["The Star-Spangled Banner"]
Turn to song number 18.
Song number 18.
One, eight, on the first.
Take the name of Jesus with you,
Child of sorrow and reward.
It will joy and comfort give you,
Take it then where you go,
Precious name, oh how sweet.
Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
Precious name, oh how sweet.
Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
Song 18 on the second.
Take the name of Jesus ever,
As a shield from every stair.
If temptations rather gather,
Read that holy name in prayer,
Precious name, oh how sweet.
Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
Precious name, oh how sweet.
Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
For the precious name of Jesus,
How it grills our souls with joy,
When his loving hearts receive us,
And his sons and sons enjoy,
Precious name, oh how sweet.
Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
Precious name, oh how sweet.
Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
Song 19 on the last.
At the name of Jesus' bowing,
Holy cross, state at his feet,
King of kings and life around him,
When our journey is complete,
Precious name, oh how sweet.
Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
Precious name, oh how sweet.
Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
Hope of earth and life around him,
Hope of it all just to be,
That God loves me!
There's the wonder of God's revelation,
The word who dwells amongst men,
But the wonder of wonders that pales my soul,
Is that Jesus is happy again
The wonder of it all, the wonder of it all
Just to be that wonderful thing
The wonder of it all, the wonder of it all
Just to be that wonderful thing
Amen, good singing. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time.
And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you for allowing us to be here today.
Lord, we pray that you'd bless the offering.
Lord, we pray that you would bless the gift and the giver.
And Lord, I pray that you would continue to bless our church, Lord, and meet our financial needs, of course, Lord.
We pray that you'd meet with us as we take time to open up your word once again and study a portion of scripture together.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 14.
Luke chapter 14.
If you do not have a Bible, raise your hand and I shall bring you one.
Luke chapter 14.
This morning we'll read verses 25 to 35 in Luke 14.
Just keep your hands up and I shall bring you a Bible.
Luke chapter 14, verse 25, the Bible reads,
And there went a great multitude with him, and he turned and said unto them,
If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters,
yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost,
whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Blessed, happily, after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it,
all that beholdeth begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.
Or what king, going to make war against another king,
sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand
to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Or else, while the other is yet a great way off,
he sendeth in her passage and desireth conditions of peace.
So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath,
he cannot be my disciple.
Salt is good, but if the salt had lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?
It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Let's pray.
Lord God Almighty, thank you for this day.
Thank you for this opportunity to come together.
Please bless Pastor and the message.
Let it bring glory and honor to you.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
Amen.
All right, we're there in Luke, chapter number 14.
And of course, we've been on a journey with the Lord Jesus Christ,
this series called Journey with Jesus.
And we've been making our way through the Gospel of Luke,
verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through the Gospel of Luke.
And this morning we are here in Luke, chapter 14.
And in verse 25, we'll be finishing the chapter this morning, verses 25 through 35.
And I want you to notice that in this passage of Scripture,
the Lord Jesus Christ speaks on the subject of discipleship.
In Luke 14 and verse 25, the Bible says,
And there went, the Bible says, and there went great multitudes with him.
The him there, of course, is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he turned and said unto them.
I want you to notice that Jesus, at this time in his ministry,
is being followed by great multitudes.
A big crowd is following him.
And the Bible tells us that he turned.
The idea is that Jesus is on a journey.
He's, as we've noticed, on his way to Jerusalem, of course, to die on the cross for our sins.
And these multitudes are following with him on this journey, great multitudes.
And Jesus, the Bible tells us, he turned and said unto them.
I want you to notice the next few verses here that he gives have to do with discipleship.
In verse 26, if you notice the last part of verse 26,
he says, He cannot be my disciple.
And the idea is, and what Jesus is talking about,
what Jesus is teaching on, is reasons why people are not or cannot be his disciple.
There in verse 26, as I already stated, the end of the verse says,
He cannot be my disciple.
If you notice there in verse 27, the end of the verse there,
the Bible says, cannot be my disciple.
And then, of course, if you look at verse 33 there,
the last part of the verse, the Bible says, He cannot be my disciple.
So Jesus gives these three different thoughts regarding discipleship.
And what Jesus teaches is very unpopular, as you're going to see here in a moment.
And I want you to understand that what Jesus is doing is he's looking,
he has turned to this crowd of people.
The Bible calls them a great multitude.
And Jesus is thinning out the crowd, is what he's doing.
Jesus realizes that not everybody who is in the crowd,
not everybody who is in the congregation is fully committed to him.
And Jesus is looking for people that are faithful to him,
not simply fascinated with him.
So Jesus begins to teach on this idea of discipleship
and why it is that the average person in the crowd,
the average person sitting in the congregation,
is not worthy and not able and unable to be a fully committed disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he really is thinning out the crowd.
He is trying to develop these individuals into committed Christians.
And here's something that I think it's good for us to understand just by way of introduction.
And it's good for even me to be reminded of this by the Lord Jesus Christ through this text.
And it is this, that our goal is not and should not be to gather a crowd.
When you think about churches and church life today,
the goal of the average church is to gather as many people as possible to gather a big crowd.
And of course we want our church to grow.
And the reason we want our church to grow is because the more people that come,
the more people that hear the preaching of the word of God and can be impacted, saved, discipled,
we understand that.
But understand this, our goal is not a crowd.
Our goal is a crowd that we can help develop into fully committed disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our goal is not just to reach people for the sake of reaching people.
