearlessness of the empire. So when Jesus said "take up your cross" every one knew what he meant. Prepare yourself to die.

Are you prepared to die? Die to your selfishness and the sins that consume your life? There are people all over the world that are beaten and killed in violent ways because they are trying to do what we have an open opportunity to do here. Just to go to church and learn about God is a life risk to thousands of people. Why is it so different for us? Why do we put more effort in materialistic things rather than God? Some would argue that we are blessed to have these things and we should spend resources to improve the churches. This is true and good, but if you are using a blessing as an excuse to keep your church members happy rather than feeding them the word of God and sending them out into the world then you are missing the point. I consider myself blessed that I can drive to my church on Sunday mornings without fear of dying because I am going. But if I go to church to talk to people, listen to music and hear a story about God that I've probably heard before without true intent to listen to God speak then what is the point of going?

I want to challenge you to go to church this Sunday and truly worship. Give it all to God. Don't worry about anything. Go in wanting to hear from God. He wants to hear from you too. Worship him with all you have. Matthew 22:37 says love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Take up your cross. Prepare yourself for what God has in store for you.

Before I end I would like to encourage you to pray for those that are not blessed with the freedom to worship God openly. Pray that they will be bold and courageous. Pray that these people will take up their crosses and share the gospel with those around them. Pray for their enemies, the ones that torture them and kill them, that they may see God through these men and women and come to accept Christ.