Transcript
Speaker: Well, good morning again. Man, what a morning, amen? amen I mean, if y'all are not excited about what we just went through, we need to pray again.
Speaker: Because as we said, the Lord is moving and he's moving in the hearts of not only just the young generation, but all of us. And so we need to continue to pray fervently for that. So that way the Lord continues to move and just bring heaven to earth, amen? Because we need it now.
Speaker: Right. And so I pray that we are all excited about the the idea of participating in that. Right. You know, we just witnessed five people get baptized. and You know, before we go any further, i just want to say is I believe in the Lord's sovereignty.
Speaker: I believe that God is sovereign over all things. And I think that this morning he is playing not only this message, but also these baptisms together, because the title of this message is more is the cost of discipleship.
Speaker: And we just saw five individuals publicly proclaim their their dedication and their commitment to the Lord by surrendering their life to him and allowing him to come in and be Lord and Savior their life. and oftentimes we think about this idea of discipleship. Oftentimes we think about this idea of baptism or surrendering to the Lord. And we we we oftentimes don't take it as seriously as we need to.
Speaker: Would y'all agree with that?
Speaker: discipleship, being a disciple of Jesus, is one of the most difficult decisions that we could ever make on this side of heaven.
Speaker: You see, every single one of us have a sin problem, right? And the only way we can overcome that is through Jesus. And Yes, the grace of God is extended to those who surrender their hearts to him, right? As Jesus says, for all whoever believes and confesses that he is Lord shall be saved, right?
Speaker: But when you believe and confess, it's more than just the idea of just believing in Jesus. It's following Jesus. He commands us to pick up our cross daily and to follow him.
Speaker: And so as we walk through this passage that we're about to look at here in just a few moments with the remainder of our time, I really do pray that you will just prepare your heart for what we're about to walk through. In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult passages as believers that we can walk through because of the command in which Jesus is giving to those who is following him in this in this moment.
Speaker: So will you guys open up to Luke chapter 14 with me? Luke chapter 14, we're going to be in verses 25 through 35. I get it, it's 10 verses, but I promise we're going to get through it, okay? At least it's not two chapters like I did last time, right?
Speaker: But going to pray real quick, and then we will we will dive into the text with the remainder our time. Father, we just ask right now, Holy Spirit, that you go before us. Lord, that you would just ah open our hearts, soften our hearts to the reality of what it means to truly follow after you as a disciple.
Speaker: And Lord, if there's anyone in this room who's never surrendered their life to you, I pray that today that you will just truly open their eyes to the blessing it is to following you. Yes, it's hard, but Lord, there's no greater gift on this side of heaven than than following after you.
Speaker: And so, Lord, in a world that is throwing all kinds of false promises out, I pray that you'll bring clarity and truth this morning. But, Lord, we love you. We praise We thank you.
Speaker: Please go before this time. May your words be heard. It's in Jesus' name. Amen. So this morning, we're gonna be continuing our track through our track through the book of Luke. And if you guys remember last week, Victor gave an extremely powerful message over the parable of the great banquet, which was a parable about the assurance of salvation and the and the and the invitation that is given during that and how Jesus, if you guys remember, was sitting with the religious leaders at that time and he was challenging them of this idea of like, hey, you say that you are following Jesus, but yet,
Speaker: You, given the opportunity, are not actually following Jesus the way you need to. Right? And so he gives this parable, this great banquet of how that this host and sends out this and these invitations to these and these people that he is inviting to join his party.
Speaker: And when it comes time for them to come and to participate in the party, what happens? Right? All those who were invited, they refused to come because of life's inconveniences or personal preferences or whatever is happening. They refused to accept the invitation. And remember how the host responded? He He was angry.
Speaker: He was upset. was like, man, I just went through all these preparations for you to come. i sent the invitation. You received my invitation. You said that you would come, and now that the time has come for you to come and participate, you're coming up with an excuse after excuse after excuse to not come.
Speaker: So what does he do instead? He says, fine. If you don't want to come, you don't have to come. We're going to fill your spot with those who want to be here. So he goes out, and he sends out word, and he starts inviting people off the streets, and they're all around to come and fill his seats.
Speaker: And when it comes time for those who actually were invited to actually come around to wanting to come to the to the party, what happens? Their seats are full and they miss out. And so often we are just like those individuals who were invited to the great banquet.
Speaker: We're just like those religious leaders where we have an opportunity to come before the presence of the Lord and to live for him fully and completely and to be brought into the promise of which has been given to us. But yet we get so delusioned by the false promises of this world and what what Satan's throwing at us.