Of course the goal is to reach people at the gospel of Jesus Christ,
that they might go to heaven.
But then we want to bring them into church that we might help them become fully committed, fully engaged disciples.
And what Jesus is doing when he looks at this crowd,
he explains to them that many of them are not fully engaged.
Many of them are not faithful to him.
Many are simply fascinated with Jesus, not faithful to Jesus.
And he expresses to them that they should really take the time to count the cost regarding discipleship.
I want you to notice that in verse 26 the Bible says, Jesus says,
If any man come to me.
Again, the theme of this text is discipleship.
He's talking about somebody becoming a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not salvation.
Salvation is believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
But this is sanctification.
Becoming a fully engaged follower, a disciple.
He says if any man come to me, and we're going to look at these verses carefully here in a minute.
I'm just going to read through them for now.
He says, And hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters,
yea, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Verse 27, And whosoever does not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
We'll come back to those verses here in a minute.
But I want you to notice here in verse 28, he says,
For which of you, and this is the point that Jesus is making,
He says, Which of you intending, the word intending or intent means to,
The word intending means meaning to, or having the will to, or having a desire to do something.
He says, Which of you intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first,
and, here's our phrase, counteth the cost,
whether he have sufficient, the word sufficient means whether he have enough to finish it.
He says, look, who is going to start a building project,
and begin to build a tower, and not sit down first,
and consider, and count, and reckon whether or not they have enough,
they have sufficient to finish.
You say, why would you want to do that? Here's why, verse 29,
Less happily, the word happily means by chance, he says,
after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it,
all that beholdeth begin to mock him.
That means they make fun of him. Why? Because he looks silly.
He began to build something, but he did not take the time to plan.
He did not take the time to consider whether he had enough money to finish the project.
And the Bible says here, Jesus says that when he's not able to finish it,
all that beholdeth him begin to mock him. Verse 30,
Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
And Jesus is equating this to the Christian life,
again, not salvation, discipleship, actually living practically the Christian life.
And Jesus is saying, look, if you're going to be a follower of me,
if you're going to be a disciple, you must count the cost
and make sure that you're willing to pay the price,
that you have made the choice that you're going to finish it.
He says, otherwise, people will mock.
And they will say, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
By the way, this is why people quit on God all the time.
This is why people begin down the road of discipleship,
down the road of Christianity, again, not salvation,
of walking the life of a Christian, being a follower of Jesus.
They began to build, and they were not able to finish.
Something you'll learn if you end up being one of the people who actually counts the cost
and decides to stay in this thing and live the Christian life,
not for weeks and not for months and not for years, but for decades.
Christian life is measured by decades.
Don't tell me how long you've been serving the Lord for the last 32 days.
I want to know how long you've been serving the Lord for the last 32 years.
And if you decide to become one of these disciples that's in it for the long run,
that's going to get to the end of their life like the apostle Paul,
and say, I've finished my course, you will find that people come and go.
People constantly come and they go, they come and they go.
You say, why is it that people quit on God?
Why is it that people go back to their old habits, back to their old lifestyle,
back to their old sin, back to the way they used to be?
It is because of the fact that they began to build
and never sat down to count the cost and consider,
what is it going to actually cost me to be a fully devoted, engaged disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ?
They did not count the cost, therefore they were not able to finish it.
And people began to mock.
And I'm just here to tell you,
if you start walking down this path of saying,
I'm going to be a Bible-believing, fundamental Baptist Christian,
living for the Lord, reading the Bible, praying, living the separated life,
hey, praise God for it.
But just realize, when you get down this road and then decide,
oh, I should have counted the cost, oh, I'm not willing to do this,
and you quit, there will be those around you.
There will be the co-workers and the neighbors and the family members who will say,
I knew it wasn't real.
I knew it was just a phase.
I knew you weren't going to actually change anything.
I knew it.
Lest, happily, after he had laid the foundation and is not able to finish it,
all that behold it began to mock him,
saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish it.
Notice Jesus gives another example in verse 31.
In verses 28 through 30, he gives the example of counting the cost before you begin to build.
He says, which of you intending to build a tower siteth not down first and counteth the cost,
whether he have sufficient to finish it?
In verses 31 and 32, he talks about counting the cost before you go to war.
He says, or what king, going to make war against another king,
siteth not down first and consulteth?
The word consult means to seek advice or counsel or information.
He says, siteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able,
with tens of thousands, to meet him that cometh against him,
with twenty thousand, or else, while the other is yet a great way off,
he sendeth an embassage.
A messenger sent from an embassy or an ambassador and desireth conditions of peace.
And it's interesting to me that when Jesus looks at this crowd of people following him,
and he says, I don't think you really understand what it means to be a follower of me.
I don't think you really understand what it's going to cost you
to be a follower and a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I really think, before you decide to go forward,
that you should take some time to count the cost, to consider what it will cost you.
And then Jesus gives these two illustrations,
one of building and one of fighting.
It's interesting to me because that's really how you can divide the Christian life.
You say, what is the Christian life?
The Christian life is building and battling.
We are building our lives, we are building our children's lives,
we are building disciples, we are laboring together with God,
building a church for God.
But at the same time that we're building, if you're doing it right, you're also battling.
It's a Christian fight, it's a Christian warfare, it's a spiritual warfare.
So Jesus says, hey, you ought to count the cost before you start building.
Less happily after that he had laid the foundation, he's not able to finish it.
He said, you ought to take some time and count the cost before you start battling.
