Well, if you would open your Bibles. Am I on? Am I on? I'm on. Okay. Open your Bibles to Luke, the book of Luke. We're going to be in Luke chapter 14. This is a passage that God has been working in my life. And I will just say that when I'm preaching up here, if you feel like you're getting beat up a little bit, Just know that that beating's probably as much for me as anybody else here. In fact, it kind of reminds me of a story I heard about a young, about a pastor who found a young man standing in his, in the foyer of his church, a young man about seven years old, staring up at a large plaque on the wall. And on the plaque, there were, it was covered with names, these little brass, plates with names and there were some small American flags were mounted on either side of it and so this little seven-year-old boy had been staring at that plaque for some time so this pastor came and walked up to him stood beside him and said quietly good morning Alex and good morning pastor replied Alex and still focusing on that plaque reading these names and finally he quietly asked pastor what is this the pastor thought, and then he responded, he said, well, son, it's a memorial to all the men and women who have died in the service. And soberly they stood together, staring at this large plaque, and little Alex's voice was barely audible when he finally managed to ask, was it the 11 a.m. service or the 2 p.m. service? I hope my messages aren't that rough. This is another passage from God's Word that is a little hard. In fact, it's included in that list of hard sayings of Jesus. There's a popular adage that has been regularly applied to the person of Jesus that he comforts the afflicted and he afflicts the comfortable. This is true of them who walked with him, even in that first century. And it's true for everyone since. Jesus said some things that were and are hard to hear. Even his most devoted followers struggled to follow him. Upon hearing Jesus explain how the disciple would have to eat Jesus and drink His blood to receive eternal life and to truly follow Him as disciples, said, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? In John 6 verse 60. It just reveals to us that while Jesus was gentle, He was not domesticated. He was not subdued by this world. He was without doubt controversial. He was counter-cultural. And 2,000 years later, that has not changed. Yet despite how hard it is to hear and consider some of these hard sayings that he said, Jesus is the Lord. And I've talked about this in here before, that there are only two roles in this world that exist. That of master and servant. And guess how many masters there are? There's truly one. And this master is not seeking to give up his position. He's not ready to retire. He's not going to defer to your judgment. He's the master and then the only roles available to us are servants. So whatever he says, no matter how hard it is to hear, it is our job, our responsibility to follow it. This passage, Luke 14, 25 through 35, 11 verses, I find it defines dedication to the Lord. Jesus defined what true dedication to serving Him looks like. So let's stand together, if you would. I know I've already got you standing a little bit for singing, but we're gonna stand and we're gonna read this passage in full, and then I'm gonna try to get this done before you go to sleep. Says, And there went great multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it? Lest, happily, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that beholdeth it, begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and he was not even able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth consider conditions of peace. So, likewise, whosoever he be of you, that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Salt is good, but if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for even the dunghill, but men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Let's pray. Father, I praise you again for your word. Lord, even these hard sayings, Lord, we may not even see fully with our eyes yet. Some here may not fully understand why this is hard to hear, but Lord, I pray as we peel back the layers of these words and try to understand the depth of what Christ is saying, the depth of our dedication that it's to be, Lord, I pray you'll help us to be challenged, but also encouraged that in your strength, we can accomplish this. Lord, help us to put you in your right place. Lord, help us. keep you preeminent in all things as brother Marty said. I pray you would bless this time of worship as we hear your word preached in Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. The first thing I see in this passage about dedication is that dedication means that we hate our family and our lives. Well, that's hard to think about, isn't it? That's a strange expectation for someone who had already taught his disciples in Luke 6.27 earlier in this book to love your enemies and to do good unto them which hate you. He's saying you should hate your family if you want to be his disciple. Eventually, Jesus' disciple John would write in 1 John 3.15, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. I think Jesus was not fooled by the words he was using. He knew what he was saying when he said that you should hate your brother. That word that he used to say hate, it's translated from the Greek word meseo, a word that means to detest, persecute, and hatred, abhor. So what in the world is Jesus trying to say to us if we know that we're to love our family and to hate someone is murder, what is he trying to say? Well, I think what you may not at first realize is that Jesus has made a correct assumption behind his statement. And that assumption is that there is a conflict between what he wants you to do with your life and what your family may want from your life. There's a conflict there. Jesus does not mean, he's not speaking about a carnal hatred, where you're to be mean and hurtful. He's using hyperbole. He's using exaggerated language to try and illustrate a distance that should be between him and all your other priorities in your life. Jesus, how many roles are there again? Two, which one does Jesus hold? Master. Master is to be preeminent. He's to be above all things in our life, even that of our family. In other words, for the Christian, family cannot become an idol. We're to care for our family. In fact, we're even to provide for them as a demonstration of our faith. 