Faith & Commitment

Challenges

Life is full of challenging situations. Many come in the context of marriage.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced regarding your marriage?

Is it finding the right partner? Finding the person you are willing to place you faith in and commit to acting like you love them and only them the rest of your life? Related, finding someone who will do the same for you.

Maybe you thought you found the right person only to find out Mr. Right was way wrong. It happens. Many of us have experienced a divorce or bad break up. It hurts. There is no way around it.

And, it can shake your faith in the institution of marriage. Why try again?

When you are married, many situations will challenge and test our faith and commitment to that one person.

Till death do us part. Pretty clear. No obvious out clause. I’m sure you said something similar when you stood at an altar like this with them.

Sara and I were 23 and 24 respectively. We bel’d we were going to live forever, what 20 year old doesn’t. Life was relatively easy up to that point. Why wouldn’t it continue?

Then, grad school, finding a job to start my ministry career, Minot, ND, kids (1, then 2,, then 3), terrible 2s, trouble in the church, death of grandparents, finding a new job, buying and selling a house and moving, the new job didn’t turn out to be as great as advertised, teenagers, bosses and co-workers (pastors) having affairs, shrapnel and the ppl are leaving the church by the droves, teenagers, 1st head pastor job, a very unhealthy church, bad diagnoses, and here we are.

What ever could have possibly go wrong seemed to somewhere along the way. Each of these episodes challenged our faith in each other and the commitment we made to each other. Some worse than others.

But, when times are stressful, things are not going your way, easy becomes hard, better becomes worse, richer becomes poorer, and health becomes sickness; the natural tendency is to circle your wagons and look out for yourself.

I deserve better than this. I know it’s hard on you, too, but I want better.

The problem with this sort of selfishness is it just makes matters worse. It compounds the problems. We have the problems, but a problem comes up between a husband and wife then everything multiplies.

The natural tendency is to become selfish. The un natural, or supernatural thing to do is fight thru the urge to look out for yourself, recommit to being faithful to your spouse, and work thru the problems from a solid marriage foundation.

That’s marriage. We had no idea what was coming when we made those promises. Did you? But, if you meant them, then you adapt and you tackle the issues together and benefit from a good marriage.

What does a good marriage provide for you? Security, Self-confidence, intimacy, peace of mind, a partner to discuss problems and find solutions with, and more.

You think you can do better? Think again. Chasing better than this by chasing someone else will only undermine what you think you want.

Our relationship with Jesus is similar to our relationship w/ our spouse. We had no idea the implications and what would be required of us when we made our commitment to Christ and placed our faith in Him to save us.

Salvation is free. We love free. We love free stuff, something for nothing. Especially, something as valuable as eternal life.

But then, life happens. Trials come along testing our faith and commitment. Will we continue to trust Jesus in all situations even when it gets hard? I mean really hard?

Will we stay true to our commitment to look to only Him what He offers; peace, joy, patience, strength, courage, and the like? Or, will we look elsewhere?

A bottle or a pill?

An affair?

Look inside to muster whatever we can from w/in?

Quit church, quit praying, quit worshiping, quit your Xian friends?

Someone once said, “You don’t have to go to church to be a Xian.” True. Likewise, you don’t ever have to go home to be married. But your marriage won’t be very good.

You don’t have to pray to be a Xian. You don’t have to communicate with your spouse to be married, either. But if you don’t…Communicate. Dialogue. Listen and share your thoughts and feelings. 2-way street.

You can be saved w/out doing any of these religious things we offer around here. You can be married and live separate lives.

But if you do either, your relationships won’t be very good and you won’t enjoy the benefits of a good marriage or a good, close walk with Jesus.

Jesus wants to make that clear to us. Salvation is free. It costs nothing to be saved. But when life begins to happen, your faith is tested, your commitment to Jesus is tested, how will you respond?

If you respond naturally and selfishly, you’ll be on your own to fix your problems.

If you respond supernaturally, you’ll have all the resources of your supernatural relationship w/ Jesus available and Jesus will fix your problems.

What does it cost to have a relationship w/ Jesus like this? Everything.