Unless you quit and surrender halfway through.
So Jesus looks at this crowd and he says, you ought to really consider the cost.
You ought to really consider the cost.
And this morning, I am not the Lord Jesus Christ and obviously he's my Savior and he's my God.
But as his messenger this morning, I would like to speak to this crowd here this morning
and ask you to consider the cost of discipleship.
Consider the cost of what it will actually cost you to be a fully engaged follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'm not trying to get you to quit or I'm not trying to get you to leave,
but I am trying to get you to do what the Lord Jesus Christ was trying to get that crowd
and to consider whether you're serious about this thing of serving Jesus.
Jesus gives three areas in this speech he gives to this crowd.
He highlights three different areas which keep someone from being a disciple
and he says these are the areas that you will need to consider.
These are the areas that you'll need consultation on.
These are the areas that you'll need to count the cost to decide whether you are able to be a follower, a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me quickly this morning give you these three areas as we consider this thought counting the cost of discipleship.
If you're taking notes, and I always encourage you to take notes on the back of your course of the week,
there's a place for you to write down some things if you've not brought a notebook or something to be able to take notes with.
Number one this morning, I'd like you to consider the cost of unparalleled love.
Consider the cost of unparalleled love.
I want you to notice what Jesus says in verse 26. It's kind of a shocking verse.
And Jesus will often, you'll notice through his sermons and through his preaching that he will use shocking language.
He will use hyperbole. He will use exaggerations in order to kind of get people's attention.
And that's what he does here in verse 26 when he says,
If any man come after me, again coming after me is deciding I'm going to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm going to follow the Lord. I'm going to be a disciple.
He says, If any man come to me, notice what he says, and hate.
He says, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters.
Yea, in his own life also, he says, he cannot, he cannot, he cannot, he's disqualified, he's not able to be my disciple.
He says, If you come after me and you hate not father, mother, wife, children, brethren, sisters,
you will realize that you began to build and you were unable to finish.
You will realize that you began to fight and you were unable to win.
You will realize that you failed to count the cause of discipleship.
Now what is it that Jesus could possibly be teaching here?
Let me begin by just making something clear. Let me start by explaining what Jesus was not teaching.
Jesus was not teaching that you need to start hating your family.
I'll make that clear. I think it'll be clear as we look at portions of scripture.
But let me just say this. Go to Matthew chapter 5 if you would.
If you go backwards you have Luke, Mark, Matthew, Matthew 5. Some of you are like,
Ah man! I was going to make that my life verse.
It's not possible that Jesus, in fact it would be hypocritical of the Lord Jesus Christ,
it would be contradictory of the Lord Jesus Christ, to teach a husband to hate his wife.
When the Bible says, you go to Matthew, I'll read to you from Ephesians 5,
husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.
The Bible specifically commands husbands to love their wives.
Titus 2, 4, the Bible says this, that they may teach the young women to be sober to love their husbands.
Not only does the Bible specifically teach husbands love your wives,
but the Bible teaches that women should love their husbands.
There's no way that Jesus is teaching you to hate your wife and hate your husband and hate your family.
There's no way that he's teaching you to hate your father and your mother
when there's a very clear command in scripture, Exodus 20 and verse 12,
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
In Ephesians, Paul says, honor thy father and thy mother, for this is the first commandment with promise.
I mean this is one of the commandments that's in the Big Ten, the Ten Commandments.
And it's one of the commandments, the only commandment in the Big Ten where God says,
I've associated a promise and a blessing that if you fail to honor your father and your mother,
God says, I will make sure that your health goes down the drain and I will make sure that you do not live a long life.
People often ask me, what do you do about health?
And you know, we're conscious with health.
My wife and I go on walks and we started this new habit where we are routine,
where we stretch every morning together and we go on walks.
And my wife cooks, you know, of course organic and healthy food.
But you know, I always tell people, my greatest health, you know, concern is making sure that I honor my father and my mother.
Because the Bible says, honor your father and mother.
And he says, hey, thy days may be long upon the earth.
So how could it be that Jesus would teach to hate your father, hate your mother,
when he commands you to honor your father and mother.
And in fact, he says, if you don't, I'll kill you.
How could it be that Jesus says to hate your wife when he tells husbands,
love your wives and then he tells husbands in 1 Peter,
if you don't love your wife, I won't hear your prayers.
How could it be that he's telling you, you're there in Matthew 544.
Notice what he says, Matthew 544, but I say unto you,
Notice what Jesus says, but I say unto you, love your enemies.
How could Jesus teach you to hate your father and mother and wife and children,
brother and sisters, while also teaching you to love your enemies
and bless them that curse you and do good to them that hate you
and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.
I mean, he says, love your enemies.
It's funny to me, sometimes you talk to some man who's struggling,
loving his wife and I'll say, well, the Bible says that you're supposed to love your wife.
I know the Bible says, I'm supposed to love my wife, but I just can't love her.
Well, the Bible says you're supposed to love your neighbors as yourself
and she's your wife, but she's also your neighbor.
In fact, she's the closest neighbor you've got. You've got to love your wife.
If you can't love her because God says to love your wife,
you should at least love her because the Bible says to love your neighbor.
I can't love her as a neighbor either. Well, the Bible says to love your enemies.
So at the very least, you can love your wife as an enemy.
I mean, the point that I'm making is you're not going to get out of this.
God says to love your wife, to love your husband, to love your parents and honor your parents.
