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When children are being taught in school, now they're on summer vacation right now, that's good news for the kids. But when kids are taught in school, teachers give them a lot of material. There's a lot of things that they teach them. They cover several things over the course of many years. But we also understand that they can't teach them everything. There is a finite amount of time, amount of exposure time that the teachers have with the students. There is a curriculum that they follow. but they can't teach them everything. And teachers understand this. And so one thing that they do is they try to equip students to learn on their own. They try to teach students strategies because there are going to be some things that they just don't get to. For example, vocabulary. They introduce a lot of vocabulary words, especially in those early elementary years. They're learning new words all the time and the meanings of those words. But they can't teach them all the words, so they give them a strategy. And one of those strategies is called context clues. So if the teachers are teaching the students and they're trying to give them this strategy, they might take a new vocabulary word and put it into a sentence and then ask questions. For example, the word seldom, they might put it in a sentence like this and have the students read it. Since professional athletes have to stay in peak physical condition, most athletes seldom eat junk food. And the teachers would ask the students, what do you think seldom means in that sentence? Well, somebody might raise their hand and they might say, never. Well, OK, that's a good guess. It could be, but no, that's not what it means. You're close. Somebody else might raise their hand and say, well, not very often. You know what? That's pretty good. That's close. And they might continue to ask them questions. They might ask him what it doesn't mean. Do you think seldom means that they always eat junk food? No. No, that doesn't make sense. Why? It doesn't match the context clues. So they teach students this skill. And this skill is very easily generalized into other parts of life, as we can imagine and as we, I'm sure, experience. Kids have woken up on Christmas morning, gotten to their stockings and pulled out a four-pack of D batteries and said, you know, I didn't want batteries. Why did you give me batteries for Christmas? And then all of a sudden the gears start turning. Wait a minute, I asked for a particular toy that runs on batteries. I know, I'm getting a toy for Christmas that runs on batteries. They use this skill. And even as adults we use this, right? All the time. If you looked out your front window and you saw your neighbor's driveway and all of a sudden one morning you saw a pallet of shingles over there, Oh, okay, looks like they're going to put a new roof on sometime soon. If the next day you woke up and you saw, in addition to the pallet of shingles, you saw stone and brick and a whole bunch of lumber and a bobcat on a trailer, okay, now this looks like more than just a roof replacement. Something's going on, I'm not sure, maybe it's an addition, maybe, whatever it is, it's a big project and it's not just a roof anymore. We use this all the time. In our passage this morning, Jesus brings several illustrations, several parables, and he's teaching the crowds. And he talks about things like towers and armies, salt, sheep, and money, but he's not really talking about those things. He's not really talking about building a tower. or armies. He's talking about something else. And he expects his listeners to use context clues to help determine what he's saying. Here's our challenge this morning. What is Jesus really talking about? Because he's not really talking about salt. He's not really talking about money. He's talking about something else. What is it that Jesus is really talking about? And then the other question and challenge for us is, what are we going to do about it? What's our response to what Jesus is teaching us? So let's see if we can use some context clues as we go through this passage. We're gonna take 14, 25 through 34. 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 and first deliberate whether he is able with 10,000 to meet him who comes to him with 20,000. 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 its 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. So this passage starts off with Jesus speaking to the crowds. Remember, last week was the gospel for Pharisees, and we realize it's really the gospel for us as well. But he's done there. He's done at the dinner party of the ruler of the Pharisees. Now he's continuing his journey. He's on his way to Jerusalem. And the picture here is that a lot of people are following him. These are the crowds. Not everybody in the crowd is a follower, with a capital F, of Jesus Christ. Not everybody in the crowd is a fully devoted follower who's put their faith and trust in him, who has saving faith, who's completely repentant of their sin. Not everybody, it's just, it's crowds. This is consistent throughout the Gospels. And it seems as if Jesus is on his