God over everything

We talked last week about priorotizing

The kingdom over your other hobbies and intrests

not making excuses- Banquet

now we see Jesus teaching a large crowd

as He is Journeying to Jerusalem

Theme of this teaching is....

devotion to God--- above everything else

Q. do you call it twitter or x ?

Q. Who is your number one follow? Who is your favorite team?

Q. tell me something about them?

now ask yourself ,,,Do I know more about them than I do about God?

Not to shame but to convict.

Luke 14:25–26 NKJV

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “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.

Hard teaching of Jesus...

requirement - to be a disciple

disciple- learner,, student

hate- father, mother, wife,children, brother, sister, self.

Q. does this suprise anyone

(talk about why context is key)

herminutics- study of biblical interpretation…(people place things)

Another Study tool to live by

SCRIPTURE INTERPRETS SCRIPTURE

so- lets look at some other scriptures to help

understand this passage

Exodus 20:12 NKJV

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

you cant honor this commandment and hate your parents.

so we ask ,,,is Jesus telling us to disobey His commandment that He gave moses in exodus?

look for more scriptures

Luke 16:13 (NKJV)

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

do christians hate money , the way we hate murder

no.

we love to make money

but we do not serve money.

the word hate is used in comparrison

God Over Money

in the same way

Jesus is using hate in a comparison

God over your friends, family, and self

your commanded to love your neighbor

yet a true disciple puts Jesus over everybody

The word hate is used to describe a lesser love

And this is hard to do.

Story- mom telling us she struggled with this

showed evidence of salvation

not that she did this well

but that she knew she was struggling

and wanted to obey Christ

accronym

J.esus O.thers Y.ou

Jesus, spouse,kids

Jesus then adds this statement in verse 27

Luke 14:27 NKJV

And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

Q. Do you know what it means to bear your cross...

die to yourself

This means,,,, spiritually die to your worldly self

you are not the most important thing in the universe.

it is to be selfless

putting others in front of you

story- its like this, I wanted to watch football and netflix with Jessica last night.

I put Jesus ahead of what I wanted to do

I put you guys ahead of what I wanted to do

and I finished this sermon.

NOW this carrying your cross meant - death by gruesome crucifixion.

made to carry your instrument of death.

explain crucifixion

Q. So what does Jesus want his disciples to do?

die to yourself by surrendering your life completely.

simplified— Die to self and live for Jesus

its not crazy hard....

one who has died to self is

simply one who is genuinely following Jesus.

and submiting to Him as king

Q. but how many of you would say that your genuinely folllowing Jesus.

I fail everyday... but everyday I am following Him.

Genuinely following Him does not mean

your being a really good person.

It means that you when you stumble

and when you are walking well with Him

you are continually looking to Him for grace.

A Life surrendered to God is a life that seeks after Him

And a surrendered life is a life that has been crucified

paul puts it this way....

Galatians 2:20 NKJV

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

This is the picture of baptism. (explain)

how many of you have been baptized?

1st step of obedience.

Q.Why Would I want to do this?.

the life of sin and punishment for sin gets crucified

with Christ

and you become a new person

born again

your sin is paid for by Jesus

you are raised to new life

and become the righteousness of God

and after dying to yourself

you dont try to follow Jesus

you naturally do because you love Him.

story - what this looked like for me

1st. I had to die to my sin of unbelief and pride

when I asked Him to forgive and save me.

from there I began to live a Life of faith

and we as believers Now must live a life of faith

Faith implies - What He says in His word is truth

Practical example- (who is the most vulgar rapper out there these days)....slim shady

I had to die to the desires of the flesh

by faith

Faith that what God says.... is better than what the world says.

By faith you can pick up your cross and die to yourself

in salvation

and sanctification- (process in which you grow into the image of Christ)

Picking up in verse 28

Luke 14:28–33 NKJV

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—lest, after 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 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? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

This brings us to our final point

Count the cost and recognize the worth of Jesus

so we see Jesus use 2 examples of men counting the cost

1st- counting the cost it would be to build a tower

2nd - cost of war

Israel vs Hamas

Hamas counted the cost and Israel is going to retaliate.

He may have been alluding to the fact that His kingdom includes

building work

and war

Q. Are you ready to build His kingdom

Q. Are you ready to wage this war aginst sin and evil?

What Jesus is telling you today is to count the cost

of surrendering your life to following Him.

But you must also count the cost of rejecting Him.

Q. What are some of the costs that are made in following Jesus?

putting everything else behind God and His word.

moving

being made fun of. character trait of the devil

being disowned

turning away from fun of sin.

enemy target.

Q. What are some of the costs of rejecting Him.

Hell

loss of spiritual blessing

loss of peace in your heart

One of the greatest cost of following Christ

is forsaking all that you have (v 33)

means saying goodbye to

not in absolute

but everything I have is Given to God

^ If He tells me to be a

missionary and leave my mom and dad

or not marry someone because they are not a believer

or put away something that is destroying my life

Psalm 23:1 NKJV

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

this verse is a great example of forsaking all that you have.

like abraham leaving his family and moving to canan

He counted the cost and came to the conclussion

Following God is more worthwhile than everything else that I have.

Peter came to a similar conclusion

John 6:67–68 NKJV

Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Peter saw that Jesus was worth more than anything else the world had to offer

Q.Is this where you are at?

Do you believe that Jesus is worth ,

surrendering all that you have

and all that you are .... to follow Him

not possessionally

but in a spiritually

that all that you have is surrendered to Him.

Example: Bradley -----how I raise Him is surrendered

Example: Money ( I dont Give away all of my money) steward

My way of life is surrendered to Him as I know Him in His word

We close the chapter

Luke 14:34–35 NKJV

“Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? 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!”

This is a warning from becoming a lukewarm Christian

Jesus tells us to count the cost

and then to beware of loosing your effectivness

A christian who is not living a surrendered life

is a christian that has lost His or Her saltiness

Salt is used for preservation

and flavor

christians to the world

preserve it from sin

add the flavor of God

but there are many saltless christians

STATEMENT.one of the leading causes of atheism is a when people confess God with their mouth and deny Him by their actions.

a saltless Christian is one who

looks like satan

acts like satan

but says He belongs to God

He is worthless in the kingdom of God

He has placed a relationship with God at the very bottom

Here is this warning about becoming saltless

and one we should heed, in the light of Grace.

Outro

If this is you,

come back to Him.

make that decision to surrender your life to Jesus

(Preach Grace )

Remember we are not right with God because we are really devoted to Him

Pharisees were the most devoted.

They strive after God in their works

But we strive after God from our hearts

All of the efforts to obey Jesus must come from a place of rest

Rest is knowing that God loves you regardless of performance.

And Knowing He Loves you because of your faith.

from this place we can see where we are falling short

and pray for His help

Q. so.....Is Jesus Above everything else and everyone else?

I can answer that for all of us.

its not perfectly.

His hand is stretched to you everyday

His mercy and forgivness is overflowing

He is for you everyday

He is wanting us to see His worth and follow Him

To see He is better than anything this world has to offer.

After reading these verses,

Lets go through this week

and make a few changes that will show we are putting God first...

again not from works

but from rest

meaning I am going to allign every aspect of my Life with the gospel.

GIVE GOSPEL.

If you have realized today, I am not really a disciple of Christ,

you can repent and make that decision to follow Him today.

PRAY