The Bible says to love your enemies.
So here's the point that I'm making is Jesus is not teaching to hate your family.
You say, well, what is it that Jesus is teaching?
Well, keep your finger right there in Matthew 5. We're going to come back to it.
And go with me if you would to the book of Genesis, Genesis 29.
Genesis 29, first book in the Bible. It should be fairly easy to find. Genesis 29.
Throughout the Bible, you'll find, and I'll just show you one example of this,
that God will sometimes use this love-love comparison as a love-hate comparison.
In fact, what he does is he uses this love-much and love-less comparison with a love-and-hate comparison.
You say, what are you talking about?
Jesus and the Bible, and this is what Jesus is doing,
will often teach you that sometimes someone may love something so much
that in comparison to that love, everything else looks like hate.
Genesis 29, are you there? Let me give you one example of this.
Genesis 29, verse 30.
And he, this is Jacob, went in also unto Rachel.
Remember, Jacob wanted to marry Rachel, got tricked into marrying Leah, ended up marrying both.
The Bible says, and he went in also unto Rachel
after he was finally able to marry Rachel, who he actually wanted to marry.
The Bible says, and he loved also Rachel.
This was his second wife, but it was the wife that he actually wanted to marry.
He got tricked into marrying Leah. Notice what the Bible says,
and he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel.
Notice what the Bible says, more than Leah.
Okay, so did Jacob love Leah? He did love her, but he loved Rachel more than Leah.
In fact, he loved Rachel so much more than Leah, the Bible tells us,
if you finish the verse, and served with him yet seven other years.
He served seven years for Rachel, got tricked into marrying Leah,
then he served another seven years for Rachel,
and then within those seven years, the Bible says that the time just flew by
because his love was so great for her.
Here we're told that Rachel, he loved also Rachel more than Leah.
Notice verse 31, and when the Lord saw that Leah was, notice what it says, hated.
Now, did Jacob hate Leah? Jacob didn't hate Leah.
He had children with Leah. He took care of Leah.
I think he liked Leah.
I mean, we see that he has affection for Leah throughout the Bible,
but here the Bible says, when the Lord saw that Leah was hated,
he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
And what I'm showing you is this, that in the Bible,
God will often use these words to describe.
It wasn't that he hated Leah, it's that he loved Rachel so much
that his love for Rachel, in comparison for his love for Leah,
you would think that he hated Leah.
And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated,
this is the same idea that we see,
go back to Matthew, if you would, Matthew chapter 10 this time.
In Luke 14, when Jesus says,
If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and his wife and children and brother and sisters,
he cannot be my disciple,
the parallel teaching to this in Matthew puts it this way.
Matthew 10 37, notice what it says.
Here is what Jesus was teaching.
What was Jesus not teaching?
He was not teaching that you need to hate your family.
What is it that Jesus was teaching?
Matthew 10 37,
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Jesus was not teaching that you need to hate your family.
I'm sure I've disappointed many of you.
Jesus was teaching that your love for him should be so great
that any other love in comparison would seem like hate.
And here's all I'm telling you,
and some of you need to count the costs,
that your decisions to become a fully committed, fully engaged follower of the Lord Jesus Christ,
your choice to become a Bible-believing Christian that actually reads the Bible,
learns the Bible, understands the Bible, applies the Bible,
and actually lives the Bible out in your life,
that decision will not cause you and should not cause you to hate your family.
But that decision may cause you to make decisions in your life
that your friends and your neighbors and your co-workers
and your family members might look at.
And you might have a mother, you might have a father,
you might have a grown child that looks at you as you begin to make decisions in your life,
changes in your life as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they might look at you and say,
Do you hate us? Do you hate us?
We used to get drunk together. We used to get high together.
And now you're not wanting to do that. Do you hate us?
And the answer would be,
No, I do not hate you, but my love for Jesus surpasses any other love.
My love for the Lord Jesus Christ, my love for the Savior,
is so strong and so pulling that any other love may look like hate in comparison.
See, there's a cost to serving Jesus.
You say, What is the cost?
It is the cost of unparalleled love.
It is the cost of saying, I love you, Jesus.
Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank you for giving me salvation.
I give my heart to you. I give my life to you.
And I will not allow any other love or relationship to come between my love for you.
It doesn't mean that I hate others.
It doesn't mean that I hate other relationships.
But it may mean that if I have to make a choice, I will choose Jesus.
And it may mean that my love for Jesus is so strong
that any other love in comparison may look like hate.
I like to sometimes look at hymns.
Hymns, I feel like they help me understand certain truths from the Bible.
And when I think of this passage, I think of this hymn, I just want to read the words to you.
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.
The words say this.
I'm sorry, not tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. That's a good one too.
But let me read this one.
174. My Jesus, I love thee.
When I think of this passage, when I was studying this passage, these words kept coming to my mind.
My Jesus, I love thee. I know thou art mine.
For thee are the follies of sin, I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus tis now.
I love thee because thou hast first loved me.
And purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree.
I love thee for wearing the thorns on my brow.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus tis now.
I'll love thee in life, I will love thee in death.
And praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath.
And say when the death do lies cold on my brow.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus tis now.
And though you and I may sing this song, and love this song,
unfortunately I believe that the average Christian does not mean the words of those songs.
When we say Jesus, I love thee, I love you more than anything.
There is no unparalleled love. There is no love in my heart that will parallel to the love for you.
And by the way, let me just say this.
