Look inside this book.Where the Bush is Burning: A Daily Devotional by [Thomas Tice]

Tag: Luke 9

Following Christ

Following Christ

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Worship Service 9:30 am
10900 Huron Street
Northglenn, CO

Scripture: Luke 9:18-27

And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.” 20 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” 21 And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” 23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross [a]daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”

Sermon: Following Christ – Daniel Lowe

  1. Following Christ leads us to deny our plans
  2. Following Christ leads us to identify with Him
  3. Following Christ leads us to do ministry with Him

Westminster Shorter Catechism – Question #67

Which is the sixth commandment?

The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.

Exodus 20:13

Worship

Jesus Thank You
Show us Christ
Bow the Knee
’And Follow Me’

’And Follow Me’

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‘And Follow Me’

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

Luke 9:23

What is the summary of true Christianity but ‘following Christ?’ When the disciples met Christ, after they heard the testimony of John the Baptist, they began to follow Him. For the next few years, wherever He went, they went. If He was cold, they were cold. If He was hungry, they were hungry. If others rejected Him, they felt the rejection. If others accepted Him, they enjoyed the reception. Whatever was Christ’s lot, was their lot as well. It is the same for us who follow Him today. Where Christ is welcome, we are welcome. When the world casts Him out, we go with Him. When His Body suffers, we feel the pain. We follow Christ wherever He is going. So it has been throughout all the history of the people of God, and so it shall be until ‘the day when the faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back, as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend….’ Until He calls us home, or comes again in all His Glory, we will follow the blood-stained path where His Blessed Feet have gone before us. It was the way of all the Blood-bought people of God who followed Him all through their lives and to the hour of their death. It is our way. It is the way of Christ Jesus Our Lord.  We have heard His Words and we follow Him.  Come along with us and we will follow Him together.

Our Kind and Loving Savior,
we rejoice in the blessed privilege that we have to follow You.
We praise You, that You will lead us evermore,
until the faith is sight and we have followed You Home.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
Taking Up Our Cross

Taking Up Our Cross

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Taking Up Our Cross

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

Luke 9:23

As we consider our text from the past two days, we arrive at the next thing which Christ sets before those who desire to ‘come after’ Him. Beyond the self-denial of which we spoke yesterday, there is the hard matter of ‘taking up our cross daily.’ Each of us has a peculiar cross which is ours alone to bear. For some of us it is debilitating disease or chronic pain. For others it is the cross of being the solitary saved individual in a family. For others it is poverty. For still others it is the long term effects of trauma or the results of someone else’s sin which leaves us scarred for life within and without. These are but a few examples of many we could cite. Christ understands these crosses, and for His Glory He would have us take them up daily and bear them. These are the crosses which He Himself bears with us. He enables us to bear what we could in no way bear ourselves by upholding us with His Own Almighty Arm. Again, He has shown us what it means to bear the cross, by doing so Himself. We are not left to sort our own cross-bearing without His Perfect Example. Today, as we take up our cross, let us look to Him Who bore His cross before us.

Our most Excellent and Wise Savior,
we praise You that You have borne Your cross before us.
We rejoice that you have fitted our cross for us perfectly
and that by Your strength, we shall be able to bear it.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
‘Let Him Deny Himself’

‘Let Him Deny Himself’

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‘Let Him Deny Himself’

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

Luke 9:23

This is the logical follow-on of our consideration of yesterday. If we desire to ‘come after’ Christ, He says that we must ‘deny ourself.’ If we take this at face value, and do not consider anything else that Christ said, we will soon find ourselves despairing. This is a greater sacrifice than we can accomplish. Christ said much more which bears upon this command that we must ‘deny ourself.’ He also said, ‘I will never leave you, nor forsake you.’ Beyond that, He promised of His people, ‘they shall never perish.’ These assurances, plus more which we could set forth, show us that Christ does not give the command without also imparting to us His Presence and His Strength. This utterly changes our view of the command. Besides what we have already considered, there is the fact that Christ Himself has given us the Greatest Example of what it means to deny oneself. No one else in all the history of humanity has lived in a more self-denying manner than Christ. If we would see how it is done, we must look to Him. He does not call us to do anything which He is unwilling to do Himself. This throws the concept of ‘self-denial’ into a whole new light. Today, let us approach our self-denial, ‘looking unto Jesus,’ Who will show us the way, and lead us in it.

Our most Holy and Faithful Christ,
we rejoice that You do all things well.
We praise You, that as You have lived a life of self-denial,
so You will show us, how to deny ourselves, that we may follow You.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning
High Ambition

High Ambition

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High Ambition

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

Luke 9:23

We have before us the words of the Savior Himself. He begins with, ‘If anyone desires to come after me.’ We look in the mirror and we ask ourselves the question, ‘Am I that person?’ I have many desires in my life, is this one of them? If I do desire to follow Christ, what will it mean? Will this desire compete with other desires? If I pursue it to it’s logical conclusion, will it supersede the other ambitions which I have? When we contemplate these things, in essence we are counting the cost of following Christ. Christ is well aware that not everyone will desire to ‘come after’ Him. He holds out the possibility that this may not be our desire. What, however, it the consequence of not desiring to ‘come after’ Christ? It is simply this:  If I do not desire to ‘come after’ Christ, then He will have no place in my life. I will not seek His Wisdom or follow in His steps. What is important to Him will be unimportant to me. I will live my life with the highest regard for my own wisdom and my own ways. He will have no part of my life, my death, or my eternity. Is this really what I want? By contrast, if I do desire to ‘come after’ Him, I may look to Him for all the things which He promises to be unto His people; Prophet, Priest, and King, the Only Redeemer of God’s Elect.   Let us today, count the cost of discipleship and by the grace of God, ‘come after Christ’ with open hearts and fervent love for Him.

Our Wise and Loving Christ,
We praise You that You set before us the important issues of life.
We rejoice that by Your Grace, You lead us to right conclusions
that we may evermore follow You.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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