It cost you nothing to be saved. But to access the full potential of everything Jesus offers saved people costs us everything.

Always remember, Jesus would never ask anything of us He hasn’t already done for us. And His everything He gave up for you is so much more than your everything He’s asking you to give up for Him.

If you’ve been w/ us for the past few weeks you know where we are in Jesus’ 3-year ministry. 2 and a half years in, months away from his crux, He’s meandering and making His way to Jerusalem one last time.

Along the way He is teaching. And this is a section where He has turned His attention toward his disciples who will be allowed into His kingdom and away from the religious leadership who will not.

We will get to heaven. But we still have to live here for now. How do we do that successfully?

2 Tough Qualifications

Luke 14:25–27 NIV

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “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. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Jesus is just laying it out here. No sugar coating.. This is what it costs to be his disciple.

He is not teaching about how to be saved. He is teaching about once you’re saved, what will you discover as you live your life?

How committed are you to X? He was on His way to Jerusalem where He will be crux’d for us. Up to this point it’s been fairly obvious following Jesus along the path would not be as easy a walk in the park.

Along the way He wanted to impress on them the need to consider their resolve to stick with Him no matter how hot it got in their kitchen.

Many will desert Him when faced with their own significant sac. He stood alone in the garden praying b/c the discs fell asleep. And He stood alone in the courtyard under arrest when they all deserted Him.

No one doest this perfectly. Peter, a saved man, was not prepared to stand w/ Jesus in His greatest moment of need. But Peter did grow into it. That night, faced w/ his own arrest and execution he folded like a cheap tent.

Later in life, he stood firm and took his arrest and crux like the follower of X he professed to be.

There are consequences to being a believer in a hostile, anti-Xian environment. So, how should we followers respond to the hostility?

Jesus gave 2 qualifications to being a follower of His. Both are tough to process. The first has to do with making our relationship w/ Him a higher priority than any other relationship we have.

“Hate” the ppl closest to you.

“Hate” here in the Greek. There is not a good English equivalent. We associate hate w/ a strong, negative emotion. Clearly, Jesus is not saying this.

Hate in this case is much less about emotion, and much more about choosing to prioritize this relationship over every other relationship in loyalty, authority, and importance.

In Malachi 1 and Romans 9 the bible says God loved Jacob but hated Esau. God did not hate Esau in the sense he had a strong negative emotional response to him. He simply chose Jacob over Esau to establish his covenant with. He did not choose Esau.

Emotionally he loved Esau. But volitionally, He chose Jacob to fulfill his promise to bless the world thru.

When Jesus wants us to ‘hate’ the ppl around us, He is saying He wants us to submit to His authority over theirs. Obey Him over them when their is a contradiction in requests.

If we are unwilling to reject all other authority in our life when push comes to shove, then we are not fulfilling the qualification Jesus set forth here to be his disciple. Reject all other authority and accept Jesus’ authority over anyone else who tries to get you to do what they want you to do that contradicts Jesus’ call on your life.

Deuteronomy 5:16 NIV

“Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Commandment #5 of the Big 10

Romans 13:1–2 NIV

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

Paul was clear that obeying gov’t authority is an act of obedience to X when it does not contradict obedience to X.

There is a place for civil disobedience. But carefully consider what God wants us to do as Xians in taking a stand against our gov’t authority.

Matthew 22:39 NIV

And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Jesus placed great importance on this as His second most important command. So, the question of authority, Jesus’ command includes loving ppl, and obeying the authority figures in our life.

That said, when they contradict, whose authority will you commit to?

The 2nd qualification to be a follower of Jesus has to do with a willingness follow Jesus all the way to your death, if that’s what is called for.

PU your cross, not Jesus’ cross, your own cross, and follow Him where He’s headed.

When the Roman gov’t sentenced someone to die by crux, they were req’d to carry their own cross thru the heart of the city, from the place of sentencing to the place of execution. It was a public admission of guilt. You agreed with the decision that you deserve to die by crux. The entire city was watching and you owned your guilt.

In Jesus’ case, He was innocent. He was given no choice. He was forced to parade like a guilty man. He did so willingly.

