8/22/2025 Daily Devotion: Come And See

Matthew 16:21-26 NASB - From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Jesus calls you and me in the same way that He called His first Disciples …. “FOLLOW ME.”

• Those first 12 Disciples could literally walk behind Jesus, follow Him down the road from town to town … but Jesus meant more than physical tracking when He called them!

• Jesus called those early Disciples to follow Him with all of their hearts, minds & souls … to LIVE their lives as He lived His Life … in complete surrender țo the Will of God!

Early on, the Disciples struggled to understand how to do this … and so do we!

• We can physically follow Him to Church & mission trips & volunteer service projects … but Jesus is calling us to surrender ALL of our life to Him, to depend on Him for ALL of our life, to follow Him with ALL of our hearts, minds & souls!

Thankfully, He also tells us HOW to do this! Jesus tells His Disciples (and you & me!) here in Matthew 16 that in order to FOLLOW HIM we must:

DENY OUR SELF

• Your biggest threat to following Jesus is YOUR SELF.

• Our self is naturally & entirely SELFISH! Our self calls us to a life of self-pursuit, self-confidence, self-love, self-adulation, self-help, self-gratification, and fundamentally self-worship.

• In order to start the process of following Jesus we must deny our own self’s call on our life & CHOOSE Him instead.

TAKE UP OUR CROSS

• The cross signifies death … what is Jesus calling us to put to death? He is calling us to put to death OUR OWN WILL.

• Right before Jesus endured the pain & suffering of His cross, He prayed to God that another way be found … BUT ultimately, that GOD’s WILL be done over His own Will. The cross was God’s Will for Jesus.

• Jesus tells us to daily take up our own cross …. to DAILY CHOOSE GOD’s WILL over our own will … to daily put to death our own desires in submission to His Perfect Will.

FOLLOW HIM

• God’s Will will call us to ACTION … to serve Him by serving others throughout each day.

• Are you listening for God’s Voice? Do you recognize God’s Direction? … Are you OBEYING God’s Call?

• God has good works prepared for you to step into today … when you FOLLOW HIM you will live them out and EXPERIENCE HIM more & more!

Do you want to follow Him? Are you uncertain of where He will lead you? … Jesus' invitation to you is still the same … “FOLLOW ME”

You can TRUST Him. Come and see what He has in store for you today! Deny your self. Take up your own cross. FOLLOW HIM.