way, but it says he turns and then says to the crowd. So he's leading, they're following, and at one point he turns around and he gives them this address. And what he does is he lays down the conditions for discipleship. He's telling, look crowd, look all you people that are kind of following me around, you're kind of curious, you're wondering if this is something you want to invest in. Let me tell you what I'm looking for and what I'm expecting. Here are the conditions for discipleship, for coming to him, and really what he says, to be my disciple, which means salvation. Remember, we can never separate salvation from Jesus Christ and following him. Here they are, hate your own father and mother, your wife and children, brothers and sisters, and number two, hate your own life. And then he follows that by saying, if you're not doing these things, you cannot be my disciple. If we want to put it in modern terms that might be familiar to us, he's saying, you cannot be a Christian unless you do these things. So we need to understand what he's saying. Let's see if we can exercise our strategy of context clues here. He's not saying that all of Jesus' followers must hate their family in the sense that we normally think of hating someone. We have to read this in light of the rest of biblical teaching. Now we know we have several commands to love one another, We know we have some specific commands to love spouses, so if one says love your spouse and the other one says hate your spouse, that would contradict each other. Okay, so we know that's not the right meaning. Scripture never contradicts itself. Well, we have multiple commands to love one another. We also have a parallel teaching from Jesus and Matthew. Remember a parallel is something that's very similar or the same teaching or the same account in a different gospel told by another different writer still under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So Matthew 10.37 says this, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." Okay, now we understand what he's saying. He's saying loyalty to me comes first, even before spouses, even before parents or children or friends or family. I'm looking for unconditional allegiance before any of those other relationships. I take first place. Remember, he is addressing the crowds that may or may not be fully devoted followers, and he's laying down conditions of discipleship. Here's the first step. You want to follow me, Jesus is saying? Do this. That's a pretty big first step. That's taking something that most of us, even today, take pretty dearly. There's not much that comes before love of our spouse and our families, right? Jesus says, but I do. I do. And if you don't, you cannot be a Christian. You cannot be a disciple. Complete loyalty. Verse 27, another condition is laid down, cross bearing. We talked about this the first time it appeared. Remember back in Luke 9.23, the message was an unattractive offer. Remember Jesus in his call to discipleship basically said, it's lose-lose from the world's perspective. You come after me, you get nothing and you lose everything. That's a very unattractive offer from the world's perspective. But cross-bearing. It applies to all people without exception. If anyone decides to follow Jesus, they must take up their cross and follow him. Well, what does this mean? Again, let's use some context clues. Cross bearing. First of all, what is the cross? In the first century, the cross was not a religious symbol or a faith symbol. It was an instrument of execution. It would be like the electric chair or in past times, hanging, firing squad. a particularly barbaric method of execution, death and suffering. So Jesus is saying the cross that you're called to bear includes anything. It includes ridicule, shame, slander, persecution, up to and including pain, suffering, and death for my sake, for my name's sake. It is not general suffering. It is not blanket persecution. It is not hardship in general. This is symbolic language of self-denial and a daily willingness to take up our cross in the face of all these things. So we want to make sure we're clear on this. Cross-bearing is not something that's difficult in our life if it's divorced from faith in Jesus Christ. For example, if someone was born blind, is that their cross to bear? No. Not necessarily. It's a hardship. It's going to make life extremely difficult. But remember, we could have a hard-hearted atheist who is born blind, and they certainly can't call that cross-bearing. Being poor, homelessness, is that a cross to bear? Well, no. Not apart from faith in Jesus Christ. It has to be linked directly to faith in Jesus Christ. Now some Christians are given the privilege of suffering for Christ. It depends on when we're born, what time period we're born in, where we're born, what kind of social context the country we're in. At some point, though, all true followers of Jesus Christ will experience some kind of suffering for Jesus' sake. If we've never experienced any type of suffering, any type of hardship, any type of inconvenience at all in our following Jesus Christ, then that's a red flag. That should be an indication that we