When you are fully in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, it'll make you a good husband.
It'll make you a good wife.
It'll make you a good father. It'll make you a good mother.
It'll make you a good son. It'll make you a good daughter.
You can't love Jesus and not love those other individuals and be right in those other relationships.
The relationship with Jesus is not simply in this direction.
The Bible says that we are to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might.
And when you do that, it results in a loving of thy neighbor as thyself.
You cannot have one without the other.
So there's a cost. A cost of discipleship. What is it? The cost of unparalleled love.
Why don't you notice secondly this morning, there's another cost that Jesus brings up if you can make your way to Luke 14.
Keep your place there in Matthew if you would. Luke 14.
Not only do we see the cost of unparalleled love, but I want you to notice that there's a second cost that Jesus wants us to consider
before we begin on the road of discipleship, before you start ordering the materials that you need for the building of the tower,
or ordering the weapons that you'll need for the fight that you're going to fight.
He says, take some time to consider the cost of discipleship.
You say, what is it? Number one, the cost of unparalleled love.
Number two, the cost of unselfish denial.
Notice Luke 14 and verse 26. He says,
If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brother and his sisters,
and if I've not already proven to you that he's not teaching you to hate your family,
he's just teaching you to love him so much that it may seem like you hate your family,
this little phrase should prove that to you. He says,
Yea, remember he's talking about hating, and his own life also.
He says, if any man come to me and hate not his own life also.
Now in Ephesians we're told, and throughout the Bible we're told, that no man yet hated his own flesh.
Everybody loves themselves.
And here Jesus is saying, hey, you need to hate your own life also or you cannot be my disciple.
And then he expounds on that in verse 27. He says,
And whosoever does not bear his cross.
What's a cross? A cross is an instrument of death.
A cross is a tool that would be used to put people to death, to carry out the death penalty.
We've romanticized the cross as Christians, and I'm not opposed to that necessarily.
We sing about the cross, and we love the cross and what it represents,
but you need to understand when Jesus was speaking in Luke 14 to this Jewish audience in the first century,
when he said cross, they thought electric chair.
When he said cross, they thought a gas chamber.
To them, when they had witnessed a cross that they had traveled through the Roman Empire
and maybe seen crosses up on the side of the road,
those were not memorials, those were not places where soldiers died and crosses were placed,
those were not places of worship like they are for you and I.
When they went down the road and they saw crosses along the road,
there were people hanging on those crosses.
There were people dying on those crosses.
There were thieves and murderers and criminals that had been given the death penalty,
being put to death on those crosses.
So when Jesus says, And whosoever doth not bear his cross,
that would be just as intensifying, just as captivating, just as extreme as saying,
And hate not his father and mother and wife and children, brother and sisters.
And whosoever did not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Here's what Jesus is saying. He's saying discipleship will not only cost you unparalleled love,
discipleship will cost you unselfish denial.
To be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, you must be willing to die to self.
The crazy thing about being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ
is that you have to be willing to set up a cross and hang yourself on it.
Paul says, I die daily.
And the reason that the average person in the crowd, Jesus would say,
cannot be a disciple, cannot be a fully committed, engaged follower of the Lord Jesus Christ
is because we often are so unwilling to die.
You've got to ask the question. If somebody says, I'm a disciple. I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I follow the Lord. I'm a Christian. I do Christian stuff.
Okay, well, here's a question for you. When did you die?
When did you die? Go to Romans chapter 6, if you would.
Romans 6, you're there in Luke, John, Acts, Romans. Romans 6.
You say, Pastor, what are you doing? Are you trying to get us to be fully engaged disciples?
No, I'm actually giving you reasons why you may want to consider not being a fully engaged disciple.
Say why? Well, first of all, it's not me. It's Jesus. I'm just telling you what Jesus said.
But like Jesus, I've grown kind of wary of seeing people make it to the halfway mark and then quit.
I'd rather you just count the cost.
I'd rather you just decide, hey, am I fully committed to this thing of following Jesus?
You say, well, what does this mean to die to self? What does it mean to bear your cross?
Let me give you three thoughts quickly. Romans 6, if you would.
Look at verse 6. Knowing this, that our old man, what's your old man?
That's your old life, your old lifestyle, your old matter of life, your old habits, your old addictions.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin.
You say, what does it mean to die to self?
Because we can say, oh, we ought to die to self. I die daily and I'm crucified with Christ and all these things.
But what does that actually practically mean? Here's what it means.
Dying to self means dying to your old sinful lifestyle, to your old man, to your old friend.
You say, do I have to hate my friends? No, they'll start hating you.
Look, just become a Bible-believing Christian. They'll separate from you.
And they'll make statements like this, why do you hate us?
And you'll say, I don't hate you, I just love Jesus.
Dying to self means dying to your sinful lifestyle.
Let me give you another one. Go to Galatians 5.
You're there in Romans, past 1st, 2nd Corinthians, into Galatians, Galatians chapter 5.
Romans, 1st, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Galatians chapter 5.
Dying to self, not only does it mean dying to your sinful lifestyle,
but dying to self means dying to self-gratifying desires.
Galatians 5.24, notice what it says,
And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
You say, pastor, you don't understand, there are things that my flesh desires,
there are lusts and affections, there are things that my flesh wants.
Well, unless you're willing to crucify those things, you might want to count the cost
because that is the cost of discipleship.
Dying to self means dying to your sinful lifestyle.