Here, Jesus is calling us to be willing to do the same thing. He is calling us to a public display proclaiming X is right, they executed an innocent man. And we are willing to stick to our commitment and follow Him even to our own death.

Jesus willingly gave up His life for you. Are you willing to give up your life for Him?

This is exactly what the religious leaders of the day were unwilling to do.

It’s easy to follow Jesus sitting in a comfortable, a/c’d room, singing songs we like and listening to a preacher we can tolerate. But when we are forced to decide, in the heat of the moment, are we going to remain faithful to Jesus or give in to the urge, what will you do?

The point Jesus is making here is to make Him and His will for your life, His decisions He would make for you, your #1 priority.

Hate, literally, put everything else in submission to this.

In c.1, if a person committed their life to X, they would alienate their entire family. We hear Al Fadi say the same thing today. When he, as a Muslim, placed his faith in X, it cost him every important relationship he had other that that w/ Jesus. He lost his wife, his parents, his friends, everyone.

Now, he since has rebuilt his social life and family life with fellow followers of Jesus. But in that moment, it cost him more that he could have possibly imagined.

To reinforce his point, Jesus next gave 2 illustrations that center around considering the cost to finish before you ever start.

2 Illustrations

Luke 14:28–32 NIV

“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? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ “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? 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.

Being a follower of Jesus involved planning and sacrifice. We may not realize it at first. But these come into focus before long on our journey with Him.

Jesus 1st illustration: Building a tower.

Simple enough. Don’t even start the project unless you’re sure you can afford to finish it.

It would have been a watch tower near a person’s house and vineyard. It was built to protect the property from robbers.

A wise person assesses the expense involved. Sits down, thinks, calculates, income and expense, worth or value of the project. He carefully considers a reasoned assessment. Am I willing to make the necessary sacrifices to finish this tower.

A person can afford their highest priorities. Sometimes we let a lesser priority creep too high on the list. Then, when we can’t do the higher priority we regret paying for the lesser one.

One of the truths that constantly challenge us is, often we cannot afford to buy what what we want b/c we bought what we wanted. We didn’t think ahead that maybe something more important might come along.

A wise person considers all these possibilities. If the project is started, but left unfinished, the person looks like an irresponsible fool. It indicates the commitment may not have been sincere.

When you start building your tower, your spiritual life w/ Jesus, consider the full cost of finishing strong before you ever get started down this road.

Jesus’ 2nd illustration is similar.

A king considering going into battle. Can he win w/ even just half the men of his opponent? Assess the cost of the war before invading and firing the 1st shot. Don’t pick a fight you can’t finish.

If the king has any competence at all, then he will carefully consider what he is capable of. And if he is willing and able to pay whatever it costs to win, sac whatever is necessary, then it’s wise to proceed. Otherwise, send a delegation and negotiate a peace agreement and avoid the cost of the war.

A competent disciple of X will carefully consider the cost of finishing the journey and keep his commitment and remain trusting and faithful to Jesus to provide whatever he needs to finish.

If you don’t want to make these kinds of sacrifices for X, then don’t even start the journey.

But, remember how rewarding the journey will be and what Jesus sac’d for you to even make it possible.

With these illustrations in mind, Jesus gave them one application. He landed their plane for them. Or, at least made the suggestion like I do at the end of every one of my sermons.

1 Application

Luke 14:33 NIV

In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Do you know what “everything” in this verse means in the Greek? Everything. There is no asterisk. No exceptions. No loopholes.

Distance yourself from your materialistic desires and attachments. Be willing to pay everything, whatever you have.

There is no greater possession that Jesus and what following Him offers. But, if we are unwilling to possibly part w/ anything we have then we are saying what we have is more valuable that Him.

Probably the single greatest obstacle to a total commitment to X is materialism. It is hard to willingly offer everything we have. We have amassed the stuff that makes us comfortable. We like it. It make us happy.

But there is risk in giving up what makes us so happy on the hope that what we get inn return will make us happier. Jesus will. But we must let go of what we have to find out.

The point here is we must be willing. Honestly, willing to give up anything. It’s not that Jesus will require it from us. And some of what He does, He will give back. Some He will replace w/ something better.

