Luke 14:25-35

Jesus wants total preeminence in our hearts and our lives. We are to love Him above all things, including others and ourselves. To bear the consequences of being a disciple of Christ is to count the cost of what it means for others to hate you.

Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

CS Lewis wrote, no one can be a disciple of Jesus Christ while seeking to live a life of ease and comfort here.
And now why? How can you say that? Because Jesus didn’t live a life of ease and comfort?
Will there be days of ease and comfort? Yes. But will it be a lifestyle of ease and comfort?
No, to bear the cross? It’s my cross and you have your cross.
He said, well, in what context, where do I bear this cross?
If today all of us assuming for a moment, I know it’s not true.
But let’s say all of us are Christians in this room today.
There may be 10% of you that would say, ok, I want to branch out from just being a Christian.
I’m going to heaven. I got that part down. I want to make a difference in this world.
You are saying, sign me up, I wanna be a disciple.
God will call you and you specifically to be a follower of His, wherever you, wherever you’re at, whatever occupation or calling you’re in and here’s what it is.
God says this and you say it, God does this and you do it.
It’s a, it’s a life that my will is sacrificed. His will is exalted.
Jeremiah 29 13 says, you will seek me and find me.
When, when that’s a condition you’ll seek me and you’ll find me.
Only after or when you have searched for me with all of your heart. I will be found by you.
Says the Lord. Wow, that’s conditional.
Who finds the Lord in the depths of what God wants to say, speak and do only those who will pursue him.
A Christian can live a life. In fact, I’ll give you an example. Check this out.
This is pretty cool. Think of the thief on the cross. Was he baptized? No.
Um Did he lead anybody to Christ? No. Did he serve in any ministry?
No, didn’t Jesus say to him today you’ll be with me in paradise. Yes.
Was the guy saved. He was saved because he became a Christian and moments after he dies, he was never a disciple.
How do you know? Because Jesus said in Matthew chapter 28 we’ll look at it next week.
Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.
You go do that. The man didn’t go do that. A lot of people don’t go do that.
You don’t have to go do exactly that.
But you can be a Christian, be going to heaven and never be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here’s my prayer that those who attend this church would be the ones who would say, I want to be a disciple.
Jesus would say right on. But count the cost. And that’s what this message is all about.
Look at this thirdly, it’s this by laying a foundation of love, this love for Him constrains us.
The Bible says in second Corinthians 5 14 for the love of Christ constrains or compels us.
This is a tremendous statement because if we really love God, Jesus is saying right here, right now, you pick up the cross and you come and follow me or she can’t be my disciples, man.
I can’t do that on my own. But this is what it means.
This love for Him constrains us and it means this, that you what you and I do for Christ, we need to be compelled uh allow it in your mind to look like this uh putting on a jet pack or a propeller or getting a, you’re having some sort of propulsion system because God sent his son to the cross to die for you.
And I, he paved the way for you and I to go to heaven that the world can be saved through Christ Jesus.
And what he did. Number one, I accept that message. I’m a Christian.
Now, number two, I choose now that I desire to get that word out to the world.
Also, I want to be part of this.
I want to tell people that drive that constraining is the Lord’s love.
Understanding. He loves me so much church. I hope all of you could say God loves me so much.
He’s crazy about me. The Christian knows this. Look, we know we’re not perfect.
We know we fail. We know that we can be an absolute stinker but we love him.
Why do we love him? Because he first loved who us?
When you realize, oh my goodness, he loved me so much. He died on the cross for me.
When that truth latches on to you and you can’t get away from it.
It compels you and you have to tell people or you have to give money or spend time or get on your knees or whatever it is to get the word out.
Why do you do that? Why do you do that?
Why do you have, what do you pay for this thing or go do that or pray like that?
You know what you say to your friends who question you? I can’t stop myself.
I’ve got to get people to know or at least to hear the good news. That’s a disciple.
You see how there’s some Christians who do that and some who don’t do that.
Some are disciples and some are not. Does God want all of us to be disciples?
Of course. But history, church history, the Bible teaches not all will choose to do that and that’s quite shocking to some people, but true.