Speaker: To where when the time does come to live for Christ the way we were called to, we completely miss out. And so on the heels of Jesus giving this parable to these religious leaders, we pick up here in verse 25, where Jesus is now in motion. He is walking away, most likely continuing his journey to Jerusalem because that's the path that he's on.
Speaker: And we see that here in verse 25, that there is a large crowd that follows him and he does something incredibly powerful that we shouldn't be surprised by. It's something that Jesus does a lot in his ministry is that he stops, he assesses the situation and he addresses it So i'm go to invite you guys to stand with me as we read this, and we'll go go through this together.
Speaker: Picking up in verse 25, it says this, says,
Speaker: and he turned and said to them if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters Yes, and even in his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And we could stop there this morning and we could spend the rest of our time, but we're go to keep going.
Speaker: Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after him, he cannot be my disciple. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
Speaker: Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king going out to encounter another king in war will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able to win with 10,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20,000? And if not, while the other is yet far is not yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and seeks for terms of peace.
Speaker: So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall it be made salty again or how its saltiness be restored?
Speaker: It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Thank you. You guys may be seated.
Speaker: As I mentioned, in my opinion, this is one of the most difficult passages as believers that we can walk through. Because what this does, it makes us stop and do a self-assessment of where we actually are at.
Speaker: If you're in this room and you proclaim that Jesus is Savior and Lord of your life, we need to often stop and assess whether or not we're truly following Jesus the way he desires us to follow him.
Speaker: And if there are things in our life that are hindering us from truly following Jesus, To the degree that we need to, we need to stop and we need to assess and we need to get rid of those things quickly.
Speaker: Because if not, then we are no better off than what Jesus referred to at the end, which we'll talk about with the salt losing its saltiness. Did y'all pick up what he said there? If salt loses his saltiness its it's no use for either the soil or for the what?
Speaker: Manure pile. ah so yeah That's a pretty graphic picture. Right? So if we're not assessing where we're at with Jesus and we're not willing to give the make the cost to follow him, then we really need to stop and determine whether or not we're actually following Jesus the right way.
Speaker: Right. So there's four things I do want us to see here to challenge us with when it comes to four steps to discipleship and following Jesus. And the first thing that we're go to see is that following Jesus begins. It begins with surrender. It begins with true, authentic surrender to him.
Speaker: The second thing is that following Jesus demands deliberation. We must stop and consider what exactly the steps are going to be when we actually do choose to follow Jesus. It's more than just being a follower. It's being a disciple.
Speaker: Right? Taking up the mantle and becoming like him. The third thing is following Jesus requires sacrifice. It requires sacrifice. And lastly, the fourth thing that we'll see is that following Jesus results in a distinct life.
Speaker: In a distinct life. There's going to be results of it. Right? So, but the first thing again... is that following Jesus begins with surrender. We see this in verses 25 through 27, where he says, as he sees the crowd, he stops and turns to them because he he feels impressed on his spirit, I bet, to turn and to address this. Because, you know, everybody up to this point, they have they have heard, they have seen, they have ah witnessed the miracles of Jesus.
Speaker: I mean, whether it's bringing sight to the blind, allowing the lame man to walk, whether it's raising someone from the dead, whether it's healing people of different illnesses and diseases, right? So Jesus' name in ministry is going out.
Speaker: They heard of his teaching and the authority by which he teaches, and they want to come and they want to follow Jesus. They're mesmerized by this man. Because you remember, who have the Jews been waiting for this whole time? This guy named the Messiah.
Speaker: This powerful, military, authoritative figure who's going to come and he's going to reestablish his kingdom forevermore and exalt the Jewish people. And Jesus right now is checking off all the boxes. So they're really excited about this.
Speaker: So these large crowds have been following him. And yet Jesus in this moment, he sees a large crowd. And y'all remember, see what he does? He stops and he looks at them. He says, think about this.
Speaker: You're following me. You're following me right now. But will you actually continue to follow me? Right. So he stops. He looks at crowds. If anyone is to come to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, just even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Speaker: Now, I know some of y'all in the room are like, well, this is a pretty extreme statement by Jesus. He wants me to hate my wife. I love my wife. I love my wife dearly. I don't ever want to leave my wife or to neglect her or forsake her or my children. I love my beautiful girls. Shiloh just turned five and she's amazing.
Speaker: And Libby's five months old. She needs to learn how to sleep, but she's amazing. Right? this so this idea, it's a very radical idea of of leaving these things behind in order to follow him.
