Luke 9:23-26

There exist within us both the desire to please ourselves and the desire to please God. 

One wants to be served and the other wants to serve others. One is temporary and the other eternal. 

Choose to be used by God to show others His love and lead them to His salvation in Jesus the Christ.

Although Jesus offered salvation as a free gift, He also warned that following Him would entail suffering and hardship. The wise course is to invest our earthly resources—our time, talents, and wealth—in what is eternal. Even if we lose our lives for Jesus’ sake, that investment will produce returns for all eternity. 

Recognition of Jesus will be rewarded in the coming judgment. Failure to recognize Him will lead to significant loss.

Luke 9:23-26

²³ 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. 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.

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. 

Matthew 16:24

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them,“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 

Mark 8:34

He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 

John 12:25

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? 

Matthew 16:26

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 

Romans 1:16

But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. 

Luke 12:9

For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” 

Mark 8:38