Walking the Road "Daily Discipleship"
Taft Gospel Meeting Spring 2026 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Greeting:
Greeting:
Good afternoon
I tell ya this is always the hardest lesson to preach during a gospel meeting
Everyone has done got their bellies full and wanting to maybe nod off...
Mandy said earlier I have my work cut out for me and I told her hey it’s just as hard o the preacher too…
But I guess I will judge how good the lesson is based on how many of you I see nodding of to sleep
Thank you for the food, thank you again for having us this week…
It’s so special to be here with so many of you that again are basically family.
It was funny in class teaching class and seeing Eddie and others here that taught me my whole life so it means a whole lot to me to get to be here with everyone
I truly am looking forward to it and I hope you are too…
Let’s not forget to invite someone to hear the gospel this week…
Lesson Text:
Lesson Text:
Matthew 16:24
Opening:
Opening:
This afternoon we are going to continue on in our series of lessons...
If maybe you weren’t here this morning, this week our theme is “From Here to Heaven, Living With Eternity in Mind”
We are looking at the journey of a Christian from the point we become a child of God all the way to heaven our home one day…
Hoping that through these lessons we can live each day with heaven at the forefront of our minds…
This morning we looked at a lesson about where it all begins, that change that takes place in ones life...
That new life a Christian is to live and to walk...
We looked at who, where, what and when, this change takes place…
We pointed out that salvation is available for anyone, anyone willing to turn and submit their life to Christ..
We showed how Scripture teaches salvation is found only in Christ, no where else…
We talked about what the blood of Christ does for us and what that means for us…
And finally we looked at when this takes place, how we contact that blood, how we die that spiritual death, how we are buried with Christ at baptism…
And we come up a new creation…
Looking ahead at the week…
Tomorrow night we will look Lord willing at “Detours and Doubts” that may arise along the road a Christian walks...
We will study the struggles, sufferings, setbacks that Christians will face.
Tuesday we will move towards the end of ones life and how a Christian should view death, study about that eternal hope we have...
That reward of heaven we will have as we “Cross the Finish Line”
And finally Wednesday night we will look at one of the most beautiful topics we could ever study...heaven.
We will look at how a Christian can be welcomed home and how scripture describes the beauties of heaven...
This afternoon though, we will pick up on our journey through the Christian life and look at what do we do now?
We have just began this brand new life as a child of God…
Now what?
What does this new life look like?
How do we go about life as we are “Walking the Road”?
What does daily discipleship look like in our life?
Lesson:
Lesson:
If you have your Bibles turn with me there to Matthew 16:24…
As you are turning there I want you to think about your life…
You have just become a Christian, you’re a changed man, changed woman now, living for God…
What does that look like?
What does a new life in Christ entail?
Whether that change was yesterday or 50 years ago, what does your life you live for Christ look like as you walk the road of life?
What does your daily discipleship look like?
Listen to what Jesus tells us here…
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Jesus turns He speaks to His disciples, those that follow Christ, those that have made this change in the life we discussed earlier…
And he tells them what daily discipleship looks like…
He says that if we desire to come after Him, we are to deny ourself and take up our cross, and follow Him…
Jesus tells us what that looks like, He tells us what we must do if we truly want to follow after him…
Jesus gives us the requirements for discipleship…
We must desire to follow him, deny ourself, and take up our cross and follow Him…
This afternoon, I want us to focus on these verses and I want us to study together what this looks like in a Christian’s life…
What this idea of daily discipleship, of desire, denying ourselves taking up our cross and following Him, looks like in our lives…
Hold your spot there in Matthew, with verse 24 in mind, and turn over with me to John 1…
What better way for us to see what true daily discipleship is then to look at the lives of some of the very first disciples themselves…
If this is what it took for the, then this is what it takes for us…
Go with me down to John 1:35…
We will look here through verse 51 even though we wont have time to cover it in entirety…
But as we come to verse 35 we will see the first thing we have to do as a disciple is to come to Jesus…
And when we come to Jesus we have to be willing to follow Him wherever he leads…
Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?”
They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?”