Speaker: But what I also want you hear this morning as well is that Jesus, when he says this, he's saying hyperbolically. Okay, so he's saying this to get their attention. This is such a radical idea to them that he he has to get their attention. He's not truly saying that we must truly abandon all these things in order to follow him, but he's saying, but this is the desire of our heart.
Speaker: Our heart should desire Jesus above all things at all times, no matter the cost. As a husband, as I follow Jesus, my heart and my mind is to be on him and I need to bring my wife and my family alongside me as I pursue him.
Speaker: Right? But my desire is ultimately for him only. It should be. Is it always that way? No. I wish I was perfect. I'm not perfect. I'm sure you guys would say the same thing. And all the women, and all the wives in the room say amen, right? mean like, but the idea here is that we need to desire him above all things. So again, this is not a necessarily a literal statement. Like it's literal in the sense that we need to hear what Jesus is saying, that we need to hear the urgency and the attention to it.
Speaker: But he's trying to make this point in such a way that it causes us to stop and to assess whether or not we're truly following him at the cost of which we is is required. Does this make sense?
Speaker: So again, it doesn't mean that we immediately neglect and reject our families or sell all of our possessions that live these monastic lifestyles, right? As you saw in church history, but rather what he's saying is that we must prioritize him above all else. You know, and it's funny that I said this because here recently I got the opportunity to officiate my first wedding back in May. And I remember standing right here on stage and I remember, you know, reading the pastor in Genesis where, you know, God says that,
Speaker: You were to leave your father and mother and you should go and to you know be with your husband and your wife and make one family. And I looked at the parents and said, y'all hear this, right? And unfortunately for me, i made eye contact I thought I made eye contact with both families, but really one was blocked. So I looked at one family and they took it really personally.
Speaker: And so they thought I was calling them out. But like the reality here though is that there when when we surrender our life to Jesus, it is a radical call of surrendering everything to him.
Speaker: Every ounce of our life to Jesus. This is a great cost. There's a lot of great things in the world, right? There's a lot of great relationships that we have.
Speaker: But at the end of the day, there's only one worthy of truly following and truly worshiping, that is Jesus Christ our Lord, right? So and he goes on there, verse 27, and says, he takes it to another level. it takes it to the next step. Not only just ah not only giving up these things, these relationships, but he says, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So in other words, not only is it a great cost of leaving these things behind and prioritizing Jesus, but he says, your own life.
Speaker: Are you ready and willing to follow Jesus to the point that you are willing to surrender your own life? Okay, y'all remember right now, has Jesus been crucified yet?
Speaker: Hopefully you guys know that he has not been crucified, right? He has not been crucified yet. He's on his way to Jerusalem. He knows what's coming, but he has not been crucified. But yet he's making a reference here to the cross. You see, on this side of the cross, we've like glorified the cross. We wear it around our necks. We wear it on our earrings. As earrings, not me, but some of you guys have cross earrings, things like that. We've glorified it. But yet, back then, for Jesus to make it a comment like this in verse 27, it says, This is a this is a ah call to humiliation.
Speaker: This is a call to of of great of giving up your life in a very humiliating way. Back then when they were crucified, it was the most ah torturous and most humiliating death that you could think of.
Speaker: And so for Jesus to make this statement on top of leaving your family and your wife and your spouse and your children behind, this is like a double whammy for them when they hear this. They're like, whoa, whoa, time out.
Speaker: We just witnessed you do all these great things and and you're you're checking all the boxes to be our Messiah, but now you're saying that we have to lose everything?
Speaker: Not only just lose everything, but then we have to pick up a cross, which we we will ultimately die on? This is a very radical picture here. But yet Jesus says, you're going to follow me, you have to surrender to me. Everything. Everything.
Speaker: So my question to y'all this morning is are y'all really, truly ready to surrender? That's a very sobering question. Because some ah ah some of us, including myself, we don't want to give up some of the things in this world.
Speaker: But yet Jesus demands it of us. So is he is he truly worthy of you submitting your life to? a really big question. But the second thing I want to see here in this passage is that following Jesus demands deliberation.
Speaker: And what we see here in verses 28 through 30 is that Jesus uses two illustrations to get his point across. He uses the the building of a tower and then of a king preparing for war.
Speaker: Right? This idea of preparing a tower, what he says there in these verses is that in order for you to go and build something, do you first, for all of you contractors in the room, which i know there's several of y'all, do y'all not sit down and crunch the numbers and and consider what the cost will be before you go do the project?