Nonetheless. Point number two. And we’re only going to go to the second point. We have four points.
We’ll only do this point today.
Second point how Jesus Christ builds a church is by asking for a commitment, by asking for a commitment versus 28 to 30.
This cracks me up. Everybody, listen, everyone can ask of us a commitment, think about it.
But have God ask us for a commitment and we get all goofy.
Well, you know, that’s kind of legalistic. I don’t know. I’ll have to pray about it. Really?
Did you pray about getting cable TV? She ever do anything?
Did you sign a contract of commitment? Do you have a credit card? Whoa, unto you?
No, I’m kidding. Do you have a credit card when you sign that credit card?
Did you see there was like three sheets of paper and incredibly fine print so small that you can’t even read it and the attorneys made sure you couldn’t read it.
It was such a fine print. Why? Because if you read it, you wouldn’t sign for the credit card.
Have you ever had a surgery or a procedure that’s kind of serious?
And the doctor comes in and they say, well, you sign this, what is this?
Well, this is, this says that you have a, will you sign a commitment? You buy a house?
Have you bought a car sign here?
You’re making a commitment, husbands and wives to be, come down this aisle right here. He stands there.
She comes down, everybody’s happy. It’s all cool. They come up and I say things like this.
Are you ready today to make this commitment to this man for the rest of your life until death?
Do you part? A? She will say yes.
Either she has counted the cost and made the decision or she doesn’t have a clue of what I’m talking about.
She doesn’t know what it means. I said commitment, commitment.
Now, service weddings can only be so long. I wish they could be longer.
But here’s what I’d really say. Are you ready today, sir?
To make this commitment to this woman for the rest of your life? Yes, I do. I’m not done yet.
Hang on. Listen, I’m not done yet.
Are you ready from this moment on to take care of her? Oh, I am.
I, you bet you I not done yet. Are you ready from this moment further?
As you make this commitment to be her husband to mop up after her after she throws up because she has the flu.
Are you ready to clean up the house when she’s so sick?
Or she’s on a business trip?
And your little kid has been going to the bathroom all over the place and pulling, burning the cat and all the stuff that goes on.
Are you willing to, you see that’s real life?
Are you willing to love her when you’re not sure where she’s at regarding you?
Are you willing to stay committed to this relationship for the rest of your life? Because God has witnessed?
Are you willing to do that? You think, man? You do?
Listen, that’s why we go through premarital counseling before we marry anybody. We try to talk them out of it.
No, I’m kidding. But we tell them everything, we tell them everything.
We tell them about finances, about commitments, about sex, about everything. What does the Bible say about this?
It’s all there commitment most of the time, we don’t bat an eye now I’ll commit to that.
Ok? Hang on if we can commit to mastercard and that husband or that wife Jesus is saying this, that’s fine.
But your commitment to those things need to look like hatred for those things regarding in relation to your commitment to me, your commitment to me should be so completely total, so absolute as a disciple that your commitment to anything else looks like a joke.
He’s not saying to not be committed to them.
He’s saying your devotion to me and commitment to me should be so great.
So commitment. Yes, it requires devotion. Will you jot that down devotion?
See, when you’re really truly from the heart, committed to somebody devotion, you don’t have to say now in this relationship, you really need to be devoted to him and you really need to be devoted to her, you guys and that comes with love.
You don’t look it up. Let me see if he loves me things that should be. Hm.
He’s kind of lacking in the devotion to me department.
If, if he really loves you, it’s not gonna be lacking. Ok?
If you really love God, devotion to him is not gonna be lacking. If you’re gonna be a disciple.
He says in verses 28 and 29 for which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost.
Whether it has, he has enough to finish it, verse 29 less after he has laid the foundation, he’s not able to finish it.
What’s Jesus saying? He’s saying, listen, you guys wanna come, do you wanna come and follow me on the path that I’m on, then you need to cut the cost.
Because if you make this commitment to be a disciple, you need to know that’s gonna be tough and you need to think it through.
It’s, it’s not something half hearted.
Basically, he’s saying, if you’re going to enroll in my class, you’ll need to know what you’re getting yourself into before you sign up.
