Luke 14:25-33

Intro:

A famour missionary once said: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

What did he mean?

Give what you cannot keeo!

Gain what you cannot lose!

How did it play out for him?

Early Death in the mission feild!

A People group come to know Christ because of Him!

Tonight, let’s consider Jesus’ words on what what a worthwhile life is!

Read the Text, then say the point!

We must hate

Luke 14:25–26 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.

What is Jesus really saying?

Definition of hate

Love less

Abandon Past and Reset Priorities

Not like: Being a Sports fan

I can like the Leafs and other teams, it may not be th epopular route but once they are out of the playoffs I can cheer for another team.

Is like:

Illustration: Marriage - by saying I do to one woman we are we don’t to every other women. Imagine a man who marries and yet goes home every night to have dinner with his mom and dad. What would the woman say?

There is a condition to following Jesus, you cannot have Jesus AND! Jesus alone or no Jesus at all!

What is it we are tempted to love and live for other than Jesus?

Ourselves:

Family - we are supposed to love but not more than Him

Pleasure: Sexual, Food, Productivity.

Power/Influence/Reputation

Money/Possessions

Indiviuality

The call of the Christian is to have one great love!

To LOVE JESUS with all our hearts, minds, soul and strength. To love him wholeheartedly and to love him in a way that makes everything else look like hate.

So Jesus tells us we must hate, but then in vs. 27 he tells us we must suffer!

We must suffer

Luke 14:27 ESV

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Take up Cross:

2 IDEAS:

Suffering and Pain

2. Redemption

Illustration: Lord of the Rings OR Marvel

Why do we love those characters?

They’re awesome

They are funny / likeable

Their Hair (Physique)

They fight for the right things!

They Sacrifice themselves, their lives, and do the hard thing. They live for a greater purpose!

We are all meant to live like that!

To give up things that don’t matter for eternal Heavenly things that matter more than anything else in the World!

It’s interesting here that Jesus refers to taking up and bearing your own cross! We hear this and are reminded of the Cross that Jesus bore, but that hasn’t happened yet in the narrative!

So the cross becomes a suymbol of the Christian life even before it becomes the hope of the Christian life!

The most significant help we have for bearing our cross is the fact that Jesus bore a cross first!

Think of what he left:

Think of what he endured:

Think of what he gained:

The Path of the Cross is humilitation —> Suffering —> GLORY!

What makes bearing our own cross bearable, beholding the only man who didn’t deserve a cross, take it up and suffer for us, that we might share in His glory forever!

So we must suffer, but suffering leads to glory!

We must count

Luke 14:28–33 ESV

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.

Why must we count the cost?

Others are watching, what will they say?

If we cannot handle the cost we ought to find another way.

So What is the cost?

DENOUNCE ALL THE HE HAS

What are you willing to give up for Christ? What are you willing to suffer for him?

Let me tell you about a man who understood this verse in a very personal way.

Ann - married Frb. 5 1812,

Left together on Feb. 19 at age 23

1st baby was a Stillborn

2nd Baby Roger Williams Judson, lived a year and a half and died

3rd baby, Maria Elizabeth Butterworth Judson, lived to the age of 2 and dies

Ann wrote of their second child:

“Our hearts were bound up with this child; we felt he was our earthly all, our only source of innnocent recreation in this heathen land. But God saw it was necessary to remind us of our error, and to strip us of our only little all. O, may it not be in vain that he has done it. May we so improve it that he qill stay his hand and say “It is enough.””

Judson was arrested and throught to be an American spy..

a bamboo pole was put through their legs and lifted up until only his head and shoulders were on the ground every night.

Eventually he was released as the government needed him as a translator.

Shortly after his wife passed away.

in 1834 on April 10 He married his second wife Sarah

She bore him 8 children, 3 of them died as well.

in September of 1845 Sarah died…11 years of marriage.

“This time Adoniram did not descend into the depths of depression as before. He had his children. but even more, his sufferings had disenganged him from hoping for too much in this world. he was learning how to hate his life in this world without bitterness and depression.”

On June 2nd of 1846 Judson married his third wife. Emily

On April 12 of 1850 Judson died at sea. One of his last sentences were: “how few there are who die so hard!”

“The Burmese bible was done, the dictionary was done. Hundreds of converts were leading the church. And today there are about 3,700 congregations of Baptists in Myanmar who trace thier origin to this man’s labor of love.”

Grads, God created you in a unique profund way for works that only you can fulfill!

The way of life is not to follow your heart, to puruse your dreams, no it’s the way of the cross!

Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Christ!

That is the worthy life, that is the purposeful life, this is the fulffilled life!

You were created for one great love! To love Christ! Should we love anything more than him, we will sorely be disappointed!

So remmeber as you move on to this next step in life, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose!”

Let’s Pray!

Abi Stein -

Psalm 4:7 “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.”

Leigha Poortinga -

Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Megan Walker -

Psalm 63:3 “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.”

Marissa Desjardine -

Psalm 73:25 “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.”

Denver Gascho -

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

Jared Boersma -

Titus 2:14 “Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”