Notice what Jesus asks here, he says, what do you seek?
Just like Jesus said in Matthew 16, if we desire, if we seek out Christ if we want to be a disciple, the very first thing we must do is diligently seek out Jesus in our life…
We just become a Christian, we just became a child of God, if we want to truly be a disciple we must follow Him, even if we don’t fully grasp it all…
Even if we don’t know everything there is to know yet, what we need understand first is to seek him out.
We make the commitment in our life to follow Him, thats what matters…
We see Jesus here in John 1 going out and calling some of his very first disciples, very first followers…
Do you think right then they knew what all would happen?
Did they know everything there was to know about being a disciple about what was to come?
What they would face, the trouble, the persecution, even deaths for most of them?
Yet, what did they do…
They followed Him…
Today maybe we are much of the same way…
We may not know whats in store for us…
Or we may not know what is down the road for us…
But what we do know and what matters most of all to us is that we know we want to be with Jesus…
What we do know is that we want to grow closer to Him, we want to learn from Him, we want to soak up all that we can that has to do with Him…
Notice there in verse 38 of John 1, they mention Rabbi, they call him Rabbi or teacher…
It was custom in this day in time for people to seek out a teacher or a rabbi to follow after and learn from…
And that’s exactly what they did with Jesus…
They decided to not only follow Him, but be taught by Him…to learn from Him.
But notice in verse 38 and 39 after they call Him Rabbi they ask where is He staying?
Jesus responds, “Come and see.”
Three words Jesus mention, three words is all it took for them to follow after Him.
Isn’t that what it takes for us?
To simply just do what Jesus tells us to do?
Jesus invites us to come and see what the life of a Christian is all about
The question is will we?
Do we desire to follow after Him, to learn from Him, to draw closer to Him while we obey Him?
And not just for a little while and then give up on Him but to remain with Him…
Notice thats exactly what verse 39 of John 1 tells us they did… they remained with Him…
We don't just intermittently, when we feel like it, when its easy, when its convenient, follow after Jesus…
Well it’s Sunday, time to turn it on, time to be a disciple, Monday comes, turn it off, Wednesday comes maybe if we are lucky turn it on, turn it back off afterwards until next Sunday…
Thats not daily discipleship.
Daily discipleship is seeking out, following after, and remaining with Him every single day…
Not only do we come to Jesus or seek out Jesus, as part of our daily discipleship, but point number two this morning, we also must change…
Go back with me to Matthew 16:24…
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
Our desire to follow Him, isn’t enough, Jesus also tells us we must change…
We must deny ourself and take up our cross each day…
Let me preface this by saying this is probably one of the hardest if not the hardest things we will do as a Christian…
To deny one’s self…
It’s really hard to tell ourselves no isn't it?
Maybe it isn't so hard to tell someone else no, but its really hard to tell ourself no…
I just experienced that with the dessert table…
If we want to be a disciple, if we want to walk the road as a disciple we have to figure out how to change our life…
We don't follow ourself anymore, we follow Christ now…
We referenced this verse this morning but I think it fits so perfectly again here as well…
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Paul describes this denial we are talking about here doesn’t he?
Paul says its no longer Paul that lives, its not what he wants, its not what he thinks is best, its not even Paul thats living anymore…
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Paul knew what it mean to deny oneself, to put to death his fleshly desire and instead live by faith, live by the Spirit…
Paul knew what it mean to deny ourselves and focus on Christ …
Will we reach that point, that level of devotion in our life, to where we place Christ above all else?
If we go back to Matthew 16 we will see that Jesus instructs us to…
Listen to how perfectly the words of Paul align with what Jesus tells us there…
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
Christ tells us that if we desire to save our life we will lose it…
Plain and simple.
But if we lose our life for Christ sake we will find it… we will find life…
Paul knew that didn't he?
Why else would he speak about how he has died, its no longer he that lives but Christ…
Paul knew exactly what Jesus meant in verse 25…
He knew that the requirement for discipleship involved denying ones self
The question for us is will we?
Will we ever come to understand the fact that daily discipleship involves us giving up everything for the sake of Christ?