need to take a sober look in the mirror and say, no, wait a minute, what's going on here? Part of our calling means to participate in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. It's not a popular message. Remember the old saying, whatever you're saved by, you're saved to. If we're saved by a message that says, come to Jesus and all your worldly problems will be taken care of. If you come to Jesus, then you're going to avoid all those hardships and tough times that people go through because you're going to be doing things God's way. You're going to be living God's way and you're going to experience a lot more blessings. You're not going to experience any of that hardship. Well, if that's what we're saved by, then when we start following Jesus and we run up to something that's difficult, or we experience some kind of persecution or suffering for Christ's namesake, we might say, well, wait a minute, I didn't sign up for this. I thought we were supposed to have all our problems taken care of. So we need to understand it's not an attractive offer from the world's perspective, but it is part of our calling to participate in the sufferings of Christ. That's cross bearing. And Jesus says, everyone who follows me must be willing to bear their own cross. Verse 28 and 30, it's illustration time. Jesus introduces this idea of building a tower. Is he really talking about building a tower? Does he expect his followers to go out and build towers? Well, the answer is no, it's an illustration. What is he really talking about? Let's use our context clues. Based on the entire passage that we just read, Jesus is saying, I don't want you to rush into something. I don't want you to rush into discipleship, into following me without first taking time to carefully consider what it is that you're doing. He's saying, I'm not looking for spur of the moment decisions or an emotional decision or a haphazard, cavalier attitude. Oh sure, I'll follow Jesus. And then declare yourself a Christian. He's not looking for that. He wants us to take time to consider everything that Jesus is telling us. Why? Because it's going to be difficult. Because it's going to take up everything. How much is it going to cost? It's going to cost everything. It's going to cost all that we have. It's serious. The stakes are high. He's saying, I'm not looking for fair-weathered followers. I'm not looking for people who will, as the crowds are currently doing in this context, following behind me when everything's fine and they're well-fed and there isn't any danger around. I'm looking for people who understand what they're getting into and who are committed to lifelong discipleship. It's going to get rough. He gives the illustration of some mocking The person who is unable to finish is talking about people who start to follow Jesus but don't finish following Jesus. And if you rush in hastily without counting the cost, you're much more susceptible to fall away when things get difficult. Again, when you're asked to deny yourself, the response might be, well, I didn't sign up for this. I thought it was going to be, you know, roses and champagne the whole time. I'm really Not prepared for all this, I think I need to reconsider. Jesus wants his followers to know what they're doing, and he wants his followers to know what it's going to cost. Verses 31 and 32, same point, another illustration, this time kings and armies. What king would not consider his chances of victory in war, and looks at the troops, etc.? He's saying, how much more so? That's a pretty big decision. You've got your entire kingdom at stake, you've got many people's lives at stake. What king wouldn't sit down and try to figure things out? Hmm, 20,000 to 10,000, that's two to one. We're pretty tough, but I don't know if we're that tough. Maybe I should seek peace instead of destroying my kingdom and making sure that everyone's doomed to a death on the battlefield. He's saying, how much more so important it is to consider the cost before starting to follow me? How much more important is it? How much more is at stake? when deciding whether or not to follow me in discipleship. And then the king, after considering, takes action. That's what Jesus wants us to do as well. Verse 33 is about renouncing all we have. If you're not willing to give up everything in this life, then you're not ready to be my disciple. That's what Jesus is teaching. Renounce all you have. Following Jesus does not happen automatically. It's a deliberate, well thought out decision. It's a conscious decision after counting the cost. You must be ready for complete self-denial. Complete self-denial. Or, to use a different phrase, leave everything behind. Here it is again, this theme in the Gospel of Luke. You need to renounce everything. Verse 34 and 35, this is talking about salt now. He's saying in this passage, in this section, salt, if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It's no use. He's not saying that if salt loses its saltiness, it's less useful. He's saying if salt has loses its saltiness, it's completely useless. Those two illustrations of it's not even used for the soil as fertilizer or to put in a manure