I like that. Don’t you love the, the practical ness of the Bible?
Jesus saying, hey, count the cost before you come and follow me. That’s powerful.
You’re listening to real life with Pastor Jack Hibbs, you know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series.
Just go to Jack Hibbs dot com. That’s Jack Hibbs dot com.
And for now let’s get back to our teaching.
Once again, here’s pastor Jack Commitment also requires dedication.
Then all who see it like at the end of verse 29 then all who see it begin to mock him saying, verse 30 this man began to build and he was not able to finish it.
Dedication. Jesus is saying, be dedicated.
Don’t embark upon following me and not going through with it. Dedication sounds scary.
It sounds serious and it is. But my friends listen for those of you who have determined in your heart.
I know it’s a small percentage. Look, let’s be honest.
Statistically small percentage of people, there’s, there’s a a great multitude that are Christians.
Then there’s a smaller group that are committed and there’s even a smaller group that are disciples in any given church anywhere around the world predominantly.
So, somewhere between 8 to 10% of those in attendance tithe.
But what you don’t realize is that 5 to 7% of those serve, think of that.
It’s the 5 to 7% that serve that make church happen for the remainder.
It’s, it’s traditionally the 10% that makes church happen in totality.
Does that mean the 90% are not Christians? No, it just means that the 90% are not disciples.
A disciple says, God, how can I do this? You’ve done so much for me.
God, I can’t contain myself. How can I do this? What can I do? God tell me what to do.
That’s what a disciple does. Why?
Because he’s dedicated and he’s not dedicated because his parents told him to be or his pastor beat him up.
He’s dedicated because of love. I have got to do this thing.
I remember when God began to call my, call me to be to be used by him.
And I’m hesitating because I’m thinking my goodness, this so predates ever this church happening or me being a pastor.
I remember being a Christian being so excited that I got saved and then going nuts about what I wanted to do about that.
I remember going to school and all this stuff because God, what do you want to do with me?
I remember the day. I can almost remember the time of the day when I said, Lord, I can’t live like this anymore.
I can’t take it. You have got to show me what you want me to do with my life.
He said, well, what, what are you doing? Sitting around sucking your thumb, what were you doing?
I was working. I had, I had a wife, an apartment, I had a job but there was something down deep inside where the Lord was saying, will you come, will you come with me?
And I didn’t know what it was. I had no idea. He didn’t tell me a word.
He didn’t show me a thing, but I could not stand being in the place that I was, it was ok to be a Christian, but there had to be more.
And maybe for a few of you today, you know what I’m talking about?
Dedication to this commitment thirdly and we’ll end in this, this consideration.
Your second point third illustration, a commitment requires delight and I love this. This is a good place to end.
Why does this man in the parable fail? He doesn’t count the cost.
He embarks upon the building of a tower and he fails. Why? Because he had a lack of devotion.
He had a lack of dedication and he had interestingly enough, a lack of delight. Say what?
Yeah, listen to this. The word is pretty awesome to delight.
For example, the Bible says in Psalm 37 4, delight yourself in the Lord.
Listen and he’ll give you the desires of your heart.
Verse five says, commit your ways to the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass.
Say pastor. That’s a great verse. I want that verse hang on at Psalm 37 4.
The word delight means to be soft or pliable, Moldable to be Shap able to delight, means to be one that can be shaped, only listen only after being broken, only after being torn down and re applied.
So wait, delight yourself in the Lord. Doesn’t that just sound kind of go. My goodness. Ok.
Where do I? I’ll sign up for that.
Delight myself in the Lord because he’ll give me the desires of my heart. That’s awesome.
I mean, come on, give me the desires of my heart. It’s never gonna happen.
That’s not what it means. Delight.
Become a piece of clay in the hands of God to have him throw you on the wheel, spin you around, throw more water on it.
Mold in shape. Slap that clay around slop it down again and begin to shape and mold.
Because as he shapes and molds and carves it and slaps and then he remakes it.
We’ve all had little fourth grade clay class, right? Remember that?
Remember we all made Estray because we couldn’t make anything else.
