Luke 14:25-35

“Discipleship”

welcome

recap

build a little context

jesus at the end of 9 turned towards jerusalem, he is heading back = from this point he is going to go in deep on discipleship,

read passage

Luke 14:25–35 ESV

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a 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 out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

explain whats happening in this passage…preach it

crowds are following, jesus turns to confront possibly their hearts, motives…

lets them know hate family = put me first…in everything put me first…

jesus is not a salesmen not trying to be, he lets them know right away hey, this is no country club full of amazing luxuries and benefits, this can get rough and tough, so count the cost…

now can you really count the cost if you dont know what something is??

use camera example…= ARRI ALEXA 35 Base Entry Set (LPL, CCM)

Key Features

ALEXA 35 Camera with Base License

ProRes Recording, K445 Texture, 3D LUTs

Upgradeable with Separate Licenses

LPL Mount and PL-to-LPL Adapter

$25,000

$55,590

talk about talking about what discipleship is…2 points

1. Obedience. 

discipleship is obedience fully to christ = break this down…

Listen.  We’ll never know the person of Jesus and we won’t know His plans if we’re not obedient.  Obedience is the key to fulfilling God’s plans for our lives.

2. Reverence. 

Deeply respect him, must be in the posture of worship…worship him and revere him…

We must be obedient and we must be in deep respect of him, and what is that call he has given us as disciples? the great commission.

lets break that down real quick shall we?

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

talk and break this down

point one in this

1. Be convinced of the full authority of Jesus.

break this down. who is telling us this? Jesus the one with ALL authority…

preach it

2. Be committed to follow the assignment of Jesus. 

preach it

mathetes is a disciple, we are mathetes remember its not like todays teacher student relationship, we are to be like the teacher…

so if we are jesus disciples he is the teacher that means we are to be like Jesus, be christ like in every way…

break that down if need be…

how to we disciple? by equipping, and edifying them.

preach it…

3. Be comforted by the faithful assurance of Jesus. 

preach it…

how beautiful and comforting it is to know Jesus lets everyone know i will be with you always…

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

preach it…

when we count the cost it is comforting to know Jesus is with us…

so recapping here today

“Be convinced of my full authority.”

“Be committed to follow my assignment.”

“Be comforted by my faithful assurance.” 

I don’t want discipleship to become a “program” of SHC because discipleship is the purpose of our church. 

It’s not one of our many ministries; it is our ministry mandate. 

It’s for everyone, not just the pastors, and it must start in our hearts and then be fleshed out in our homes. 

Parents are called to make disciples of their children and grandparents are called to disciple grandchildren. 

While decisions for Christ are important, the true metric is how many disciples of Christ we are making. 

Our aim is for everyone to be lovingly following Jesus and intentionally helping others to do the same. 

 We want you to be discipled by someone and for you to disciple someone.

so question

Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ?

What one thing will you do to grow in 2025? “You will not coast into Christ-likeness.” we must be intentional in our walk with christ…

what will you do to be equipped and edified so you can go and equip and edify others?

What is your Bible reading plan and prayer plan for 2025?

What one person will you pour into in 2025? Moses had Joshua, Eli influenced Samuel, Elijah impacted Elisha, Barnabas put his arm around Paul, Priscilla and Aquila discipled Apollos, Paul trained Timothy and Titus, and Jesus discipled the 12 and gave more extensive exhortations to Peter, James and John. 

I love this quote by D.L. Moody, “It is better to train ten people than to do the work of ten people.  But it is harder.”

The group Jesus poured into was small.  It took Him over three years to train 12 people while there were millions in the world at the time.  How could a dozen men be expected to reach all nations with the gospel?  The answer is found in the principle of multiplication.  

 Would you rather have a million dollars every week for a year or one penny for the first week and then double it every week for a year?  At the end of the year, option one would yield 52 million dollars, which is a nice sum, but option two would give you over 22 trillion dollars!

Let’s take this out of dollars and put it into discipleship.  Would it be better to disciple 10 people a year for 30 years or one person every two years, but that person would in turn disciple someone else and that person would disciple someone?  Option one would yield 300 disciples over a lifetime but option two would produce 32,768 disciples.

finish and conclude with prayer and a little on salt…

Luke 14:34–35 ESV

“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

preach it…

lets pray…

HOLY SPIRIT TAKE OVER!!!