Luke 14:25-35 - Complete in Christ

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The following sermon is preached on September 7th, 2025, on the basis of Luke

Luke 14:25–35

chapter 14, verses 25 to 35. piano plays softly.

Music.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the word that we're going to look at today

for the sermon is from Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

We're picking up kind of in the chapter that we've been in for a few weeks now.

It says, large crowds were traveling with Jesus and turning to them, he said,

if anyone comes to me and does not hate father, wife, and children,

brothers, and sisters, yes, even their own and follow me, cannot be my disciple.

Suppose one of you build a tower. Won't you first sit down an estimated cost

to see if you have enough money to complete it.

For if you lay a foundation and not able to finish it, everyone who sees it

will ridicule you saying, this person began to build and wasn't able to finish.

Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king.

Won't he first sit down and consider whether he is able with 10,000 men to oppose

the one coming against him with 20,000?

If he's not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long

way off and will ask for terms of peace.

In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown.

Whoever has ears, Let them hear. This is God's word.

On the screen here, you see a picture. This is a picture of the same building, actually.

This is a picture of a hotel in Ryugyong, North Korea.

It's the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.

It started construction in 1987, and it's 105 stories.

For many years, it sat for what you can see as the left picture there.

It is completely unfinished.

In the 90s, at some point, there was an economic crisis, and they lost funding.

They couldn't keep going with the building.

And so for many years, actually, it sat without any windows at all.

It looked like the building on the left.

Not until 2011 did they put windows on it, so it looks like the building on

the right. But on the inside, it's still completely unfinished.

It's empty. There's nobody in there. It's a useless building.

And so for those who know about it, for those who have to walk by it on a regular

basis, it's a national embarrassment.

It's a building that was started, but couldn't be pleaded.

This is above the Falkland Islands.

Maybe not one that makes it on your geography radar all that often.

But the Falkland Islands' nearest neighbor on land there, anyways, is Argentina.

In 1982, the Argentinian military actually invaded the Falkland Islands,

which at the time was under the property of the United Kingdom.

The British owned the Falkland Islands.

Now, the Argentinian military, they invaded with an assumption.

They assumed that the British government would not expend their resources so

far away from their mainland.

They sort of banked on the fact that they wouldn't do that and that they could

just kind of take Falkland Islands and that the British would just let it go. They assumed wrong.

Margaret Thatcher sent 28,000 troops to the Falkland Islands that had naval

and air capabilities that far surpassed the 12,000 troops from Argentina that

had been sent to invade the island.

The conflict lasted 74 days and the Argentinian military lost handily.

It was a national embarrassment. It was humiliation for the country of Argentina.

Those are our two modern day examples of what Jesus is speaking about in our text for today.

When to builder before they build, reasonably think about how much it's going to cost.

If he has the funds to carry out that building project, what things might cost

to have a basic budget and estimation of what's going to be needed so that he

would avoid such an embarrassment.

Wouldn't an army commander, before he sends his troops into battle,

wouldn't he take an accurate rendering of who he has as his troops and what

capabilities they have,

as opposed to the army that they're fighting against so that he's not embarrassed,

so that his army doesn't lose their lives?

Well, they should, right? They should count the cost. The builder should count

the cost before he builds so he's not embarrassed.

The army commander should count the cost before he goes into battle so he's

not embarrassed. So lives aren't lost.

This is the picture that Jesus is using to talk to us about, do we count the cost?

Have you counted the cost of what it means to follow him?

It got me thinking a little bit on how we prepare people to be Christians here.

And maybe if you have conversations with people outside of the building here,

what impression do you give about Christianity to them?

So just imagine if someone started coming to our church for the first time,

they're either newly Christian, they believe in Jesus, but they're a baby Christian.

They haven't matured at this point. They don't know a whole lot,

but they're coming to hear about Jesus.

Will they get an accurate picture of what it's like to follow Jesus from what

we preach and teach about, from the example that our long-time Christians give?

If you're talking to somebody outside of the walls of this church,

and they're kind of inquisitive about Christianity, maybe they're not quite

yet, they're skeptical, they're trying to figure all of this out,

Will they get an accurate picture of what being a Christian is like from what

you say to them or from how you live?

I think that's probably a complicated answer to that question in both regards.

You'd maybe say yes and no.

There are certain things you just don't lead with, right?

And rightly so. We want people to come to church here and feel welcomed.

We want them to find community here.

And most importantly, we want them to hear the most important part of the message.

That Jesus died on the cross to save you from your sins. You are free from your

guilt. You have the promise of heaven because of him. It's right for us to highlight that.

We want people to walk away hearing that message.

And ultimately, that's what it means to be a follower of Christ,

to believe that message.

And so we don't lead with some of

the stuff that we might say for a mature Christian all that often, right?

We don't lead with me coming out and greeting you and saying,

welcome to Sure Foundation Lutheran Church, and then hitting you with some hard-hitting questions.

Where did you put Jesus in your life this week? Was he first or was he second?