1 Timothy 5.8 says, but if any provide not for his own and especially those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. We're to provide for our family. But we must be willing to leave family and reprioritize our life in ways contrary to the world's system. Not only are we to hate, quote, hate our family, we're to hate our own life too. And he's not talking about I mean, I imagine whenever Jesus commands that we hate our own life, my thought when I read this immediately was drawn to that of a petulant teenage child. Well, I just hate my life. I don't ever get my way. And we didn't eat where I wanted today. And my room is a mess and nobody will clean it up for me. It's not talking about that at all. What he's talking about, and you know this answer, you know this, he's again using this exaggerated language, hyperbole, to illustrate how far our own self-interests and ambitions should be in comparison to the ambition of Jesus Christ in our life. Our dreams, our plans, our, you know, our ambitions, whether they refer to our career, our retirement, our vacations, whatever it is, they should all, in comparison to the interests of Christ, fall far below everything else. They should all fall far below Christ. Consider the example of Paul. Brother Marty read from Philippians 3 this afternoon, and at the beginning of that chapter, if you go, Paul lists all of his accomplishments and the things that were once valuable to him. And you know what he says about all those things at the end? What does he say? I count them but dung. I count them but dung. he had a reprioritization of all his priorities. What was important to him changed. All the stuff that he had valued that had been his identity was now dung. Let me ask you a question. When y'all go on vacation, how many of y'all like going on vacation? I like doing it. Especially when somebody else pays for it, that's great. It hadn't happened many times. Anyway, I better not talk like that. I love to go on vacation. I love to spend time with my family, get away, get to explore, see some new things. We always take things that are valuable to us, right? When we go on vacation, I take my kids. Believe it or not, they're valuable to me. They drive us right up the wall, but they're valuable. We take cameras so we can take pictures. We take things that help us sustain us. How many of y'all take, how many of you take your, You're number two with you. No, you want to leave that behind, don't you? Yeah, you don't want to spend any more time with that than you should. You want to get rid of it. You want to forget that it happened. What Paul is saying is that all those things that had been important in his life, that had been valuable, that had been his source of identity in his life, in Philippians chapter three, he's saying all that stuff, I'd rather forget it. Because I want to know Christ. I want him to be so far as number one in my life, that everything else is forsakable. I'll just flush it down and forget about it. You understand the kind of exaggerated language that Jesus is using and that Paul was using, it's to challenge our fleshly desire to pursue our own interests and ambitions. We should hate our family and our lives also. Second thing I see in this passage is that dedication means that we bear our own cross. Verse 27, he says, whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. This is familiar to you. It's familiar to me. He said this before. He said it in Luke 9.23. He also said it in Mark 8.34. And he's saying that anyone who follows Christ should take up his cross. And this thing that he was saying to his disciples, you know, we don't have a lot of, firsthand knowledge with taking up a cross, okay? Even those of us who have been in church our whole lives, we've studied the cross, we've seen the passion of the Christ, we've seen people give lessons and teachings about the anguish of the cross, and then of course, the theological implications of the cross. I mean, we've studied this thing, right? Have you ever seen anybody crucified in real life? No, but these guys had, or they may have. It would have been a real threat to their life. I do not fear that I'm gonna get crucified in 2023 America. That's not a fear of mine. I can tell you that if it was something I had to be afraid of, I'd be terrified that I could be crucified because it's not a small thing. It's a horrible, horrendous way to die. Jesus said, hey, if you're not willing to die this way, to sacrifice it all, to suffer to the greatest degree, you can't be my disciple. It's pretty hard language. Jesus said this and then he lived it out. He is our ultimate example. He's the ultimate example of dedication. He's the ultimate example of dedication and of self-denial when he went up to the cross. He's the ultimate example. And in case you wonder whether it means real suffering or not, it means real suffering. It means we should be prepared to suffer for our Lord. And think about how he words this, how he says this. Again, he says that if you're not willing to bear your own cross, to suffer greatly if necessary, then you can't be my disciple. That means that cross carrying, or at least the willingness to carry the cross is essential to being a true disciple of Christ, an obedient disciple of Christ. The third thing, some of y'all are starting to wane a little bit. The third thing I see is that dedication means that we count the cost. In the next several verses, Jesus moves from his hard sayings to hard things that require some thought. Counting the cost means considering what the Lord's require of you so you don't turn away when it's time to pay up. You know, we just agreed as a church that we're gonna send $12,000 to these men in Panama to help them purchase vehicles so they can continue the work and have the energy to do it when they get on the job site and they get there, they won't feel all beat up and they'll be able to rest a little better, hopefully extending the physical abilities they need to accomplish the work that they have to do. That's gonna cost us something. This church is gonna send $12,000 to Panama. And you may think, well, we have $110,000. That's not too bad. Yeah. Do you know what? If nobody's willing to sacrifice and to pay up and to count the cost, then we can't do things like this. If we live our lives, expecting to not have to pay anything to follow the Lord, then we can't keep these buildings on and keep the air conditioning running and keep the PA system on and buy projectors and things like that that give us the opportunity to minister to a wider group of people and to keep our eyes up when we're worshiping. Listen, the