He’s molding and shaping and the more that that clay yields to the potter, the more that you the business woman, the businessman, the housewife, the house, dad, the teacher, the fireman, the whoever you are, the more you say, Lord do with me as you want, you know what you’re doing.
You’re on mold me, shape me, God, whatever you wanna do shape me cause me to be pliable.
Ah God says you, you I shall grant unto you the desires of your heart.
There’s nothing self centered about it because you have been so molded and so shaped and so massaged stretched, pulled, slapped, crushed by the issues of life that God’s been working in you that now, God can do something with you because he can shape you into what He wants.
And that delight causes there to be things in your heart and mind that have been put there by God.
Imagine the clay spinning around and God puts a little thing on it a little mm, whatever God put it on you or God put it in you and you want that thing.
You see. Oh God, I want, oh I want this thing. God, I want to do that.
I want the other and he’s laughing because he’s the one who put it there. You want it so bad.
But he’s the one that put it there. You delight yourself in the Lord.
He’ll give you the desires of your heart because the desires of your heart are there because you’ve delighted in the Lord.
He’s amazing. Anybody listening to this, you’re up for quiet.
And so and so, Psalm 112 says verse one, praise the Lord.
It says happy will be the man who fears the Lord who delights great Lena’s commandments.
The Christian reads that the recreational Christian I column.
He reads that and says, that’s weird to me. I don’t know. That’s a weird verse dude.
Strange way because the word commandments freaks me out. Sounds heavy.
But then it says happy is the guy who does this stuff delights great Lena come.
I don’t get it. The disciple says, Lord, I got to know this Lord, I see your commandments as an incredible instruction from you.
So how, how does this happen in my life?
And you take psalm 1 12 verse one and you begin to pray like this dear Lord God.
I thank you. First of all, I praise you for saving my soul from hell and putting a big stamp on my back.
Heaven bound. Thank you Lord.
Now that that’s settled, lord, I want to be one who fears you.
I wanna be one who’s in total awe of you. That’s what that word means.
Oh wow, God. OK. What else?
God, I want to be one who delights greatly in your commandments. Show me that, teach me how that goes.
That’s the life of the disciple. So we end this with this.
You guys, Jesus is not turning to the crowd and going boo, get out of here.
All you’re doing is eating my fish and eating my bread.
And he’s not saying that he turns to the vast multitude and he says, hey, you sure you want to walk with me.
I’m going to Jerusalem. I’m going to die there.
I’m gonna be risen from the dead.
It’s going to be the greatest news the world has ever heard because they will find out that I’m going to go die for their sins on the cross.
Man can get to heaven. But what I’m gonna do for them because I love them.
But here’s the thing. Are you sure you want to come with me.
Because those who believe in that message are going to want to tell the world.
And some days after my resurrection, I’m going to say to them go ye therefore into all the world and preach this message, make disciples spread the good news.
The only thing is to get it out beyond the borders of this city is if people become disciples, there are no such thing as making disciples in other countries unless there’s disciples that are sent.
And so church for us today, Jesus is saying, are you Christian? That’s great.
But in addition to does anyone want to help me get the word out then come on and walk with me.
But you better count the cost because it’s not easy. And people respond to that.
I pray today that each and every one of us would just stop and say, Lord, where am I with you?
Am I going to heaven? That’s ok. Great.
But Lord, I have this little tug on my heart to be reckless for you.
I want to see your word happen in my life.
Pastor and bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called how Jesus builds a church.
Part one. Thanks for being with us today.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Gospel of Luke A series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
What can people on earth expect during the last days in all the chaos that the Bible predicts several events stand out as truly extraordinary.
Now, what are these events and what makes them so significant in Pastor Jack’s current resource called 15 Future Events that will shake the world by Ed Heinen.
He gives us a clear overview of how certain events unfold and what they mean to us. Bible.
Prophecy is not meant to scare us.
It’s meant to prepare us God’s word, assures us that he is, is in control when all seems out of control here on earth.
What God has to say about the future reminds us to keep watching and to be ready for the Lord’s imminent return.
God’s Bible. The book that you probably have at home is able to tell you about the future.
That’s the God that we serve is a God who knows the future 15 future events that will shake the world by Ed Heinen.
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