Did he come before work but after family?

Did he come before work and family but after your personal life?

Or was he just getting the leftovers this week?

If I led the service like that, you would, first of all, you'd miss me talking

about Connect cards, I think.

But second of all, it's a little off-putting, isn't it?

It's a little direct, right? Maybe when you're talking to that co-worker or

the person that you volunteer with, and they're kind of skeptical about Christianity,

they're kind of wondering what it's like,

you maybe don't lead with the fact that being a Christian means you got to deny

yourself and pick up your cross and follow Jesus.

That's what Jesus said in Matthew 24, right? He said, if anyone wants to follow

after me and be my disciple, he must deny himself, pick up his cross,

follow him. But we don't lead with that stuff.

And it's not because we're trying to be deceptive. That's not it at all.

It's because we want to keep the focus on the main thing, the important thing,

the thing that inspires you to pick up your cross and follow him.

But we never want to not talk about that at all.

I'm not saying Jesus would go into conversations and skip niceties.

I think Jesus would walk into conversations and say hi to people.

He would converse with them. He wouldn't just lead with some of these things.

But sometimes as it's recorded in the scripture, it does come off that way a little bit.

Because Jesus isn't trying to hide anything from you. He's not trying to win

disciples by flattering you.

He's not trying to win disciples by just saying whatever it takes to make you

a disciple. He's going to tell you the truth and tell it to you pretty quick.

So I just want to highlight what he said in our reading today.

If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children,

brothers and sisters, yes, even their own life, such a person cannot be my disciple.

Hate. Kind of sticks out to you right away, right? Grabs your attention.

I want to show you what he means.

So I got some books here and they're going to represent different things for

us. Hopefully this stand doesn't fall for me.

All right. We have high performance habits.

We'll call this your education, your personal growth, that part of your life. Okay.

We're imagining different parts of our lives here. So your professional growth,

your school that you're going through, your personal growth,

that's what that book will represent.

Here's a book about getting things done. We'll make this your work, your job.

So your professional life, your job, the tasks that you have to do.

If you're retired, the things that you have to do each day to keep going.

Here's a money book. We'll make this your financial life. So that's going to be a part of this too.

Here's a book on marriage. So we'll say this represents the part of your life that's family.

It could be your spouse, your kids. If you're not married, this could be your

parents. It could be your siblings.

It could be your friends. We'll include friends in here too, that part of your life.

And last but not least, the Bible represents your spiritual life,

God, Jesus, right? And your time in his word.

That's what Jesus wants. That's what he's calling for in your life.

He wants to be on top, the first priority all the time, right?

And he does this. We talked about this in the Old Testament reading today.

He says it's not because he's vain or conceited.

He says this because he wants to bless you.

Ordered, this ordered way of life. Now I'm not paying particular close attention

to the order of these ones down here, just so we're clear, but just the fact

that Jesus is on top, that way of ordering your life, Jesus promises will bring you blessing.

And so he wants you to gather together in worship.

He wants you to continue to grow in his word outside of the walls of this church.

He wants you to know what's written in an ancient book, the Bible.

He wants you to pray to him and And he wants you to bring him into every part of your life.

That he's not just kind of compartmentalized over here as a part of your life.

He wants to be a part of every part of your life. And he means that for blessing for you.

And so the reflective question that Christians will often ask themselves or

should often ask ourselves is, is this how my life looks?

And in the best of times, sure. But we're not always in the best of times, right?

Our resources are limited.

Time is limited. Money is limited. Our energy level is limited.

So, and I'm stretched for time.

When finances are tight, when my energy level is lower than I'd like it to be,

how does this all work out?

Kind of maybe in the craziness of running kids to school and all these other activities.

It just doesn't feel like you

have time in the day and it ends up kind of looking somewhat like that.

Or maybe you are really conscious of all of this, okay? But.

It kind of makes it to second, but there's just this one thing,

just this one thing just makes it above God and his word.

Or sometimes life is just too crazy that you do everything else and you think,

I'm going to get around to it.

I really want to have a great devotional life. I really want to become regular in coming to worship.

I really want to have a great life with God.

I have to get to that later because there's just too much going on and he kind of gets leftovers.

If I have time and paycheck left over, then I'll give, if I have a little bit

of energy, well, then I'll give a little bit of that to reading God's word.

Jesus is pretty clear that anything other than this, that person cannot be his disciple.

He says that pretty directly.

Now, I want to jump, we're going to keep talking about this subject,

but I want to jump back to the context of what he's saying.

Because he says hate, and I think we still got to deal with that word,

right? I want to make sure that we explain that word away. Jesus said, hate.

There's no getting around it. He said, hate your father and mother and so on

and so forth. Hate even your own life.

The word itself is comparative.

Meaning that what Jesus is saying here is that you should love God so much.

Love your Savior so much. his word so much that everything else in your life,

everything else that you love in your life is hate in comparison.

Right? That you love Jesus so much that everything else looks like hate.