Dying to self means dying to your self-gratifying desires,
which your self-gratifying desires, by the way, are what led you into your sinful lifestyle.
Go to Galatians 6, look at verse 14.
Galatians 6 and verse 14.
Dying to self means dying to your secular influences,
which probably led you into your self-gratifying desires,
which probably led you into your sinful lifestyle.
See, it all comes back around.
You say, I gotta be willing to die to my secular influences.
What do you mean by that? I mean your friends.
Your friends that are influencing you in the wrong direction.
I'm talking about your siblings, your brother, your sister, your uncle, your aunt,
that are all influencing you in the wrong direction.
You say, am I supposed to walk away from them?
That's my family, that's my family, can I really walk away from them?
Hey, Jesus said, if you don't hate father and mother and sister and brother,
you cannot be my disciple.
Galatians 6, 14, Paul said,
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice what he says, don't miss it.
By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
And here's what I'm telling you,
if you skip church to watch the Super Bowl,
the world is not crucified unto you.
If you skip church to watch the Emmys,
the world is not crucified unto you.
If you put worldly, secular influences before God,
you can't honestly say,
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
That's what a disciple says.
That's what a fully committed, engaged follower of the Lord Jesus Christ says.
And the average person in the crowd cannot say that.
See, you have to die to self if Christ is to live through you.
Paul said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.
Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
That in the life that I now live in the flesh,
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
So we see the cost of discipleship.
You ought to count the cost. You say, what is it?
Well, Jesus tells us it's the cost of unparalleled love.
Jesus tells us it is the cost of unselfish denial.
Let me give you a third one this morning and we'll finish up.
Go back to Luke chapter 14, if you would, verse 33.
You ought to count the cost.
The cost of unparalleled love.
I cannot love anyone more than Jesus.
You say, I love things, I love people more than Jesus.
Then you may be saved, I hope you're saved, but you're not a disciple.
You cannot love yourself.
You have to be willing to put yourself on a cross.
You say, well, there are some things I'm just not willing to give up.
Well, you may be saved, I hope you're saved, but you're not a disciple.
And then thirdly this morning, there's the cost of unmitigated sacrifice.
Notice Luke 14 and verse 33.
So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all.
I love how Jesus puts this.
He says that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Jesus says there should be no relationship.
And then he lists the people that are normally closest to you in a relationship.
Your father, your mother, your sister, your brother.
He says there should be no relationship that you're willing to take over me.
Then he says you should not be willing to take yourself.
You see, he has to do it in this order because for some of you if Jesus said,
walk away from your father, walk away from your mother, you'd be like happy to.
So then he says, okay, well, also kill yourself.
Put yourself on the cross, die daily, become a living sacrifice.
Well, I don't know about that, I really love myself.
Jesus says, I know.
But if you were to pass that test and say, okay, no, I'm willing to sacrifice every relationship,
and I'm even willing to sacrifice myself.
Then Jesus says, okay, well, here's what's left, forsake everything else.
Whosoever he be of you that forsaken not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Jesus says you have to be willing to walk away from it all.
Now please understand this, please get this.
Jesus does not tell you that you need to walk away from it all to be a disciple.
But he does tell you that you have to be willing to walk away from it all to be a disciple.
Unmitigated sacrifice.
That word unmitigated means not mitigated, meaning not softened, not lessened,
unqualified, absolute, without limits.
No disclaimers.
No, no, you're not going to put any borders or limits and say,
well, Jesus, I'm willing to serve you this far.
I'm willing to serve you as long as it costs me this.
If it costs me more than this, I'm not willing to serve you.
He said, no, no, that's not how it works.
He said it's unmitigated.
He said you need to be willing to forsake it all.
You need to be willing to leave it all.
You need to be willing to be done with it all.
You say, why? Go back to Matthew chapter 6, Matthew 6 and verse 24.
Matthew 6, 24.
You say, why do I have to be willing to forsake everything to be a follower of Jesus?
Here's why.
Because when you become a follower of Jesus, Jesus becomes your master.
And the Bible says, Jesus says in Matthew 6, 24,
no man can serve two masters.
For either, don't miss it, remember our hate-love comparison?
For either he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
Notice the love-hate comparison right there.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
You say, what's mammon?
Mammon is material goods, material wealth,
stuff, things, the things that money can buy you.
Here's what Jesus says.
Jesus says, hey, if you're going to be my disciple,
it's going to cost you unparalleled love.
You've got to love me more than you love anything else.
It's going to cost you unselfish denial.
You're going to have to be willing to deny yourself.
Take up the cross and follow me.
He said, it's going to cost you unmitigated sacrifice.
You cannot serve two masters.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
Look, I'm not telling you that God wants you
to get rid of everything or sell everything.
God is not asking you to do that.
God does ask some people to do that.
God is not asking you to do that necessarily,
unless he is.
You know, it's between you and God.
What I'm telling you is that what God wants to know is,
are you willing to?
Go to Luke 18, if you would.
Luke 18.
I'm preaching out of Luke 14.
We've not yet made it to Luke 18.
When we get there, we will deal with the story
in its entirety.
But I just want to point something out for you
as an example.
You see this sometimes throughout the Gospels.
Luke 18, 22.
Now when Jesus heard these things,
he said unto him, yet lack is thou one thing.
This is a man who wants to follow Jesus.
And he's giving Jesus all the right answers.
And Jesus says, okay, he's wrong,
but he's giving Jesus all the right answers.