pile, which just seems like a pretty lowly use, but it was used to slow down the fermentation process. You see, it's not even good for that. It's completely useless. It's thrown out. In the first century, a lot of the salt that they got, that they used for food and preserving food and things like that, was taken from the Dead Sea area where there was a lot of salt, but it contained impurities. And when the salt was exposed to moisture, it would sometimes combine in a solution, and then when it evaporated, it would be gone, or it would just lose a lot of its saltiness and all you would have for these impurities left over, and it wouldn't be good for anything. So they would be familiar with this illustration. He's not talking about salt though, is he? The context here is within discipleship and following Jesus in salvation. He's talking about followers who no longer follow him. He's talking about followers who fall away and lose their saltiness. And the answer here is judgment. It's thrown away. It's not that they're less useful. Boy, I really wish you were a little more salty. That's okay. You're still useful in my kingdom. No, he's saying when you lose your saltiness, you're thrown out. That's judgment language. It's judgment language. Finally, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Let's use our context clue strategy. What does that mean? What does have ears to hear? Well, we all have ears, so it doesn't literally mean if you have them, use them. Let's look at the context. Jesus has just laid down some pretty hardcore conditions for discipleship. He's just talked about what it means to follow him and how he expects lifelong careful consideration and lifelong discipleship. He's talked about how important it is to remain in him and remain as a disciple, otherwise they're thrown out in judgment. And then he says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. What do we think that means? Jesus is saying, this is important. Jesus is saying, pay attention to what I'm teaching you. Jesus is saying, hear this and take action. Don't delay. Take action. Pay attention. This is important. Let's look at 15 now, 1 through 7, repentance centers. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost. Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." We need to look at some background or some extended context for these tax collectors and sinners. If you remember, and if you've been following along in our Luke series, this might sound familiar. Tax collectors and sinners. These were the two groups of people that the Pharisees and the religious elite would have considered the least likely candidates for the Kingdom of God. Tax collectors in this context, probably Jewish citizens, Jewish tax collectors who were working for the Roman Empire. They were considered traitors. And remember, the tax collector's income was anything they wanted to collect on top of what was supposed to be collected for Caesar. So they could basically take as much as they wanted, and they did. They were notoriously unjust and corrupt. Centers refers to notorious centers, public centers. They have the reputation, if you remember the woman at the last Pharisee meal, it says she was a woman of the city, a sinner. That is code for notorious centers, someone whose reputation goes before them. So these people were drawing near to hear Jesus. And what did Jesus end in chapter 14? He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And who's coming? These tax collectors and sinners to hear him. Interesting. And then the Pharisees begin grumbling. Remember, the Pharisees were continually looking for their gotcha moment. They were trying to catch Jesus in something he said. They didn't like him. They wanted to discredit him because he didn't seem to be following the script very well. He didn't match their conception of what a really good rabbi should be. He didn't play along with their rules. He didn't follow the traditions of the elders. And of course, he forced them to confront their own sin. They didn't like him, and here they are grumbling And what's their complaint? This man receives sinners and eats with them. Now what's the irony of that statement? That is exactly what God desires. That is exactly why Jesus came to make atonement, to receive sinners like you and me into fellowship with him. And in fact, if we go to Revelation, we see the final picture of God in the new Jerusalem and the new kingdom is redeemed sinners having this eschatological banquet with God. Sinners reclining at a table with God. That's exactly what he came to do. And here they are grumbling about it. Hey guys, you're sinners too. He should have said to the Pharisees. In response to their grumbling, Jesus tells a parable. Straightforward. What man of you, which forces them to consider the right thing to do. He begins by saying, which one of you, what man of you, and then saying, okay, this is me, what would I do? And he tells this parable of the lost sheep. And of course, they're in their own mind answering, well, yeah, I would go find the sheep. Sure, I would. That's the right thing to do. I'd do that. There is rejoicing in heaven. There's rejoicing in