He's not telling you to have sin hatred for your family.

To have sinful hatred for yourself. That would be inconsistent with the rest

of scripture. Jesus calls us to love our neighbors.

He wants us to take care of our bodies for they're a temple of the Holy Spirit.

But he's saying that if this order is anything different than this,

if Christ makes it to second or finds his way to the middle,

whether it's purposeful or it's just on accident and it just doesn't have to happen that way,

He says very plainly, that person cannot be my disciple.

In fact, the picture that he makes for us of that person is you're incomplete.

You're the unfinished tower. You're the army commander that didn't plan things

out and went into battle.

You're the salt that lost its saltiness.

What Jesus is saying is you can't have one foot in two boats.

But Jesus says, if you want to pick up your cross and follow him.

Now we said that a few times, pick up your cross and follow Jesus.

You've probably heard that before. Have you ever pictured it?

Have you ever pictured like physically picking up a cross and following Jesus?

Maybe picture it a little bit smaller than that one.

A little bit small, but picture it now if you haven't done it before.

Picture physically picking up a cross and following Jesus.

People view you or walking around town carrying a cross on your shoulders.

Weird, huh?

Okay, let's move us back in time a little bit. Let's go back to the first century.

If somebody saw somebody carrying a cross in the first century,

they wouldn't think they were just kind of weird.

They would think that that person was guilty. That's what a cross symbolized to people.

Because somebody carrying a cross was convicted.

They were convicted because of crimes that they had committed,

and they were convicted to die the worst possible death ever.

That was the case for Jesus.

Jesus was convicted of crimes.

His crimes were that he claimed to be God, blasphemy, and he carried the cross,

the same cross that he would die on.

Of course, Jesus is a little different though, in the sense that Jesus himself was not guilty.

Though Pilate and the Romans, though the Jewish people had convicted him of

those crimes, Jesus was innocent of those crimes. He was perfect in every way.

He claimed to be God because he was God. I don't know.

And so the cross for Jesus was guilt, but it wasn't his guilt.

It was our guilt. He was convicted for our guilt so that when he went to the

cross, that cross of guilt that he carried, he died on the cross,

that there would be victory over guilt so that we can say that the main message

of the church is you are free.

You have victory in Christ. Christ has won that for you.

When you view a cross now, I kind of wonder what your initial thoughts are. You see a cross.

Do you think guilt immediately?

I'm going to be willing to guess no. You don't.

You don't think guilt. You look at a cross and say, beautiful.

I want to get a necklace that has that on it. I want to have a tattoo that has

that on it. Let's put it in for a church.

It's beautiful because of what we did on the cross.

The cross no longer means guilt for us. Cross means victory.

So it's with that in mind that Jesus says, pick up your cross and follow me.

But the cross that you're picking up is not a cross of guilt or shame or regret.

It's not something that you need to be punished for. The cross that you are

picking up is the cross of victory.

Christ has won everything for you. that you have the sure promise of heaven.

He says in another part of scripture that his yoke is light,

meaning the thing that you have to pick up, the thing you have to carry,

there is a weight, but it's light.

And so your cross in this life might be the pain that you have to endure through.

It might be opposition to your faith. For all of us, our cross is that we are to deny ourselves.

That's part of our cross. But whatever that cross is, and no matter how heavy

it is, it's a cross of victory.

It's a cross of victory in Christ. When we carry our burdens,

we remember Christ's burden that he carried for us.

When we deny ourselves, we remember when Jesus denied himself in the greatest way.

And it's so good that it can't go second.

It can't go second. And it wouldn't be wise, it wouldn't be wise if anyone put

Jesus second in life because it's so good.

He doesn't want you to miss out on those, those blessings.

So if you're new, if you're new to your, your walk with Christ,

if you're, if you're kind of getting back into, to things here,

if you feel like you might be categorized as a, as a baby Christian, no shame in that name.

Mature, mature Christians had to start somewhere, right? Right.

Might I say, I hope we give you an accurate picture of what it's like to be a follower of Christ.

I hope you know that there are some realistic things that come with being a

follower of Christ that aren't always so worth it because of the amazing thing

that Jesus has done for all of us.

If you have been coming for a long time and if you feel like maybe you're at

a season in your life or you know you've gone through seasons of your life where

you might be the one who's categorized as the unfinished tower or the unwise

army commander or the salt that lost its saltiness.

Courage you to plug back into what made you salty in the first place.

And it wasn't you buckling down and being more disciplined about things.

And it wasn't you achieving certain things and it wasn't anything that you did.

Your saltiness, it came from Christ, the one who makes you complete,

who completes the building, makes you a complete person, makes you whole, that's Christ.

Plug back in to where he's promised to bring you blessing and to grow your faith.

He's promised that through the spirit and through his word.

Jesus is so good. He can't be second. God bless you as you continue to make

him first in your life. Amen.

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I hope you enjoyed this sermon and come back again next week for another one.

God's blessings on your week.

Music.