The Highway and the Hedges
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Forsake All
Forsake All
The great commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart your soul and mind
The great commission: Go into all the word and preach the gospel
Paul says the Gospel is the too good to be true news.
A perspective change
Jesus’ purpose for hanging out with the disciples was to change their perspective
Jesus came to give the religious of those days a new covenant and a new perspective
The Pharisees were so engrossed with carry out God’s judgment on people, they missed God standing right in front of them
19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
The highways and the hedges:
16 Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17 and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ 18 But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’
What excuses are you making for not full-filling the call of God on your life?
Quotes on excuses:
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else -Benjamin Franklin
Excuses are tools of incompetence used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments out of nothingness. -Vernon Brundage Jr.
A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. -John Burroughs
But they all with one accord began to make excuses
The masses find comfort in achieving the ordinary
We have to be the church that strives for great things
9 But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Are you walking in the life that God has prepared for you?
I look at Luke 14 in two ways
3 Things that keep us from full-filling the great commandment and the great commission
Pastor Jordan said it perfectly last week:
Our calling first is to love God
Not just part of the time as what we do it, but it’s first who we are
18 But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’
Something new becomes available
Distractions come available
Sometimes its the blessing you’ve been praying for
We get caught up in what God blesses us with that we become distracted with them rather than Him and what he’s called us to
There’s an adrenaline in starting something new but when the feelings fade where are you left?
A lot of people focus on the feelings of the Holy Sprit and don’t continue in it long enough to receive the fruits of the spirit
Don’t let distraction pull you away from the call of God on your life
Can’t get caught up with wind of doctrine or things that sound good to us that aren’t biblical
13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’
2. His Job got in the way
I gotta work
I upgraded at work, I gotta test this stuff out
18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
What’s on your priority list?
What are your non-negotiable’s when it comes to your job?
What is choking the word out from you
Getting choked out
It’s a slow process
it’s over before you realize it sometimes
20 Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’
3. Relationships took him in the wrong direction
Who are you surrounding yourself with?
Who are the people that you are allowing input into your life?
Talking to a young man in Kelso about his walk with Christ a job or a girl will always come along
33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”
Don’t let your good habits be corrupted by people who want to drag you down to their level
Christ teaches on Discipleship
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
34 “Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? 35 It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Fit for a Dunghill
Current day discipleship looks a lot different than this I would say
We have to forsake everything
Pastor Steven Khoury
What is it costing you?
If it’s nothing I would examine yourself
It’s a life for life exchange
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Dear God, I am a sinner.
I’m sorry for my sin; please forgive me.
I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son
and that He died for my sins
I believe You raised Him back to life.
I want to invite Jesus into my heart
today.
I’m make your Lord of my life
In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.