But to find out what He offers, to receive everything in its greatest potential, we must first be willing to give it all up for Him.

Simple. Is there anything Jesus could ask of you that you are unwilling to give up to Him today? You might want to rethink that.

From here Jesus gives them this warning. If you don’t apply what He’s teaching here, and you lose out on what’s possible, it will cost you more than you realize.

1 Warning

Luke 14:34–35 NIV

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

First of all, He is not saying you will lose your salvation. That would contradict his teaching just a little earlier in the journey.

if you commitment is true and you faith genuine, then you cannot lose your salvation. But, if you give up on Jesus too easily, it may indicate you were not sincere in the commitment you made to X.

Or, it may indicate you have decided to settle for very little of what’s possible in the Xian life. You’ll get into heaven. Your clothes might get singed on the way as you are taken a little too close to the fire for comfort. And along the way you will miss out on what’s possible in this life in terms of power, courage, and ability.

Salt that does not maintain the salt characteristics is worthless. You won’t know it till you need it.

Salt seasons and preserves. It makes things taste better and last longer.

One of the issues in my new diet is I am limited to 1 teaspoon of salt per day. And the biggest issue there is not the salt I put on my food. It’s the salt that comes in the food.

Manufacturers put salt in their products. Salt gives things flavor that makes ppl want to buy it and eat it. Salt in the food at the store makes it shelf-stable. It will last on the grocery store shelf until it’s purchased and last in your pantry until its eaten.

If the salt does neither of these things, then it is worthless and thrown out.

To reject Jesus by being unwilling to perform the qualifications of a disciple which include making Him your highest priority and authority, being willing to publicly proclaim you believe He is Who He says He is and will do what He says He will do, and follow Him all the way to your death. And if you are unwilling to give up everything for Him; then you are sacrificing the wrong things and missing out on what’s possible in a close, personal relationship w/ Him.

Either way it’s a sac. You decide what you want to do w/out.

Carefully consider the cost before you ever start this journey. Well, commit your life to X. Then, as life happens you will discover the extent of the commitment you made.

You will discover the strength of you faith. It will last.

If sincere, you will be able to adapt to whatever life brings at you and you will experience everything Jesus offers to a person who follows him faithfully and obediently all their lives. Till death do they part. Or, at least transition into the next life.

Applications

Authority

When push comes to shove, when someone close to you asks you to do something inconsistent w/ what Jesus has asked you to do, who will you be most loyal to?

Are you prepared to stand w/ Jesus even if it means making your friend mad and maybe even costing you the friendship?

Which relationship will you sac for the other?

Materialism

Is there something you are holding onto so tightly that you refuse to consider giving it up for your relationship w/ Jesus?

There may be nothing wrong with it except you attitude toward it. Jesus may be prying your fingers off it right now. Or, He’s asking you to willingly loosen your grip.

Remember, he may not ask you to give it up. He may just want you to be willing to give it up.

Do an inventory of your stuff. And if there is something you are holding onto too tightly you may want to consider doing something about it.

Relativity

Sac is relative. It still hurts to give stuff up that we want to keep.

But consider the relative truth.

Jesus would never ask you to sacrifice and do for Him what He hasn’t already sac’d and done for you. And whatever He gave up for you is far more valuable than you could ever give up for Him.

The Xian life is a life of sac. The Q is, what are you going to sac and whom for?

Are you going to give up what Jesus want’s from you so you can keep what you or someone else wants for you?

Or, are you going to give up everything else so you can have everything Jesus has for you?

Jesus wants to make that clear to us. Salvation is free. It costs nothing to be saved. But when life begins to happen, your faith is tested, your commitment to Jesus is tested, how will you respond?

If you respond naturally and selfishly, you’ll be on your own to fix your problems.

If you respond supernaturally, you’ll have all the resources of your supernatural relationship w/ Jesus available and Jesus will fix your problems.

What does it cost to have a relationship w/ Jesus like this? Everything.

It cost you nothing to be saved. But to access the full potential of everything Jesus offers saved people costs us everything.

Always remember, Jesus would never ask anything of us He hasn’t already done for us. And His everything He gave up for you is so much more than your everything He’s asking you to give up for Him.