Cost of Discipleship
Notes
Transcript
A couple years ago I was a camp counselor, and I loved it but there was this one kid that I was the counselor for and he was probably not the best listener.
On one hand he just talked all the time and wouldn’t listen, but then within the first 24 hours of camp starting I had to break up 2 fights, that involved him
And not just that but then the fire alarm was pulled twice by the same kid, and I remember going what in the world did I gt myself into.
But somthing that was so amazing was on the last day of camp we at the last session and as it was finishing up I was getting all the kids together and I could not find this one kid
And the guy that was speaking comes up to me and goes Brendan is this one of your kids
And in my head I am thinking “oh no… what now”
And instead he said he just told me that he wanted to enter into a relationship with Christ.
And I remember just pausing and thinking wow, how cool is that.
Because this was a kid (where from what I could tell was from a little bit of a rougher background), but this moment potentially was a moment that may have changed his life.
And I dont know what hes up to now and I am sure it was’nt over night but I hop it was a moment where his life began to change
Because its a moment he turned from his old way of life and entered into a relationship with Christ.
And really today what we are doing is we are talking about the point after we accept Christ.
Because when we enter into a relationship with Christ, we begin to follow Him and we enter into this process that we call discipleship.
And if you have been with us we know that this is this place where we are actively learning to become more like Jesus.
Not just leearning about Him, but learning to transfrom our lives to live like Him.
but here is the thing because in any relationship there is a sacrifice isn’t there?
I think we talked about this couple weeks ago how when you have kids it is such a blessing isn’t it?
I mean they are amazing, but they really change your life
Because instead of going to the beach and relaxing you are going to the beach and chasing the kids around
Not just that, but once they start getting into sports you get to go to their games and all of these things are amazing,
But they definitly change your life
And heres the thing because in our relationship with God there are things that change,
and so today we are in Luke 14:25-33 and to be honest this is a tough passage of scripture, because to often it is misinterpreted in a harmful way that is not true to what this passage is saying
Because it talks about the cost of discipleship or really the cost of following Jesus,
The trade off between our old life and our new.
And I have to be clear because entering into a relationship with Christ is a free gift, but then we have to decide do we want that relationship to thrive?
I mean if I want my relationship with my kids I probably am going to their games and am theree for them.
because in order for any relationship to thrive there needs to be sacrafice.
And to often we are not willing to and because of that we walk away from God,
Its never God that walks away from us, but a lot of times we walk away from Him.
And so today we are going to be looking at what the “cost” of following Christ is.
And at first glance this passage is hard, (so dont walk out once I start reading), because once we dive into this passage I think we will begin to understand what the passage is saying. It says this: Luke 13:25-33 and we will just be starting in the first couple verses.
It says this:
25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
So just to set the scene Jesus was with this large crowd of people
And these are probably people that have seen His miracles, they have heard this teaching and they said “yes” I want to follow this guy.
But I imagine Jesus understanding that this group might want to know Him, but also understanding that they are unsure what it takes to follow Him.
And in verse 26 we have Jesus say something that would have been shocking.
And you probably caught on to it right? Because He says if you come to me, you must hate your father, your mothers, wife, children, your brothers, and your sisters
And anyone else read that and go “that doesn’t sound like the Jesus I know?”
And your right in a sense because in the Old Testament one of the most biggest commands was loving those you were related too, honor your father and mother right?
And not just that but love your neighbor
And Jesus takes in a step further telling us to love everyone.
Because Jesus did not come to throw away the law but to fulfill it.
And so you get to this verse and go what?!
Because this violates the law
But what one reason a lot of scholars believe Jesus says this is that at this time your roots were so tied to your family and your families religion that to leave their religion to follow Jesus would have been a big deal.
And this would have potentially been viewed by the family that their child has not just turned their back on the religion, but the family, and potentially their very identity.
And so what Jesus is trying to communicate is not hate your family, but he is saying that when you follow God, He should be your first priority
And thats a hard message, but the thing that we need to know about the charachter of God is He does not call us away from our families,
I mean he may call us to do things that can make things more difficult, but if we believe that Marriage and families are something that God made and that we he joins us together then He is not going to call us to hate our spouse and kids.
Its kind of like where I am from people are Ravens and Washington Commander's fans
And they happily root for both teams, I mean they love both teams but almost every person has a team that is their main team,
So when these teams play they might love both teams, but they are siding with their primary team.
And thats what Jesus is saying that when we compare those things to our walk with God they come second, because our relationship with God is our primary identity
And then our family. (and I want you to notice I am not saying the church is before your family, make sure you put your family before the church, but I am saying God is first)
And when we model Christ in those areas it doesn’t look like saying wow my kids is doing wrong, I am cutting them from the family, But it looks like loving that Child, parent of sybling like Christ did, laying down our life for them.
And I want to be careful because some of us have complicated relationships with our siblings or family
But our identity that we have in Christ should trump our identity as a brother, or child or parent.
And can I just be honest because in our lives we pursue so many different identities.
You might identify with your job
I could say I am a pastor
You might identity as an American
It might be with a political group
It might be with a hobby.
And these things are not bad, but before anything you are a child of God.
And this should make it so whenever these two identies conflict you identity with God comes first.
And that make an impact on everything else.
And whats interesting is what Jesus says next. He says this:
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
You know Jesus uses a few illustrations to basically say if you want to follow me understand how much it cost.
And this part of the passage actually makes sense,
I mean imagine if we did these remodels and we were at the demilition phase and we went oh no we do not have enough money to do anything else.
That would be tough worldn’t it because we would be stuck in demalition and not be able to do the rest,
In stead we looked at what we had and said this is what we can do.
And he is saying we need to understand what God is calling us to do.
I mean I used to have a Honda Civic and when I got my Kia Sorento, I realized there were things I could not do with by Sorento that I could do with my civic.
I couldn’t zip around as easily (which was probably not good anyway)
That was about the only sacrifice…
But when we traded it, there was sacrifice, but the sacrifice was so worth it.
Because Im not sure 3 car seats would fit in a civic
And God might call us to sacrifice, but can I just say those things are so worth it.
And if I had to guess you probably know the areas where maybe your identities conflict,
What would it look like to acknowledge the areas where God is saying this needs to be secondary.
And I just want to close on this, because there is another passage in Matthew 19:16-30 (and I am not going to read it but maybe write it down and read it later)
Because its a story where there was a rich, young ruler that came to Jesus and He asked Jesus what do I need to do to follow you.
And what ends up happening is Jesus understands that for this man his wealth was His issue.
so He goes if you want to follow me, sell everything you own.
Once again God might not call you to do that, but He called this man specifically.
And the man left sad because he had a lot and Jesus’s disciples were sitting their going you asked that guy way to much!
Can really anyone follow you?!
And Jesus responds by saying this with man it is impossible, but with Me it is.
You know whether you have big idols or things in your life or small ones that bad news is you can’t follow Jesus if its just you,
But the good news with Gods you can
Because its not what can I do in my life, but its what can God do with my life.
And when we start their that is what can flip our identity on it head.
This morning as we close Jesus has this beautiful gift of Grace thats free and requires nothing on our end
But so often we sit their for years and might just say this is nice, but God wants us to go deeper into who He is calling us to be.
And it starts by identitfying as a child of God.