heaven. over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. The kingdom of heaven rejoices when sinners repent. Does the world rejoice when sinners repent? No, no. The world doesn't pay attention at all. But the kingdom of heaven rejoices when one sinner repents. than over the 99 who need no repentance. Now Jesus is not teaching here that people don't need to repent to get into the kingdom of God or that 99 don't or a large percentage don't. Only a few people have to repent in the kingdom of God. He's teaching, using our context clues, that heaven rejoices every time someone enters the kingdom of heaven. Every time God effectually calls someone, every time someone is justified and declared righteous in God's sight for the first time, heaven rejoices. over that event. Second illustration, same thing, different angle, same point. one woman having 10 silver coins. Now, a lot of speculation has gone on about this, that, well, why does this one coin seem so important to her? Maybe it was part of, maybe it was all she had, or maybe it was part of an inheritance left to her and it's really important, or maybe they were special coins, or maybe it was part of a wedding dowry or some kind of ornamentation or a necklace. We don't know, we don't know. Using the context clues, we still can't figure it out for sure. It might be. It might mean one of those things. It's kind of like the seldom example. It might mean that. That's a good guess, but we don't know for sure. We don't know. All we're told is the point of the parable. She finds it, and they're again rejoicing, and he says, just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Jesus will gather all of his sheep and he continues to do so through his church and through ordinary means, proclamation of his word and the Holy Spirit, effectually calling people. And there is joy every time sinners repent. It's worthy of heavenly celebration. Remember, the point of Jesus's parables is often revealed at the end. And the point of both of these is revealed. There is rejoicing over repentant sinners. That's what he's teaching. Context clues. Well, we've looked at this now. Is Jesus literally talking about towers and armies and salt and sheep and coins and money? No. So what's the challenge? We need to understand what is he really teaching? What is he really talking about? Discipleship. Counting the cost, repentant sinners. That's what he's talking about. Salvation is what he's talking about. Big, important things. What specifically is he saying about those things? Number one, he's saying discipleship is costly. Our allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ is going to cost us everything we have. It is not something to be taken lightly. Our allegiance to our Lord Jesus Christ is unparable. He will suffer no rivals for our allegiance. It does not matter who it is or what it is, even ourselves, even our own hopes and dreams and our goals. And what should I do with my life? Jesus says, you don't get asked that question anymore. That's what I'll tell you what it is. I've called you. You're mine. I've bought you at a price. Nothing. Jesus demands our total and complete unconditional loyalty. He also wants us to see how important this decision is. Two biggest decisions in our life, following Jesus and selecting our spouse. You don't want to blow either one of those. Those are two big decisions, but following Jesus comes first. Count the cost. That's why he gave the army illustration. How much more so? He's not really talking about armies. He's talking about the importance of this decision to follow him in discipleship. It's not to be entered into lightly. So discipleship is costly. Number two, halfway discipleship doesn't cut it. It doesn't cut it with Jesus, this kind of halfway, lukewarm, in-between discipleship. He's saying if, and then he lays out these conditions, and then he follows it with, you cannot be my disciple, or you cannot be a Christian, or you will not be saved. We can link all those three things together. Halfway discipleship doesn't cut it. This is the unfinished tower. Count the cost. Have you noticed that in the Gospels, Jesus continually lays down great commands, great demands on us? He doesn't give us great accommodations. He doesn't say, well, you know, I understand this is going to be difficult, so if you just kind of want to go halfway, I'm cool with that. He doesn't say that. He raises the bar, he doesn't lower the bar. So halfway discipleship, discipleship is costly. Number three, half a life of discipleship does not cut it. This is the salt. He's not really talking about salt. He's talking about persevering. Jesus is telling us the importance of remaining in him over a lifetime, to always be connected, to always abide in him, to always be spiritually growing, more and more sanctified and Christ-like. And he's telling us the serious and eternal consequences of what it means not to go all the way, not to finish with him. That's judgment language being thrown out. Number four, Jesus is telling us that leaving everything behind and following him is not religion. This is not religion. When does heaven rejoice? When one sinner repents, not