And Jesus says, okay, well then if that's the case,
then you're only lacking one thing,
yet lack is thou one thing.
What is it?
Sell all that thou has,
and distribute unto the poor.
And thou shall have treasure in heaven.
That's what he says.
And come follow me.
You say, well this is absurd.
Jesus would never ask me to.
I was just reading a story this week
about a missionary.
A young man lived, I don't know,
maybe 100 years ago,
was born into a very wealthy family
and the inheritor of the equivalent
of millions and billions of dollars today
lived in London,
felt the call of God to go to the mission field,
went to China,
decided that it was improper
for a multi-billion dollar heir
to go into the work of God
and chose to give away all of his money
and to rely on the Lord Jesus Christ
upon the mission field.
I'm just here to tell you
that for some people
the question might be asked,
are you willing,
are you willing
to give it all up?
I've learned in ministry,
you young guys that want to go into ministry,
take this however you want to take it.
I'll just be honest with you.
I have found in ministry,
I'm talking about full-time Christian ministry,
pastors, deacons, evangelists,
the guy that just cannot
keep his grip out of the secular work world,
I've just found that God does not bless that.
Now I'm not saying that it's wrong
for people to work a secular job.
For the first three years of this ministry
I worked a secular job because I had to,
but I didn't work a secular job
because I wanted to live in a fancy house.
I worked a secular job
because I wanted to feed my family
and as soon as the ministry allowed me
to have the finances to forsake all,
I forsook all.
You say you don't live in a fancy house.
I know.
You don't drive nice vehicles.
I know.
You're not very impressive.
The things you own are not very impressive.
I know.
And I'm not saying that you need to be willing.
I am saying for you
that want to go into the ministry,
you need to be willing.
In fact, you probably need to.
They want to hurt you to sell everything you have
and go follow Jesus.
You know, in the secular world
they call it burning the bridges.
My wife and I, we often joke about the fact
that as far as ministry is concerned
for Pastor Roger Jimenez,
I have become unemployable.
You say, why does the ministry have to work?
You laugh, but I'm being serious.
You think I can put an application somewhere
and get hired?
You think they can run my name through Google
and I'd get hired?
It's called burning the ships.
It's saying, look, we've crossed the line.
There's a point of no return.
This is either going to work,
Jesus is going to make it work,
or we're going to go down with the ship.
There's no other option.
And I'm just telling you that it seems
like God will often bless
unmitigated sacrifice.
Sacrifice that puts no limits, puts no borders.
You don't come to God
trying to make some contractor say,
well, I'm willing to do this.
If you're willing to do this,
you're going to be in.
And there's no other qualification.
There's no other qualifier.
It just is what it is.
But you know why the average person
will never get there?
Look 1823, look at it.
And when he heard this,
when he heard what?
Yet like is that one thing,
solve all that thou hast,
and distribute unto the poor,
and thou should have treasure in heaven
and when he heard this,
he was very, notice the word,
very sorrowful.
Why was he very sorrowful?
For he was very rich.
Say, pastor, are you telling us
we need to sell everything
and give it to the work of God?
I'm not telling you that.
If you feel led to the Lord of that,
make sure it goes to the very Baptist church.
I'm not telling you that.
What I am telling you
is that if in your heart of hearts
you know that if Jesus of God
were to ask you to sell it all
and follow him,
would you be willing to do it
or would you be very sorrowful
because you're very rich?
Luke 5, if you would.
Luke 5, 11.
And when they,
who's the they?
The they is some of the most famous followers
and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Peter, James, and John.
I mean, the most famous disciples
of Christ are the 12.
And of the 12, the most famous
of the 12 are the three,
Peter, James, and John.
That's the they is being referred to here
in Luke 5, 11.
And when they had brought their ships to land,
by the way, in the context here,
they just made the most money
they'd ever made in their entire lives.
And when they had brought their ships to land,
they forsook all
and followed him.
I'm just here to tell you something.
You may not be a disciple.
You may just be in the crowd.
I'm not mad at you.
There are times
that I feel like I'm in the crowd
and I'm not doing a good job
of following Jesus.
But if you and I are gonna do this,
we may wanna count the costs.
Say, what's the cost, unparalleled love?
What's the cause, unselfish denial?
What's the cause, unmitigated sacrifice?
Go back to Luke chapter 14
and we'll finish up our passage here.
In verses 34 and 35,
Jesus brings up salt.
This is similar to other passages of the gospel
and it seems a little random,
but it's connected to this idea
of counting the costs.
I'll quickly explain these verses and be done.
Verse 34.
He says, salt is good,
but if the salt have lost its savor,
wherewith shall it be seasoned?
Please understand that little statement there.
He says, salt is good.
But the purpose of salt
is to salt things.
And if the salt have lost its savor.
He's saying, if the salt have lost its savor,
where is the salt gonna get salt from?
That's similar to what he said
earlier in the book of Luke.
I preached the whole sermon about it.
When he says, if the light that is in you
be darkness, how great is that darkness?
And what he's saying is,
the purpose of a disciple
is to be the salt of the earth,
but if the salt has lost its savor,
then there's, where of all men most miserable,
there's no hope.
Verse 35, it is neither fit for the land
nor yet for the dunghill,
but men cast it out.
And then he says this,
he that hath ears to hear,
let him hear.
You see, what is it that Jesus is saying
in these two verses?
Here's what he's saying.
The disciple is useful to Jesus.
The disciple is useful to his master.