Including our own life?
Again its easy when we think about everything externally, but when it comes to ourselves, when it comes to telling ourself no, it gets more difficult doesn’t it?
The world we live in today preaches the opposite of what Jesus teaches, of what Paul lived…
The world today tells us we need to live this big expensive flashy life…
We need to fit in, we need to keep up with the Jone’s, we need to watch out for self, we need to treat ourself…
Do whatever it takes to get ahead in life…
But again is that what Christ teaches for his disciples?
Go back to verse 26 with me…
After telling us we need to deny ourselves , we need to live for him, not ourselves, Christ gives us these words of advice and instruction…
For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
What’s the most priceless item you can think of?
Maybe your home, car, maybe something sentimental..
A family heirloom, something passed down to you…
Whatever it is, I bet we all have something we would say you cant put a price on that…
We would say it is priceless…
Christ tells us that’s how we better view our soul…
As we walk the road of life, as we live each day as a true disciple, we better not get distracted…
We better not sell our soul…
We better not exchange the most valuable gift in all of creation for anything this world has to offer…
Jesus says what profit is it? What gain is there for someone to do such a thing?
Yet it happens every day doesn’t it?
We constantly exchange our souls for a moment of fame, fortune, pleasure…
We sort of talked about that this morning in class didn’t we?
Daily discipleship is guarding our soul at all cost…
Christ tells us not only is discipleship about coming to him, desiring Him, and denying ourselves, placing Him before us…
But he also tells us we must take up our cross and follow after Him…
Without spending too much time on the subject I think we all have somewhat of an understanding of this reference…
In Roman time convicted criminals who were punished with crucifixion were responsible for carrying their own cross…
Specifically just the horizontal part of the cross…
As if the crucifixion wasn’t bad enough, Jesus had to carry his own cross to the place they would crucify Him…
He tells us here we should do the same…
If we want to be a disciple we will pick up our cross and we will follow after Him…
What does this tell me? Tell us?
It tells me Daniel needs to be ready to fully submit, absolute surrender, self denial, living a life totally committed to follow Christ…
Even if it comes at harm to myself…
Even if I know I will be persecuted for I, harmed for it, face death for it, whatever it is, I am to carry that cross for Him…
We will bear the burden as a disciple of Christ…
Because as a Christian life wont always be say, it wont always be perfect…
Paul even warns us of this as he writes to Timothy…
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
We will face hard times, we will face struggles in life…
Lord willing we will talk tomorrow night about detours and doubts, how we handle the sufferings and issues of life as Christians…
The question though for us is…Are we willing to bear it?
Are we willing to pick up that cross and carry it every single day for Him?
He carried it for us didn't He?
What if He had just decided He didn’t feel like it, He felt like giving up…
What would have happened?
We may think this afternoon that daily discipleship is simply just being a Christian…
Its just simply the idea that one has come to Christ upon hearing the gospel through faith, he or she has repented confessed and been baptized for remission of sins…
I hope though that as we begin to close out this lesson today we see its much more than that…
Daily discipleship isn't just wearing a title, it isn’t just telling someone you are a Christian, but its denying oneself self and living for Christ each day…
It’s something that we must actively live out…
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
This afternoon as we begin to close, I will ask the same question I asked this morning…
Are you a Christian today?
If someone here isn't a child of God this afternoon lets change that…
Let’s leave the life of sin behind, come to Christ…
Thankfully for us Scripture has laid out Gods perfect plan for us…
We are to hear the word, believe it with all our heart, repent of our sins, confess our faith and be baptized for remission of our sins…
If you know you have sin in your life and you need to be made free, make the decision to become a child of god today…
This afternoon maybe you are a Christian already…
How is your daily walk with Christ?
Is it a walk a disciple should walk?
Are we doing a good job of what Jesus ask of us?
Do we follow him?
Or is it something else we follow?
If we are living a life this afternoon contrary to Gods word, a life that has chosen this world over Him, ourselves over Him, whatever it is that we have placed in front of Him…
Let’s change that and come back home while we still can…