when one sinner decides to do things really well and live a good life in order for God to let them in in the end. That's not why heaven rejoices. Heaven rejoices when a sinner repents and follows Jesus Christ. He's saying what the Pharisees are complaining about is exactly why he came. Exactly why he came. Jesus made atonement so that sinners will be received by God and will have fellowship with him eternally. Not so that people will be good enough to get in. Okay, that's what he's saying. Discipleship is costly, halfway discipleship doesn't cut it, half a life of discipleship doesn't cut it, and this is not religion. This is faith in Jesus Christ. That's what he's telling us. Now remember the other question at the beginning, we said, what is our response? What are we going to do in light of this teaching that Jesus is bringing us? Let's use some context clues, and let's bring in some more context. Let's bring in some other scripture passages. Romans 3.23, for all have sinned. That's pretty straightforward. 1 John 1.8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. Okay. Psalm 37.38, but transgressors shall be altogether destroyed. Matthew 25, then he will say to those on his left, apart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Acts 4.12, there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. That's some additional context. Now we said as adults we use context clues all the time. Have you ever smelled natural gas? I think we all have, right? We know what that's like. You remember natural gas is in its pure state odorless. that odor is added to make detection easily. Why? Because it's dangerous. If it fills up a closed area and is ignited, it's going to blow up. It's happened in houses and we hear these things all the time. Natural gas smell, very distinctive. Can you imagine coming home to your house sometime and walking in and smelling natural gas? Now, we usually don't wait at all, right? We usually, as soon as we smell it, in fact, we usually, even if we think we smell natural gas, we'll ask that question. Do you smell that? It smells like gas. Do you smell what I'm smelling? Now, imagine walking home and smelling it. It's very distinctive. And it keeps increasing and growing. And then all of a sudden, the night goes on, and it's time to go to bed. And it's like, well, good night. Sleep well, kids. See you in the morning. And then even as you're going to sleep, having difficulty breathing because there's so much gas. Of course not. That's ridiculous. We wouldn't delay at all. As soon as we think we smell natural gas, the proper response is to find the source, cut it off. Take care of it immediately. How much more so should we respond to this teaching? Here's the walkthrough from the context clues. We're all sinners, which means what? I'm a sinner. your sinner. Context clues. Sinners are cast into eternal fire. Eternal conscious torment. It's not a joke. It's not a scare tactic invented by the church. It's scripture. And there is no other possible way of salvation other than Jesus. That doesn't contain any ambiguity or interpretation. And Jesus has explained to us now what discipleship looks like. And he has told us to take action. Would we delay? Would we go to sleep with the smell of gas in our nostrils? Absolutely not. We'd take action immediately. We would trust him. We would lean into it. We would confess that we are sinners. and believe. Remember, this is not religion. Ephesians 2.8.9 says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast. No one can stand before God, not the Pharisees, not you and me. For those who have not yet repented and believed in Jesus Christ, I encourage you and challenge you and implore you, don't delay. Put your faith and trust in him today and tell someone else about it. Come up after the worship service, tell me, tell an elder, tell your wife, tell somebody, but don't delay now that you smell the gas. For those of us in Christ, we also need to use the context clues. The biggest one for us is this. Here's the question. Are you going to continue until the end? Are you going to persevere until the end? Here we are this morning. This is the home folk. We're here, we're in worship. We've been baptized, we're coming to the table, we've joined ourselves to Christ's body, the church, are we going to continue? Because not everyone finishes well. Not everyone finishes. That's what these verses mean. Not everybody who comes to Jesus and says, Lord, I'm yours. Not everybody who says the sinner's prayer finishes. Even if we use phrases like hallelujah and praise the Lord, there are people that use those phrases that don't finish. So are we going to finish? There are extreme trials and suffering. Remember, it's not if, but when we experience suffering and persecution for Christ's name's sake. Maybe you've experienced it already. Maybe it's still to come. And there is a very real temptation to throw in the towel. There's a very real temptation to say, you know what? No more. I've tried to do this, I've tried to be faithful my whole life and it just doesn't seem to be paying off. Or there's extreme hardship, there's financial loss, there's pressures. We