work of the Lord does not happen without someone making some sacrifice. And we should be willing to count the cost. Now, he's speaking about looking ahead of what's ahead of you and saying, you know what? I know it's gonna cost me this, and it's gonna cost me this. It may mean I give up a dream. It may mean that I put my career on hold. It may mean that I don't buy that fancy car. It may mean that I don't go on that vacation. But whatever the cost is, I'm willing to sacrifice it for the work of the Lord. He gives a couple examples, the building project. Listen, nobody wants to visit a half-finished tower, okay? Nobody wants to be the guy who built a half-finished tower and be laughed at for it. Jesus requires that we know how following him might change our life and our church. Might mean we send the money to Panama. It might mean we send money to other places in the world. It might mean that we ask for an offering because, hey, we're gonna be buying property and trying to build a building down there. And hey, would you give towards this? It might mean that. Talks about a king's war. King must consider his own resources and the resources of his enemy before calling up even one soldier. So I guess the questions we might ask is, do you have enough to complete the tower or go to war? Will you persevere until the end no matter what? Will you deny yourself and your personal comforts and your desires and your ambitions to serve Him? Will you serve Him no matter what family pressure you feel? Will you endure hardship like a good soldier for the sake of knowing Him? Or will you let those things make you ashamed and turn back and say, I just can't pay it? That's shame. Jesus wept over a young man who did that. He was sad. The point is not to count the cost and turn away if it's too costly. It is to count the cost and to embrace it because it's worth it. The work of the Lord is worth it. So dedication means we are to hate our family, our own lives. Dedication means we bear our own cross. Dedication means we count the cost. Dedication means that we renounce, last thing, all that we have in verse 33. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh, not all that he has. Boy, that's a steep price, isn't it? That's a high commitment. What does it say? You're not willing to forsake all that you have. It says he cannot be my disciple. So to summarize, Jesus requires everything we have to follow him. Your family belongs to Him. Your relationships with your friends and your family, your enemies, whoever, that should belong to Him. Our desires should be turned over to Him. Our ambitions should be turned over to Him. Our very lives should be committed to His service. Our possessions, our everything should be His. None of these things should have a hold on us, only Christ. Paul, when he was in Philippians chapter three, and we could have gone there and read that, but you've read that passage before. And if you haven't, I encourage you to read those first eight verses of Philippians three. What did he say? He said, I count all that stuff, but dung. Did any of that have a hold on him anymore? Nope. No, none of these things should have a hold on us, only Christ. None of it should command our top loyalty. Only Christ should command our top loyalty. None of it should keep us from serving Christ. We must be willing to exchange the whole world for the service of the kingdom of God. You might be sitting here wondering, man, that's pretty high. But why, why should I be even willing to do that? That's a very American question to ask because, hey, all these things that I've listed are things that are dear to us and are at the top of our priority lists. And I'll just give you a simple answer. It's because he's worth it all. Serving him is worth it. Melissa and I, we were called into full-time ministry almost 10 years ago, 2014. Any sacrifice that we've made, leaving family, friends, some we got to spend the week with, a few days with this last week, and really enjoyed our time with them, it was a sacrifice to leave them. And I see that more now maybe than ever, and it hurt to leave friends that were dear to me. that were like brothers, some of them. But it's been worth every sacrifice. And then to kind of close up, Jesus talks about salt. I like this, because it's another illustration. He compares this to salt. He said, salt is good, but if the salt had lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? That salt now is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out. Salt in the ancient world was used as a preservative, and our presence in this world should preserve morality to some degree. should preserve the work of the Lord taking place. Our testimony should be able to lead to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ for people in our life, preserving them for eternity. Preservation should take place. But also, salt in the ancient world was used as currency. In fact, Roman soldiers were often paid in salt. Which is why we have the saying, that dude's not worth his salt. You know what that means. He's not worth a paycheck. Jesus is saying, hey, if you won't do these things, you're not worth your salt. He comforts the afflicted and he afflicts the comfortable. I have one other quote I'd like to share with you. One I've just stumbled across the last couple of weeks that I really enjoy. And I want you to think about it and what it means is a quote by Vance Havner. It's pretty simple and witty like Vance would write. Faith that fizzles before the finale was faulty from the first. Are you willing to make him first? I pray you are. Father, I love you and I thank you again for your word. I thank you for Lord, what I hope is a simple message. It is one that challenges me. I don't know anybody in this room who's a believer who could not read this passage and be challenged. Lord, each of us have our own priorities. We have our own life that we're living. And Lord, we navigate this life on our own terms. God, I pray you help each of us to navigate our life on your terms, to live for you. Help us to understand that this doesn't mean we need to become cold and distant from our family and from the commitments we have in our life, but Lord, that you should be above all of these things. That when you ask for us to sacrifice for your sake, that we should not think for a second of what we're gonna do, but just follow you. Lord, help us to be Christians like that. Help us to be salty. Help us to be light in this world. We love you and we praise you. In Christ's name I pray, amen.