Only to the extent
in which he is willing to forsake others,
forsake self, and forsake things.
Salt is only good
when it has not lost its savor.
And the Christian
who is not willing to forsake others,
the first Christian
who is not willing to forsake self,
the Christian who is not willing
to forsake things,
has lost his savor.
He says salt is good,
but if the salt has lost its savor,
wherewith shall it be seasoned.
It is neither fit for the land
nor yet for the dunghill,
but men cast it out.
The disciple is useful to his master
to the extent that he is willing
to forsake others, self, and things.
And the disciple,
here's what he's saying.
Please understand this.
Jesus is on his road to Jerusalem.
A great multitude
is following him,
the Bible tells us.
And Jesus at some point turns around,
and says, you know what the problem
with some of you is?
You're fascinated with me,
but you're not faithful to me.
You're curious about the miracles.
You're curious about the parables.
You're curious about casting out demons,
but you're not actually fully committed.
He says, let me talk to you
about counting the costs.
And he speaks to them about
unparalleled love,
and he speaks to them about
unselfish denial,
and he speaks to them about
this to the master
who is unwilling
to forsake others,
self, and things.
So here's a question for you.
Are you willing to forsake
other relationships?
I'm not saying you should hate
your friends and family and neighbors.
I am saying this.
I'm not saying you should hate
your husband or your wife,
your father or your mother.
I am saying this.
If you had to choose between your father,
Jesus and your mother,
Jesus and your sister,
Jesus and your brother,
who would you choose?
You might want to count the cost.
If you had to choose between
Jesus and your pet sin,
who would you choose?
You might want to count the costs.
If you had to choose between
Jesus and the comforts of life,
the things that you own,
do you honestly,
and look, God is not against
you, but you've got to ask the question,
do you own stuff or does stuff own you?
You may want to count the costs
because the disciple is useful
to the master to the extent
that he's willing to forsake others,
self, and things.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you
for this passage of scripture.
I realize it's heavy
and it's what you
taught that crowd in the first century
and it's what you would have
this crowd to learn
in this century.
Lord, I pray you'd help us
to count the costs.
Lord, I pray that people
would not walk out of here saying,
I better quit because I'm not willing,
but I pray that people
would walk out of here saying,
I'm going to quit because
I'm not willing,
I'm going to become willing,
fully committed, fully engaged,
burning the ships,
burning the bridges,
all to Jesus I surrender,
all to him I freely give.
Lord, I pray that you'd help us
to be a church,
not a crowd,
but a church of disciples.
In the matchless name of Christ,
we pray,
Amen.
We're now, Brother Matt,
come up and lead us in a final song.
Before he does that,
let me remind you of a couple of things.
First of all, don't forget
that we have our harvest party
coming up on October 31st
and we have a sign-up sheet
in the foyer for cornbread and desserts.
If you'd like to go by there
and sign up for those things,
please make sure you do that.
Also, if you're part of the homeschool group,
there is a field trip on October 27th.
We would appreciate that.
That'd be a good idea for you.
And then I want to just let you know
about tonight's service.
I want to invite you to be back tonight
at 6 p.m.
And this week, I will be preaching
at a conference in Texas
called the Heritage of the Lord Conference.
It is a conference geared towards
what I would call the second generation Christians,
the kids that grew up in a Christian home.
And I'm going to be preaching there this week.
There's a prayer for me
as I open up God's words there
that God would bless the preaching.
But I will be preaching that sermon
that I'll be preaching there later this week,
Thursday of this week.
I'll be preaching that tonight
to our young people, to our church,
but primarily to our young people here.
So I want to encourage all of you to be here,
but especially if you've got
young people in your home.
You've got children, teenagers,
young people living in your home.
You're going to want to be here.
You're going to want to be here
for the next generation
and preach to the second generation.
And I hope that you will make it back tonight,
6 p.m.
If there's anything we can do for you,
please let us know.
We'll have with Matt come up
and lead us in a final song.
Here's song 174.
174.
174 on the first.
My Jesus, I love Thee,
I know Thou art mine.
For Thee above all ways of sin
I resign.
My gracious Redeemer,
my Saviour, O Thou,
if ever I love Thee,
my Jesus is now.
I love Thee because
at first my name
and at first my part
in the Calvary stream.
I love Thee for wearing
Your arms on the ground.
If ever I love Thee,
my Jesus is now.
I love Thee in life,
I will love Thee in death.
And praise Thee as long as
the wind must be clear.
And save on that death
to my soul on the path.
If ever I love
my Jesus is now.
Sing it out on the last.
In vengeance of glory
and endless delight,
I'll ever adore Thee
with heaven so bright.
I'll sing with the blue
with the warm of my brow.
If ever I love
my Jesus is now.
Amen. Good seeing you. Before we leave, if anybody has questions about salvation,
church membership or baptism, pastor will be at the door.
He'd love to talk to you or direct you to someone who's trained to talk about that.
Ask Brother Matt, would you close the prayer for us?
If you want to be a part of the room, call me.
I'll call you.
If you want to be a part of the room, call me.
I'll call you.
If you want to be a part of the room, call me.
If you want to be a part of the room,
call me.
If you want to be a part of the room,
call me.
If you want to be a part of the room,
call me.
If you want to be a part of the room,
call me.
If you want to be a part of the room,
call me.
If you want to be a part of the room,
call me.
If you want to be a part of the room,
call me.
If you want to be a part of the room,
call me.
If you want to be a part of the room,
call me.