don't know until we're in the moment. Crisis, stress could be a tragedy, could be work demands. It could be an extreme temptation from an old familiar sin that you thought you'd beat a long time ago and all of a sudden it shows up. Ding dong, I'm back. And I'm back with a vengeance. And I'm going to take you out. It's a very real temptation to pull the eject lever, and many do. So the question is, for us who are in Christ, are we going to finish? There's also another way that we're tempted to not finish well. This one's a little more subtle. And this looks like someone, as they progress in their Christian life, becoming a little older, a little more wiser, a little more mature, a little more mellow, a little more erratic, a little more seeking the peace of everyone, a little more inclusive. And all of a sudden, these lines of distinction aren't that important anymore. Do we really have to break fellowship over this? Aren't we just one big family, one big tent? Can't we all just stay together? This really isn't worth breaking fellowship over, all of a sudden the focus is on fellowship and being loving, and the ultimate mark of a believer seems to be on unconditional love and acceptance minus repentance and truth. Now we need both. We can't let go of either one of those. Jesus did provide loving acceptance of all people, but he never divorced it from repentance and truth. We need both. We need both. So there's a temptation to profess Christianity, or a type of Christianity that no longer is Christianity, and people lose their saltiness and fall away. Here's a scary thought. Jesus is teaching, right here and in other places in the New Testament, he's saying those that have never been in Christ, the hard-hearted atheists, and those who at one time professed to believe in Christ, maybe even in the church, but who fall away, end up in the same place. They end up in the same place. Jesus wants us to see the importance of finishing well. Here's the thing, he talked to Pharisees, he talked to crowds, he mentioned salt and armies and sheep and money and towers, but he really wasn't talking about that. He was talking about discipleship. He was talking about sinners repenting. He was talking about salvation. Let's use our context clues one more time. Luke 6, 46 says, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I tell you? That verse means, That not only is that possible, but some people do that. That we can call him Lord, that we can think we're good to go, but yet we don't obey him. It's possible to hear the words of Jesus and then not do them. It's possible to sit and hear a message and think, oh, that's just one more sermon. I wonder what's for lunch today. What do we got going on this afternoon? It's easy to do that. It's easy to do that. If we look at verse 26, if anyone comes to me, does not hate his own father and wife and mother, all those words in that verse 26, all that language that's singular, if we looked at it in the original language, it's singular. It means each one of us. We can't depend on the faith of our parents or our spouse or our kids. It comes down to individual people. counting the cost, and following Jesus over a lifetime. So the question is, this morning, what are we going to do? Do we have ears to hear? Are we going to respond to this message from Jesus? Yes or no? If you're not in Christ, turn and repent in Jesus. Receive the forgiveness of sins that he promises to all who repent and believe. If you're here this morning and you might be thinking to yourself, that all sounds good, but you don't know my background, Pastor. That all sounds terrific and wonderful, and that's good for people who are nice and churchy people, but you don't understand. If you're wondering if God is able to forgive you, the answer is yes. The answer is an unconditional yes. It is never too late to turn to Jesus Christ. It is never too late to be forgiven, and there is no sin too big for God to handle. And then after we're in Christ, let us follow him in radical lifelong discipleship, counting the cost, finishing well. Amen. Heavenly Father, you have given us everything. You have called us into your kingdom. You have, by grace alone, justified us. not based on anything we have done, but through the blood of Jesus Christ shed on our behalf. When you look at us in Christ, you don't see our sin. You don't see our unrighteousness. You see the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. Father, if there's anyone here this morning who have not repented in Jesus Christ, if there's anyone here this morning that's been satisfied with half-hearted discipleship, I ask that you would call them mightily. Father, for all of us, I ask that we would continue lifelong discipleship, that having counted the cost, we would remain faithful, recognizing that even that is not our own doing, but it is a gift from you. Father, we love you, and we thank you for our salvation. Amen.
Context Clues
Serie Luke -LeavingEverythiingBehind
ID del sermone | 71192210523219 |
Durata | 43:25 |
Data | |
Categoria | Servizio domenicale |
Testo della Bibbia | Luke 14:25 |
Lingua | inglese |
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