Speaker: I hope you do because you need to know exactly what you need order get the project done. If not, you're going to be just like this man who upon not having enough, he would be he would not be able to finish the job and he's goingnna be humiliated by it.
Speaker: So you have to stop and consider the cost. Well, that's what Jesus is pointing these people to right now. He's calling them back, bringing a fresh and humbling perspective to them of like, hey, if you are following me right now, are you truly ready to lose the things that you most enjoy for the sake of me and my kingdom?
Speaker: Because it's going to be required of you. And a lot of these people, if we as you read through the narrative of the New Testament, a lot of these people fade away. They don't commit.
Speaker: They like the idea of Jesus, but they don't want to follow him completely. And then he goes on and uses the idea of this second illustration i preparing for war. And the purpose of this illustration is to emphasize discernment and sacrifice.
Speaker: Are you ready? Are you truly ready to go and commit your life to Jesus knowing that you may not always be victorious? We'll be victorious in the end because Jesus conquers sin, evil, and death on the cross.
Speaker: But there's going to battles. There's going to conversations. There's going to relationships. There's going to be things in this life that we are going to have to surrender and lose and give up and and lose the battle to.
Speaker: And it's not going to be easy.
Speaker: But is it going to be worth it? Absolutely. There's no greater joy than knowing that you are following the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and he will bless you for that.
Speaker: But there will be great sacrifice along the way. Again, so for Jesus, um in order to be a true disciple Jesus, one must consider what is required of them, right?
Speaker: And then the third thing I want us to see is that following Jesus requires sacrifice. So again, the first thing is it it it begins with surrender. The second thing is that it demands deliberation.
Speaker: And the third thing is that requires sacrifice. And we've already talked about this, right? So going back to verse 26 with the demand that Jesus gives us of leaving our family and then ultimately picking up our cross to follow him in verse 27. But here in verse 33, he wraps up these two illustrations and concludes them with this this sentence.
Speaker: So therefore, if any of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. This is like a bookend to what Jesus is trying to portray to these people.
Speaker: In other words, he's looking at me and says, I know it looks really good to follow me right now. But when time when it when when it's time for rubber to meet the road with what the kingdom with what I'm about to bring about with my kingdom, are you truly ready to surrender it all and to follow me?
Speaker: And some of us in this room, there's still things in our life that we're clinging to that is hindering us from truly following Jesus.
Speaker: From truly allowing him to have the reins of our life and to use us to the fullest for his kingdom. Because God desires to bring heaven to earth right now.
Speaker: And the only way that can happen is if we release of the reins and we say, Lord Jesus, take the wheel. Thanks, Carrie Underwood, right?
Speaker: But we need to surrender So therefore, if any of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. And again, just to reiterate, going back to verse 26, 27 also, this is also hyperbolic language, but this is an extreme statement that Jesus is making to make them to consider the cost of following him. And you know what? We see example after example of individuals in scripture who understood what Jesus was saying.
Speaker: The disciples are great examples of this. They literally, when they were called, you remember when Jesus, James and John and Peter were all fishing and they were out there on their boats and Jesus walks out there, he says, hey, I want you to follow me. What'd they do?
Speaker: They dropped their debts. They followed him. Right. But along the way, they learned and they saw the the commitment and the sacrifice and the cost of leaving their families behind, leaving their occupation behind, leaving their their ah ah their their favorite things behind in order to follow Jesus.
Speaker: And they counted it worthy of following Jesus. to the points where every single one of those disciples, except for one, ultimately was martyred for their faith, whether we see in scripture according to church history.
Speaker: They were martyred. They were killed because of their love for Jesus and the commitment that they had to following him as his disciple. Are you ready and willing to do that today?
Speaker: That's a really tough question. If you knew that leaving this building today, that your life was going to be taken for the the cost of following Jesus, would you be willing to leave these doors?
Speaker: Because the reality is there's brothers and sisters all around the world right now who are being persecuted for their faith because of their commitment to following Jesus. But yet they're doing it boldly and unashamedly.
Speaker: What about here in America? Are we ready to do the same thing? Are we truly ready to to to follow Jesus and this and to sacrifice the things that are required of us?
Speaker: And lastly, to wrap up with this fourth and final point, following Jesus results in a distinct life. You know, going back, Jesus, you know, he says in another way, and Luke 9, 23, he says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
Speaker: This whole idea of taking up the cross and following him is that you are dying to yourself and that you're putting on Christ. You're putting on the attributes, the character, the nature, the the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the kindness, the goodness, the gentleness, all the fruits of the spirit of Jesus, and going live it out.
Speaker: Following Jesus results in a distinct life. We live separately from the rest of the world. We live in the world, but we're not of the world, right? We're aliens and sojourners to this place because our citizenship is in heaven. But while we're here, we are not going to blend in. We have to live a distinct life.
Speaker: And that's why Jesus uses the illustration of the salt. You see, salt has key characteristics and and qualities to it. It's only salt if it has those characteristics and qualities.
Speaker: But if it loses those things, what's it good for?
Speaker: Absolutely nothing. You know, in Matthew 5.13, it talks about how it's no longer good for anything. It said, to be thrown out, trampled underfoot by men. Here, Jesus says that it's no longer good for anything. It's not even good for the soil or for the manure pile.
Speaker: Which, you know, in this case, I would rather be good for the manure pile. Right? So there is a distinct life of a believer that we should follow.
Speaker: If one truly wants to follow and to be a disciple of Jesus, he must and be useful for his kingdom. They must produce the character and quality of Jesus. They must surrender their whole life to him. They must love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and love their neighbors as their self. They must consider the cost and the strategy and the deliberation for the kingdom. They must be willing to sacrifice their comforts, their desires, their plans for the sake of Jesus.
Speaker: And when an individual truly produces these character qualities and begins to follow Jesus, then and only then will they become truly disciples.
Speaker: And as I mentioned, we see figures of this. We see example after example of this, whether it's with the disciples, whether it's with the women who follow Jesus, whether it's ah Saul who later become Paul, right? Whether it's the members of the early church, like a guy named Stephen who was ultimately persecuted for his faith because he didn't want to back down despite the pressure
Speaker: We as disciples, there is a distinction that separates us from the rest.
Speaker: And the reality is is that it comes at a great cost. But I'm going to end with this. It comes with a great cost. But with that cost comes great grace.
Speaker: With that cost comes great reward. With that cost comes a great Savior who died on the cross for your sins and who has prepared way for you and who has gone before you and who is now in heaven, who is preparing a place for you if you choose to follow him the way he desires you to follow him.
Speaker: You see, as disciples, we don't do these things just to earn our way into heaven, right? We do these things out of obedience and love for our Savior. So if you truly love Jesus today and you want to follow him, you must consider the cost.
Speaker: It is the hardest and most sacrificial decision you'll ever make in this life to follow Jesus. A lot of people like to paint it as if like it's this most, I mean, like and even I just said it before, right? It's the most glorious decision you'll ever make.
Speaker: But at the same time, it is the hardest decision you'll ever make in your life. because of the cost involved. gonna conclude with this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He wrote a really, really good book I encourage you guys to read if you if you are a reader. it's He wrote a book, The Cost of Discipleship.
Speaker: And this is what he says, discipleship means quite simply, Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. The sole content of discipleship is to follow Christ, is to follow him.
Speaker: if we follow him, we're going to emulate him. Jesus literally gave everything for you and for me. so are you ready to give everything for him, no matter the cost?
Speaker: you Will you pray with me, please? Father, we come before you, Lord, and we just thank you for the cost which you are willing to pay for every single one of us in this room.
Speaker: Not only just us in this room, but in this city, in this state, in this nation, in this world. Father, you knew from the beginning of time when you created humanity that you would have Send your son. You knew the cost of redeeming your creation, but yet you did it anyway. And Jesus, you faithfully committed to it.
Speaker: You faithfully followed to the very end. You understood the cost and yet you still follow through with it. And I pray, Father, that we of those who believe that you are a Lord of our life and that we believe that you are the Messiah, that we will also see and consider the cost and that we'll be willing to to surrender it to you.
Speaker: And Lord, if there's anyone in this room who's never considered the cost, if anyone in this room who's never considered surrendering their life to you, I pray that they will do that today. Yes, the cost is great, but Lord, the reward is so much greater.
Speaker: So Lord, I pray that you'll move, that you'll work in the hearts of the individuals in this room. For those of us who are believers, I pray, God, that you continue to spur in us a fire that is all-consuming that we will follow you with everything that we have.
Speaker: For those who were just baptized this morning, Lord, I pray that they will understand the decision and the cost of proclaiming you as Lord. And God, that they will walk faithfully to the very end.
Speaker: Lord, may you continue to do a good work in our community. May there be revival in this place. Holy Spirit, will you go before us? May we never grow weary of the goodness of God. And may we never grow weary of the call in which we have to go and make disciples of all nations.
Speaker: God, we thank you for your great love. We thank you for your great grace and your goodness. And we just ask these things in Jesus' name.
Speaker: This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.
